Microsoft to restore Start menu to Windows. Microsoft this week gave customers a bare-bones peek at the future of Windows, saying that the next iteration after Windows 8.1 Update will restore a Start menu and let users run "Metro" apps on the classic desktop.
The sneak peek was part of the opening day keynote of Build, Microsoft's developer conference, which ran April 2-4 in San Francisco.
"I'm not here to announce the next version of Windows," Terry Myerson, the head of Microsoft's operating systems engineering group, said at Build. "But I am going to share that we are going all in with this desktop experience to make sure your applications can be accessed and loved by people that love the Windows desktop."
Myerson showed off two features of the unnamed update to Windows 8.1: A Start menu and windowed "Modern," née "Metro," apps on the desktop.
Both had been rumored to be coming to a future version of Windows; those claims first surfaced in December 2013.
Both had been rumored to be coming to a future version of Windows; those claims first surfaced in December 2013.
As developers saw on the big screen behind Myerson, the new Start menu will be a blend of the traditional tool familiar to Windows 7 users and dynamic tiles that evoke the Windows 8.1 Start screen. The windowed Metro apps will be just that: resizable, draggable traditional windows on the desktop that will feature a title bar and the X-marks-the-spot close button to shut down the app.
"We will be making this available to all Windows 8.1 users as an update," Myerson said. He did not offer up a date or even a broad release target, or say what the update would be named.
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