Samsung to Offer Optional Start Button on Windows 8 PCs

Preston Gralla writes a great blog for Computerworld entitled “Seeing through Windows.” That title can, of course, be interpreted in more than one way — and so very often can his blogs — and those are just some of the things I like about his work. In an 8/28/2012 posting entitled “Samsung Weighs in on Windows 8: Users need the Start button,” Gralla describes three Samsung desktops (all-in-ones, actually) planned for Windows 8, all of which include an optional Start button.

Quoting from an AP report entitled “Samsung previews its 3 Windows 8 desktop computers,” he pulls a fascinating quote that reads as follows:

“In an effort to minimize the potential frustration caused by Windows 8′s new look, Samsung built its own optional start button that can be used to pull up a menu of applications.”

Stardock brings back the Start button but it’s still not the same!

Interestingly, it looks like PC vendors will have a chance to remedy one of the biggest user and pundit complaints  about Windows 8 — namely that it lacks the old familiar Start button found in every Windows version since 95, and missing in 8 in favor of the Modern (“Metro”) UI screen instead. I wonder how this capability will differ from Stardock’s free Start8 functionality: this tool puts the old familiar Start button back on the toolbar, but doesn’t offer a set of pull-down menu for all installed non-Metro programs. Instead it throws up the Windows 8 Start screen in a more contained format. It will be interesting to see what Samsung — and possibly also, other vendors — offer up to compensate or correct for this all-too-common Windows 8 complaint.