A tip from Engadget about the now infamous start button appearing on Win 8.1 sent me on a hunt for an actual quote, blurb or description from the big behemoth itself. While their various web pages devoted to 8.1 blathers and bubbles on about the features, what ISN’T mentioned is the inclusion of the Start button and why it was left out and now included.
The MSDN blog has this to say about Win 8.1, http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ukmsdn/archive/2013/06/05/windows-8-1-outlook-for-windows-rt-and-office-on-small-screen-x86-devices.aspx:
Additionally, we announced Outlook 2013 RT will be coming to Windows RT tablets as part of Windows 8.1.Our commitment to Windows on ARM doesn’t stop with the addition of Outlook 2013 RT. We announced a number of other enhancements with Windows 8.1, earlier this week at TechEd North America, including new manageability, networking, and security capabilities that will make Windows RT an even more compelling option for education sector and enterprise.
Interesting they don’t even make a mention of the Start button.
Here, the Technet blog at MS mentions a whole bunch of technical nonsense, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/dn140266.aspx, mentioning “Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Enhancements”, “Mobility Enhancements”, “Security Enhancements” and only a mere mention at the end of the post, under “Modern UI Experience” they dare utter the “Start” word:
Improvements have been made to better support users who prefer a mouse and keyboard experience to access applications.
Here in the Windows Blog, http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2013/05/30/continuing-the-windows-8-vision-with-windows-8-1.aspx, they have full pictures and more descriptions but do not mention the elephant on the screen (picture above).
Brick ONeil 