Posted on 09/26/2014 1:20:14 PM PDT by Red Badger
Microsoft is about to introduce Windows 9 next week at an event, ahead of its widespread release in 2015. The project for the next Windows operating system has been given the internal code name as Threshold.
Microsoft watchers have noted that the next OS could indeed be a needed threshold move to win back business users who were put off by Windows 8 because of its tiles-based interface instead of the start menu they had relied on in Windows 7 and older Windows versions. The frustration was palpable last year, and one example was a posting in Micro Doctor, a technology solutions company, headlined "Windows 8.1 is a huge disappointment." Mark Richmond, CEO, said, "If Microsoft does not bring back the Start Menu, I predict Windows 8 will become the second biggest Operating System blunder since Microsoft Vista. Every PC we sell today has Windows 7 Pro installed or downgraded from Windows 8. Perhaps they need to Spin off Windows 8 Touch and Bring out a Windows 9 Corporate Edition with the start menu again."
There are hopes and expectations for a revamped treatment of a Start Menu that looks more familiar to Windows users before the onset of tiles. In addition have been discussions about what Windows 9 will be called—if not Windows 9. Reports indicate Microsoft might unveil a new name for the software. If so, the name change would be "symbolic of a new direction for Microsoft moving away from an aggressive focus on Windows and PCs," said a report in The Guardian by Samuel Gibbs and agencies. The report quoted Daniel Ives, an analyst at investment bank FBR Capital Markets, who said Windows 9 was a potentially game-changing product release for Microsoft.
Microsoft had sent out invitations to journalists to "hear about what's next for Windows and the Enterprise" on Tuesday in San Francisco, reported InfoWorld. Woody Leonhard, senior contributing editor, said in InfoWorld that next week's event, however, should not be expected to provide finer details, but instead to provide a preview to "show off the plumbing and the broad strokes of Windows' future."
Reflecting on possible release dates for Windows 9, Redmond Magazine reasoned in August that a release in spring next year would reflect timing with the next Build event for developers. "Microsoft has previously used its Build events as a main venue to show off its next Windows releases." Another date for the release being eyed is the week of May 4, 2015, which coincides with an event titled "Unified Microsoft Commercial Technology Event," thought to serve as a replacement for TechEd, SharePoint Conference, Lync Conference, Exchange Conference and Project Conference events.
Explore further: Microsoft to spotlight new Windows software September 30
Tech Ping!...........
Keep trying MS, keep trying. Eventually you’ll get it right.
I just moved up to Windows 8.1 and I'm actually liking it. I initially resisted the change from the Old Start Menu to clicking on a tile in a giant mosaic but I decided to give it a try anyway.
Guess what? I like the tile scheme way better than the Old Start Menu. So now I read that Microsoft may go back to the original scheme. I vote no. At the minimum let me stay with the Tile Version as an option.
And, I really haven't found anything about 8.1 to complain about. It's working fine for me.
Not if they keep making crap like Windows ME, Vista, and Windows 8. Seems like every other iteration of Windows is a total screw up.
I am confused. A best buy sales person showed me it takes about 3 seconds to set a default to use the old start menu interface on Windows 8.
Is this tech agitprop?
Do you take advice from people trying to sell you something?.......
I just put Ubuntu on a chrome book in part because I could not stomach windows h8. MS is behind in mobile, they pissed of the long time pc user crowd, sql slower, exchange and sever products are relics; they are not too big to fail. Xbox and office are not enough if they continue to make blunders in the OS and fail to catch up in the mobile market. Hey MS Google has your MOJO, Samsung has the coolness and Linux has the geeks, innovate or wither and die.
Y’know, it is about time to ditch the “Windows” moniker.
Why do you ask that? I was the one that asked him if it was possible to use the old start menu and it took him just a few seconds to show how to set the default to the old start menu.
WHat’s with you? Are you stupid?
I have a suggestion. Design an OS that looks, smells, tastes and operates as well as XP. Then get really creative and call it XP2. Include in the packaging for the new (old) system an apology for screwing up a perfectly good system that customers loved.in an attempt to separate them from their perfectly good money.
Oh yes, and bid a fond farewell to all those loyal users you drove into the Land of Apple who will never return.
Of course it is.
There are no problems with Windows 8.1 for either desktop or older laptops.
It is phenomenal for touchscreen devices, such as tablet PCs...which are the future.
Hey Red Bugger!
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/change-the-start-menu-to-classic-view
I know I can be abrasive but if you’re going to post something on our esteemed Free Republic....
FIRST KNOW YOUR SH*T!!!
It is not the same start menu as Win7. It is a source of frustration in practice.
I'd call it a bigger blunder than Vista, which was at least usable to a legacy-system user. 8.0, not so much.
Many of Vista's difficulties stemmed from unsigned drivers, which was at least explicable. 8.0's difficulties stemmed from a UI change so sudden, complete, and mandatory that even those of us who figured it out were wondering why we were forced to. For those on 8.1 now who are wondering what the fuss was about, that was it. There was no Start menu unless you went to a third-party vendor to make your shiny new box usable. That will definitely give people heartburn, especially people who are expected to support users who are blaming the whole thing on them. Which they were. :-(
In future, Microsoft should seriously consider making an “ala carte” operating system, that could be designed by users online, troubleshot by Microsoft to insure maximum efficiency, then burned to disk and mailed to that user.
To start with, there would be a flat rate for the baseline parts of the OS that all systems would have.
Then for every major component selected by the user, they would see a chart of other elements not on their system needed by that software to function. And they would all be sold as a component package.
Granted, expert users would likely post their own templates of optimal systems for different things, for instance with systems optimized for gaming with minimal and high security Internet. Likewise businesses would want systems that were all business and high security from hackers.
Importantly, Microsoft could then sell its custom OS for much less, yet make more money with component buys and regular maintenance upgrades and optimizations, because they would retain OS designs for custom users.
This gives the added bonus of having segregated data, so that every year or two, users could do a clean install without loss of data, eliminating the OS detritus that tends to build up over time.
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