What was wrong with the XP Start Menu that they had to change it?

On Sat, 15 Aug 2015 20:25:18 +0000 (UTC), ceg
wrote:

I must start by saying I *liked* the WinXP "Start Menu", so, I ask why
they felt the irresistable urge to remove it (Win8) & change it (Win10)?

What was wrong with the WinXP Start Menu operation?

What I loved about it was the following:
0. You just put a "My Menu" link in the "Start Menu" directory:
C:\Documents and Settings\name\Start Menu\My Menu.lnk
1. This link points to a hierarchy where you organize your menu:
C:\data\menus\My Menu.lnk"
2. And, under that hierarchy, you put *only* the links you want.

The beauty of this strategy is that it isn't corrupted by any program.

Then, you could organize your cascaded start menu as follows:
a. You slide only desired links into your hierarchy, such as
My Menu.lnk - browsers - {firefox, ie, safari, tor, etc.}
My Menu.lnk - editors - {picture editors, office editors, etc.}
My Menu.lnk - cleaners - {crap cleaners, duplicate cleaners, etc.}
etc.
b. You right click on any level of the cascade to "open here".
c. You right click on any item in the hierarchy to "edit" here.

This simple WinXP menu solution works perfectly.
- It's super easy to maintain since right clicks edit with ease.
- Nothing ever pollutes it so it contains exactly what you want.
- You can always find it (it's not in some idiotic roaming folder)

The *only* thing that is hard coded is the location of the original "lnk"
shortcut, but everything else is as you want it where you want it.

Since, even with Classic Menu in Win8 or with the Win10 "improved" Start
Menu, you don't have this simple WinXP use model, I am forced to ask:

QUESTION: What was so very wrong with the WinXP Start Menu operation
that they felt they had to delete and/or change it?

The new user base lacks the brains to configure it. They
prefer:
"I want that, duh"
point their fingers and accidentally hit a tile. Even if it's
the wrong one their attention span is so small they'll have hours of
fun with whatever they opened.
[]'s
--
Don't be evil - Google 2004
We have a new policy - Google 2012

"ceg" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 15 Aug 2015 18:11:31 -0300, Shadow wrote:

The new user base lacks the brains to configure it. They
prefer:
"I want that, duh"
point their fingers and accidentally hit a tile. Even if it's
the wrong one their attention span is so small they'll have hours of fun
with whatever they opened.
[]'s

On the one hand, I have to agree with you that I have seen a lot of WinXP
setups where they use the idiotic "Programs" menu, which is so polluted
even from the start with garbage that it begs you to clean it up.

The default menu is like buying a house with junk all over the place!

I used to clean up the default "Programs" menu, but every time I
installed something, *more junk* went into the start menu.

So after a while, I figured out that the secret was simply to put my own
menu right next to the start menu:
C:\Documents and Settings\user1\Start Menu\{Programs, My Menu}

With this trivially simple addition of a single folder, I had total
control over what goes into my cascaded WinXP menu, plus I could still
just right click to "open here" or right click to "rename" or "reorder"
menu entries. Each menu was just a folder within that folder, and the
final level was simply a shortcut (file.lnk) to the executable.

It's so simple, even a brain dead person could figure it out.

The problem is that I can't easily do the same thing in Windows 8 (even
with Classic Menu) and certainly not in Windows 10.

So, do I understand it correctly that they made it tremendously harder to
just do something that was trivially simple in WinXP in the first place?



Apparently you think that MSFT cares what users think. No money in that.
Remember Win2000 - worked fine. People didn't upgrade. Then XP - people
didn't upgrade. They want you ONLINE, paying a monthly fee. No tweaking
allowed. That's why free upgrade to Win10. Once all of "their users" are on
same platform, then they streamline THEIR programming/ads. Remember dumb
terminals/workstations ? THAT's where they want us !
Then in a few years you'll need to subscribe ?

Win8 is to get the APPS on the screen.
Win10 is Win7 plus Win8 social stuff if you want it.


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"ceg" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 15 Aug 2015 18:11:31 -0300, Shadow wrote:

The new user base lacks the brains to configure it. They
prefer:
"I want that, duh"
point their fingers and accidentally hit a tile. Even if it's
the wrong one their attention span is so small they'll have hours of fun
with whatever they opened.
[]'s

On the one hand, I have to agree with you that I have seen a lot of WinXP
setups where they use the idiotic "Programs" menu, which is so polluted
even from the start with garbage that it begs you to clean it up.

The default menu is like buying a house with junk all over the place!

I used to clean up the default "Programs" menu, but every time I
installed something, *more junk* went into the start menu.

So after a while, I figured out that the secret was simply to put my own
menu right next to the start menu:
C:\Documents and Settings\user1\Start Menu\{Programs, My Menu}

With this trivially simple addition of a single folder, I had total
control over what goes into my cascaded WinXP menu, plus I could still
just right click to "open here" or right click to "rename" or "reorder"
menu entries. Each menu was just a folder within that folder, and the
final level was simply a shortcut (file.lnk) to the executable.

It's so simple, even a brain dead person could figure it out.

The problem is that I can't easily do the same thing in Windows 8 (even
with Classic Menu) and certainly not in Windows 10.

So, do I understand it correctly that they made it tremendously harder to
just do something that was trivially simple in WinXP in the first place?



Apparently you think that MSFT cares what users think. No money in that.
Remember Win2000 - worked fine. People didn't upgrade. Then XP - people
didn't upgrade. They want you ONLINE, paying a monthly fee. No tweaking
allowed. That's why free upgrade to Win10. Once all of "their users" are on
same platform, then they streamline THEIR programming/ads. Remember dumb
terminals/workstations ? THAT's where they want us !
Then in a few years you'll need to subscribe ?

Win8 is to get the APPS on the screen.
Win10 is Win7 plus Win8 social stuff if you want it.


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