An upcoming version of Windows could bring back a key feature missing from Windows 8: the iconic Start menu.
When Windows 8 debuted, users struggled with the disorienting elimination of the Start button. But the main issue was the lack of a Windows Start menu, which was traded for a Metro-style Windows "tile" screen.
After the sweeping system change, Microsoft and a large portion of its users actually disagreed over Windows 8's "basic functionality," TIME reported.
According to Windows guru Paul Thurrott, the next Windows system is good news for traditionalists.
Windows "Threshold," the followup to Windows 8.1, will give users more options that will likely include the beloved Start menu.
Thurrott expects the new Threshold to bring together Windows 8.x, Windows Phone and Xbox One in a more integrated user experience.
"My theory is that Threshold is the release that will put Microsoft on the threshold, if you will, of a truly consolidated OS," he wrote.
Windows 8 eliminated the traditional Start button and menu, but Microsoft brought both back after a fashion with update "Windows Blue."
In the new system, the taskbar in desktop mode features a Windows logo where the Start button used to be, TIME reported.
But the adjustment was a bit deceiving, since the visual logo didn't truly replace the Start button.
TIME's Harry McCracken noted, "[I]t's impossible to live entirely inside Desktop mode and pretend that Microsoft didn't make major changes to the Windows interface. That makes the return of the Start button more of a minor visual adjustment than anything."
Threshold could pull back users who are still clinging to earlier versions of Windows, and the new system is "good news" for the many people who find Windows 8.1 intimidating, according to McCracken.
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