Microsoft explains reason for ditching Start button in Windows 8

Microsoft shocked the world when it decided to remove the Start button from Windows 8. The removal of the button, which has been featured in the operating system for more than 15 years, puzzled many early adopters. In an interview with PCPro, however, Microsoft revealed that consumers had actually stopped using the button in favor of the taskbar. “When we evolved the taskbar [in Windows 7] we saw awesome adoption of pinning [applications] on the taskbar,” said Chaitanya Sareen, principal program manager at Microsoft. “We are seeing people pin like crazy. And so we saw the Start menu usage dramatically dropping, and that gave us an option. We’re saying ‘look, Start menu usage is dropping, what can we do about it? What can we do with the Start menu to revive it, to give it some new identity, give it some new power?’ ” Sareen went on to state that consumers are now taking advantage of keyboard shortcuts to open applications, rather than using the Start menu. “Press the Windows key and 1 and you’re already in IE. It’s so fast.”

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