"I WANT MY START MENU BACK"

If I had a nickel....
As you may or may not know, Windows 8.1 doesn't come with the traditional Windows start menu. If you buy a new computer you will find out. 

For those not familiar, Microsoft decided to do away with their brand
 - that is, the start menu. They traded it in for an environment of tiles. In layman's terms, to use this new style menu you have to leave the desktop to go to another environment where the tiles reside, click on the program, and then be returned to the desktop to find that you've forgotten what it was you were doing in the first place. Sound confusing? Many folks find that to be the case. Of course there are those that love this and will argue tooth and nail that anyone who doesn't love it is resistant to change. I've read articles that claim this new start menu environment is "intuitive", and that once you get used to it you'll love it. Well... For starters, it is anything but intuitive. If I'm working on a document in the desktop environment and need to open something else WHY should I have to be transported to a different environment where I can no longer see what I'm working on? And if I do lose my train of thought I have to go back to the desktop environment to look again and then go back to the new start menu environment to open what I needed to open to be brought right back to where I was in the first place? The traditional start menu was right there where I need it so i can see what I'm doing, know what else I need and not have to leave where I am. THAT'S intuitive. That's my rant to those who disagree with me. And to those who insist that I "better get used to it"? Well now, seems Microsoft has discovered that millions of disgruntled users and almost no corporate adoption of this new operating system has changed their minds. As of August the start menu will be included in an update. It will be a hybrid of the traditional start menu and "Apps". I have no use for apps on a computer but I'll take it. Oh, and believe me, once you get used to it you'll love it.

I use both windows 7 and Windows 8.1 and have, like millions of others, installed a third party program to restore the traditional menu. I do it for many clients as well. 

What WOULD have been truly intuitive? For the operating system to recognize what type of device it was being installed on and provide the appropriate environment. Since Windows 8 was designed as a one size fits all for computers and tablets, computer users are plagued with having "apps" open by default when they are better suited for a tablet environment. Apple seems to get that idea. Two separate operating systems. One for computers, one for mobile devices. 

With a new guy in charge Microsoft is finally listening...