The reason Microsoft axed the Start button

Windows 8 will have a new Start screen with no ‘Start button in sight’.

When Microsoft users launch Windows 8 later this year, they’ll notice a change with the OS start up screen , one they will not be familiar with. The ever-present Start button, a Windows staple since 1995, is getting the flick.

In a report for industry site PC Pro, Microsoft executives reveal that Windows users have already largely abandoned the Start button. An increasing number rely more on pinning favourite apps to their taskbar or simply using keyboard shortcuts to access frequently used applications. As a result, Microsoft will now present a tiled Start screen as part of the new Metro interface.

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“If you’re going to the Start screen now, we’re going to unlock a whole new set of scenarios, or you can choose not to go there, stay in the desktop, and it’s still fast,” Chaitanya Sareen, principal program manager at Microsoft tells PC Pro.

While the tiled Start screen of Metro is similar to the touch interface of Windows Phone, desktop users may find that the traditional mouse and keyboard input methods still work best in Windows 8.

In demos earlier this year, presenters struggled to make gesture controls function properly with laptop trackpads on Windows 8 and Sareen says the touchpad drivers for Metro are “still being refined.”