Windows 9 Will Get Customisable Start Menu, Overhaul For Desktop Users

Microsoft will reportedly make an all-out assault to tailor its next Windows operating system to the Windows 7 “stronghold”. According to Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet Microsoft is going to make Windows 9 (codename: Threshold) more desktop-friendly. Microsoft will do-away with trying to force the touch-based layout of Windows 8 onto Windows 9 users and will instead design features specifically for mouse and keyboard users. Microsoft has already tweaked Windows 8.1 based on hardware-profiles so that desktop PCs boot straight into the desktop while touch-devices boot to the Start Screen: in Windows 9 these hardware-profiles will be more pronounced. With Windows 9 desktop and laptop SKUs will get a separate version of the OS which puts the Windows desktop as the main focus of the OS, it will also sport a mini-Start menu that is user-customisable. Furthermore, there is rumoured to be a total disabling of the Metro-style start screen and live tile interface, all those metro apps will apparently just run as normal applications on the desktop.

At the other end of the spectrum the phone and tablet SKU of Windows 9 will apparently ditch the desktop environment altogether, but will still allow for the side by side running of apps. This SKU will support ARM and Intel Atom based tablets and phones. The centralised hub of this SKU of Windows 9 will be the live tile interface and start screen. Microsoft will apparently put Windows 8.X on the back burner once the major updates are finished because the OS is already perceived as a “Vista 2.0” by many at Microsoft.

Source: ZDNet

Image courtesy of CNET (Lance Whitney)