well, look here! It’s the Start Button, and it’s returned to its rightful place in the leftmost corner of the Windows 8.1 taskbar. This isn’t the work of a 3rd-party shell enhancement either.
Respected blogger Paul Thurrott has confirmed that this is how Windows 8.1 is going to ship. The UI backtrack has been rumored for some time, but none of the previous leaked builds of Windows 8.1 had actually reintroduced the Button.
While the Start Button is back, the Start Menu is not. Clicking the Windows 8.1 Start Button will do the same thing that tapping the Windows key on your keyboard or mouse does: it will bring up the Start Screen.
As the Build conference approaches, however, Microsoft is putting the finishing touches on the Windows 8.1 preview build. It’s expected that testers will be able to get their hands on the release this summer ahead of a retail launch some time before the 2013 holiday shopping season.
In addition to confirming the return of the Start Button, Thurrott noticed another cool tweak. In Windows 8.1, you can synchronize your desktop and Start Screen backgrounds. It’s a subtle but welcome change, and it helps make the dual interface Windows experience feel a little less disjointed.
So the Start Button is back and you can choose one wallpaper to rule Windows 8… but there’s one more major change coming.
Today’s leaks also confirmed that Microsoft is indeed going to allow users to boot directly to the desktop. The preference will be off by default, meaning new Windows 8 installs will still boot to the Start Screen. Anyone who wants to, however, will be able to flick the switch and bypass the Modern environment at startup.
It won’t completely vanish, of course. It’s highly unlikely that Microsoft is going to make a sort of “classic shell” option that turns off other Windows 8 features like hot corners and the Charms bar.
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