14 DAY TRIAL // Back in October 2012, when Microsoft officially introduced Windows 8, the company forced pretty much everyone to see the touch-optimized Start screen at every single system boot.
Third-party software however added options to skip the Start screen and boot directly to desktop before Microsoft eventually introduced such a setting in Windows 8.1
Delivered one year after the core Windows 8 operating system, the 8.1 update finally fixed this critical issue for adopters of the modern platform, with Microsoft admitting that giving users the choice to decide whether they want to see the Start screen or not was the right way to go.
Now in a new video published on the official Windows channel, the company highlights the Windows 8.1 boot to desktop option as one of the three reasons the operating system is better, explaining that users are allowed to configure it depending on the device they own.
Microsoft executives later admitted in an interview that forcing users to get to the Start screen in Windows 8 was a strategic decision because the company had to make everyone aware that such a feature was available in their operating system. If Windows 8 was booting to desktop by default, no one knew that the Start screen ever existed, the company said.
Third-party Start menu app developers said that the Start screen was rarely used on PCs, and the reason is as simple as it could be: this particular feature was designed for touch-capable devices, so getting straight to the desktop made much more sense for everybody.
Dennis Nazarenko, the developer behind the Start Menu X app that brings back this feature in Windows 8 and 8.1, told us in an interview late last year that those who downloaded his software were looking to get rid of the Start screen.
“According to my information and support request stats, I know that no one uses them on desktop PCs and laptops. The reason is quite simple,” he said.
“There are currently a lot of touch screen laptops on the market, but do you know any with a GPS module and an accelerometer? If you don’t have them, why do you need a touch screen? Has anybody tried holding a modern ultra book and surfing the web? It’s just heavy. And that brings up another question – who the heck needs that?”
Microsoft could tweak boot to desktop even further in Windows 9, but at this point, only little is known about what’s to come in this new OS version. According to rumors, Windows 9 is expected to be released in April 2015.
