What’s New In Windows 8 Desktop, Start Search, And Start Menu [Review](Part-3)

lthough Windows 8 Developer Build includes features and tools necessary for third-party developers to develop and test new applications in order to address compatibility issues, it comes with a host of user interface elements and other improvements that will you will see in first stable version of Windows 8. Amongst all the UI related improvements, native utilities and features, Windows 8 Desktop, Start Menu and Windows 8 Search are the most significant, as these elements have been totally revamped with new metro look, accompanied by some new and interesting features. In this post, we will excavate deep into features that these major Windows 8 elements have to offer.

Windows 8 Desktop

In contrast to Windows 7, which loads desktop after booting the system or shows login screen (if enabled), Windows 8 greets users with the newly designed Start Menu. Inspired from Windows Phone 7 Metro UI, the Windows 8 Star Menu displays a list of default and custom metro tiles, which act as a shortcuts to Desktop, Control Panel, Windows Explorer, Weather app, RSS, Windows App Store, Internet Explorer, and other installed applications. To launch the desktop, click the Desktop tile, present underneath Windows Explorer and Control Panel tiles.

One thing which you will immediately notice when Windows 8 desktop launches is Start Orb. The Start Orb button doesn’t work like Windows 7 Start button; when you hover mouse pointer over it, it shows the time and date tile with system notification icons over notification area, along with Search, Share, Devices, and Settings options over Start Orb button.

Clicking the Start Orb itself will take you back to Start Menu which contains default and custom apps, utilities and  and widgets tiles. Windows 8 Desktop has a lot of hidden UI elements, which can only be seen with their associated application and functions. For instance, when you plug-in an external storage device, you will see a revamped, new storage device found, metro-based auto-run pop-menu over system notification area. It lets you open the folder, use the device to speed up the system via ReadyBoost, or configure drive for backup.

Windows 8 Settings pane, which appears from right sidebar, contains not only power button options, such as, Shutdown, Restart, Sleep etc, but many other system related options as well. This includes, Network, Volume, Notifications, Power, and other system notification icons.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Windows 8 Desktop is left sidebar, which is by default hidden but when you hover mouse pointer over left side bar, it shows active application thumbnail preview. This lets you quickly view and switch between currently active applications.

Windows 8 Start Search

Like Windows 8 Desktop Settings pane, Start Search also appears from right side of the screen, containing some pre-defined categories like, Apps, Settings, and Files, along with list of installed applications, which help users quickly find and launch an application.

Unlike Windows 7 search, which shows results in Windows Explorer when Enter key is pressed, Windows 8 Search extends the Search pane to whole screen area, allowing you to view filtered search items from pre-defined and custom search categories. Apart from opening files/folders, and launching application, you can use the Advanced button in bottom-right corner to run the application as administrator, open location of selected items, and Pin to Taskbar. The Pin button present next to Advanced pins the selected item to Windows 8 Start Menu.

In order to perform online search, you need to sign in with Microsoft supported accounts, such as, MSN, Live, Hotmail, prior to initiate search. Just enter the keywords you want to search and hit Enter key to let Windows Search fetch results from online sources.

Windows 8 Start Menu

If you were to pick and bring together all the important Windows 8 system components along with Windows Explorer, Desktop, Installed application, Task Manager, widgets, etc, under unified interface, you’d end up having Windows 8 Start Menu in front of you. Windows 8 Start Menu is  designed keeping the need to access your PCs different elements without having to open multiple Windows Explorer windows. By default, it contains Internet Explorer, Desktop, Windows Explorer, built-in full screen application shortcuts, Task Manager, Computer, and other numerous widgets, you can pin as many applications, folders, shortcuts, custom widgets as you want in Windows 8 Start Menu.

Like Windows Phone 7 native application launcher, it lets you change position of application tiles. Just hold the tile which is to be repositioned,and then drag and drop it to required area of the screen. The scroll bar present at the bottom will help you navigate through the Windows 8 Start Menu interface. When you click User Tile, it will let you log off, lock the screen, add new user and change the user tile from personalization window, where you can change picture, change color, and apply other  customizations.

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That’s it for now. The features and options related to Windows 8 Desktop, Start Search, and Start Menu are limited to Developer build. There is surely a lot to come in upcoming iterations of Windows 8; we will keep this post updated with the latest improvements in Windows 8 Desktop, Start Menu and Start Search.

If you haven’t tried Windows 8 Developer Build yet, read about it here.