Windows 8: Is Microsoft really ditching the Windows Start button?
(Read article summary)Seen the latest Windows 8 draft? The Start button, a fixture in Windows since 1995, got the axe as Microsoft attempts major OS overhaul.
The Start button, long an integral part of the Microsoft Windows experience, could be headed for extinction.
The news comes courtesy of a tech site called PC Beta, which has obtained screenshots of a "consumer preview" of Windows 8, the forthcoming OS. Meanwhile, several tech reporters, including Adrian Kingsley-Hughes of ZDNet, have managed to confirm that the Start button will be replaced, probably by something called a "hot corner" – a feature that "duplicates the functionality offered by the old button," Kingsley-Hughes writes.
The "hot corner," the team at The Verge reports, will provide "a consistent way to access the Windows desktop and Start Screen in Windows 8 regardless of touch or mouse input. The new interface is activated on hover from the lower-left corner of Windows 8 and includes a thumbnail preview of where you will navigate to after clicking on the new visual element."
For Windows geeks, this marks the end of an era.
