Pretty much in the title, the only time I interact with the windows key in its standard operating condition is getting pissed off that the start menu opened. I use it in other capacities such as taking screen shots and other key commands but I got to wondering if anyone, ever actually uses it to access the start menu.

Also if anyone comes here and posts “dOnT uSe wINdoWs,” you really are cute.

Edit: I am more curious if anyone actually gets utility out of its default behavior (opening the start menu). I am aware that it is used in a number of key commands (although some are new to me).

  • MicrowavedTea@infosec.pub
    101·
    2 months ago

    The real question is who uses the actual start menu, as in tiles and program list. I’ve only ever seen people type the program name

    • Kethal@lemmy.world
      9·
      2 months ago

      The Windows start menu is inexplicably a huge mess. Like all MS products, they cram their interface with as much as possible.

      • rivalary@lemmy.caEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        I preferred their nested menus to what is there now, though I started using search as soon as it became a thing (Windows 7?). They should have really implemented categories (like in Linux) early on rather than having every suite have it’s own sub-menu in the Start Menu.

        • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
          2·
          2 months ago

          You can do that yourself, since Chicago first debuted in ~1994.

          I don’t want my OS categorizing stuff for me.

          My start menu is categorized on the root (where “pinned” items go), and I leave the rest of the menu alone.

          • rivalary@lemmy.caEnglish
            1·
            2 months ago

            The maintainer of the application chooses the categorie(s) but manually organizing things as an end user… is kinda dumb. Maybe I don’t understand your workflow (or why the Start Menu is the way it is now with all programs barfed into one list, I figured it was for touch devices). It doesn’t really matter, though, because search is used primarily now, anyways. Forgetting the name of the application is the only reason I can see digging through the Start Menu now.

    • LucasWaffyWaf@lemmy.world
      3·
      2 months ago

      I prefer OpenShell, since it unfucks the start menu and makes it usable. It’s just like Win7 but easy to customize.

      • pulverizedcoccyx@lemmy.ca
        2·
        2 months ago

        I only ever see the real start menu on other people’s computers. Openshell is like ublock, without it your face tends to contort and twist like you ate a lemon.

    • wols@lemm.ee
      2·
      2 months ago

      I use the tiles to “pin” programs that I use semi-regularly and can’t be bothered remembering the name of. Or that share an inconveniently long prefix with the name of another program. Or that I have multiple versions of installed, with a specific version I usually need.

      I don’t like pinning such programs to the task bar because they add unnecessary clutter while not in use.

    • Donebrach@lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      2 months ago

      I imagine some legacy users who cut their teeth on Windows 95 or something and never changed their ways. I was a Mac user through the mid 2000s and switched back when I got my gaming rig with Windows 10 so I don’t remember when the search bar was implemented—never used the start menu since.