No Microsoft Start Menu for Windows 8 until 2015: Sources
Summary: It's looking like Microsoft's new ‘mini’ Start Menu for Windows 8.x won't be part of Windows 8.1 Update 2 as rumored. Instead, it's sounding like a 2015 deliverable now. — Microsoft won't be delivering a new Start Menu …
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft's Start Menu problem has been running since at least April 2013, when The Verge reported that Windows 8.1 would bring back only the Start button rather than the full menu desktop users wanted. By December 2013, SuperSite for Windows was reporting that the next major release, codenamed Threshold, would pair the restored menu with windowed Metro apps, framing the fix as a whole-release project rather than a patch.
Today's ZDNet report — sourced, and echoed by eight syndicating outlets including TechCrunch, PC World and InfoWorld within a day — says the rumored 'mini' Start Menu will miss Windows 8.1 Update 2 entirely, with 2015 now the working target. That places the most-demanded correction of the Windows 8 era squarely in the next full version, not an interim update.
First-order effects
- Windows 8.1 Update 2 will ship without the Start Menu, leaving desktop-focused customers on 8.x with no menu option this cycle despite it being the loudest user request since 2012.
- The claim is still rumor-grade (sources, not confirmation), so enterprises planning around Update 2 cannot yet bank on either outcome.
Second-order effects
- Expectation weight shifts onto Threshold/Windows 9 as the de facto fix vehicle, raising the stakes of the 2015 release for a Windows 8 installed base that has been waiting two years.
- Competing desktop vendors and Linux distributors get a longer window to court keyboard-and-mouse buyers dissatisfied with Microsoft's touch-first interface.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, Microsoft is effectively decoupling marquee features from its incremental update cadence, reserving them for major releases — a structure that makes each 'big' Windows launch carry disproportionate expectations.
- A multi-year gap between a user-visible complaint and its official remedy strengthens the case for faster, more modular Windows servicing, whatever form that eventually takes.
The trend: Microsoft's post-Windows 8 course corrections are consolidating into fewer, larger releases rather than arriving through interim updates like 8.1 Update 2.