Time magazine on how Microsoft will and/or must bring back the Start button – and the whole Start menu – to Windows: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/time/topstories/~3/7wNDUzFuLcY/I

I think they’re right that there is an issue and that it isn’t about the Start button per se. When I’ve used Windows 8 it’s been exasperating because it feels like you have to be an insider to know how to find anything. The trackpad and mouse stuff where you get certain settings by moving left and back, left and back, left and back.

There’s a similar thing now on iOS 7 for iPhones. Once you know it’s there and that you can do it, it’s very useful to be able to swipe down from the top of the screen and get your calendar. Or swipe up from the bottom and get quick access to a lot of settings you regularly want to change. I don’t like that you have to know they’re there, that it isn’t obvious.

But then you do at least get a clue that these features exist: when you switch on your phone or wake it up, the lock screen includes little handles at top and bottom. Windows 8 didn’t seem to have anything like that.

More, if you don’t spot the handles on the way in and you never know that such functions exist, so what? Their presence is a boon but their absence wouldn’t stop you doing things.

Whereas I really did once have to force restart a whole Windows 8 machine because I could not find another way to get out of Word.

If Time is right, and the time is right, Microsoft is likely to make all this better. But will it help the most productive computer users? It won’t make a pixel’s worth of difference to me because I so rarely have to use PCs at all. And if you’re able to get Windows to work brilliantly for you, I wonder if you haven’t long ago moved beyond rooting around the Start menu.

Since I don’t happen to like Windows – XP stands for Fisher Price – I was glad to see Microsoft making a big departure. Use all this processing power, make me something that doesn’t get in my way as much as old Windows did. So far I think it’s been a failure of nerve as you get these whizzy new features but keep crashing out to the old ones. Be bold and move forward but take us with you, the people who need to be productive with this stuff right now.

I’m not sure that pressing on while giving up and adding back an ancient feature just because it’s familiar is the way to go.

But then the last time I used Windows was in France a couple of months ago. Windows 8 was all in French, as you’d expect – except actually, no, it wasn’t. You’d use the Fichier menu and all that, then you’d get some d’accord French dialogue boxes. And then you’d get an important warning. In English.

Microsoft can’t be arsed to finish what just might be the easiest job in the whole of Windows. Forget Start buttons and hidden controls, it’s this insulting disinterest in what your users actually need that makes me dislike Windows.