Classic vs. New Start Menu

Well, I can understand why so many prefer the new Start menu and the New UI. Why not ? It's shiny with nice colors and the design is pretty good. I like the design, the graphics. But as a graphics designer trying to create myself pretty pictures I rather have an ugly boring interface which will not distract me from my real work where I'm trying to do the exact same type of graphics.

- Not to mention that over the years I gathered / or created some really good tools for speeding up tremendously the UI . Naturally I wanna keep those fantastic tools - but they work only with the classic UI

For me the new interface is something that I play with for an hour marveling how beautiful it is, then I say - OK play time is over, now let's get to the real work - and switch to the old ugly grey UI. This way I can work as fast as possible to get the job done - because, hey ! . Who wants to look at that ugly UI for so long ?

And there are tons of graphics designers thinking the same as I do. What choice do we have ?

Originally Posted by sebastian___

Well, I can understand why so many prefer the new Start menu and the New UI. Why not ? It's shiny with nice colors and the design is pretty good. I like the design, the graphics. But as a graphics designer trying to create myself pretty pictures I rather have an ugly boring interface which will not distract me from my real work where I'm trying to do the exact same type of graphics.

It is nice to have something new and shiny every now and then. Play with all the bells and whistles for a moment. Then: back to work. In the long run I take all those eyecandies out and try to make the system run fast and clean. In the long run it is irritating to see windowses slide and change their colour. I have not found any use for transparent windowses.

Two things I would appreciate is a change to COPY and MOVE commands:
- PAUSE copy (and MOVE)
- COPY only those files, which are missing from the destination.

I'm still a Classic Menu fanboy. Now just trying to adjust to the New.

I understand how some folks like the New Menu. Many people just install programs, leave all the messy folders and shortcuts and want a direct link to the programs they use most (majority of these wont really use more programs than would fit on the Recent Programs List).

Me on the other hand, as soon as a program is installed, I remove all the folders and place a cleanly named shortcut into one of my personally catagorized folders (System Tools, Games, AV Editing, etc).
When the classic menu is unorganized, it is hard to navigate. But if it is organized, everything is very easy to find.

I like to do things on a whim. I open my Games folder and look at the list before I chose one that hits me for the moment.
I do likewise when I'm working. Do I feel like watching (or rather listening) to a random movie or the Futurama playlist while I organize photos or do some digital painting?.

Shortcuts to open windows explorer and show a big box with a list of shortcuts is just obtuse.
It would be great if you could at least chose which showed first, the Recent Programs List or the All Programs Menu (since the All Programs Menu at least has expandable folders).

Adding expandable Document, Music, Game, and Picture folders to the menu is great. But why cant we make custom folders to do the same?
Guess I'll just trick myself and link Documents to one of my shortcut folders and just rename it System Tools or somesuch.

Headcase, I am learning to use "Libraries" much in the way you describe and Although I still prefer the simplicity and "efficient look" of the classic start menu, it is less of an issue that it was earlier. They haven't made any improvement over Windows 2000, but 7 is an improvement over XP and a HUGE improvement over Vista.

No doubt it is an improvement. The search bar is genius if you know what you're looking for. No need to fuss through anything at all.
But I think I broke it somehow. That's a different story.

Recent Programs list is also functional for those with short lists (but that's not me). And customizing the list just doesnt seem to be working out for me since I like categorizing things and have quick access beyond just programs.
I find myself hitting the WinKey >selecting the All Programs menu > Selecting the Category > Opening Program/Game/Whatever.
It doesnt sound like much but the act of clicking feels sluggish when I used to have my pointer movements memorized for every program I would open in a swift arc of the mouse through instantly expanding menus (the unnecessary extra click for the All Programs menu doesnt help either ).

I can't understand why can't they make the Windows customizable ? I mean..isn't this the progress ? I seem to remember seeing a video with someone from Microsoft a few years ago - saying that Windows 7 and the future versions will be all about customizability. And that person said something like :

"What if I wanna make my windows looking like Windows 3.1 ? We should have the possibility to customize the windows in every way we want. That is the true power" -or something like that. I don't remember exactly it was a few years back.

But they just assume everyone has the same experience and want the same thing from their computer. And they just assume everyone is a beginner. Maybe the Windows should just ask you on install : Beginner ? Advanced ?

It seems instead of giving more options to customize, they are taking back some. While all major programs are giving you more options with each new version like custom shortcuts and such.

Maybe this thread could be closed. It seems to have lost it's way and seldom, now, relates to the title.
Perhaps posters could start new threads if the subject matter is not related to the classic menu?

Originally Posted by sebastian___

It seems instead of giving more options to customize, they are taking back some.

I agree with you completely.

And remember: In Vista it was possible to switch between "new start menu style" and "classic start menu style". I thought Windows 7 wasn't so far away from Vista. Microsoft has dropped this feature. And this is the opposite way to that what you quote:

Originally Posted by Microsoft

You should have the possibility to customize the windows in every way you want

Originally Posted by Kyle

New:
Reasons - Search feature, cleaner, doesn't fold out, much more stylish graphically, more options in less space....

New Menu due to same reasons mentioned above

I'm a big fan of the new menu. Seeing as alot of my time, mainly for recreation, is spent on the computer it's extremely nice to be able to work with something as visually pleasing.