I’ve got a bad case of the Windows 8 Metro interface Blues. It looks like Microsoft will be releasing Windows Blue midyear, but the interface is going to be the same old Metro mess that’s been giving its users the blues since day one.Windows Blue: More of the same old Metro mess. (Image: WinBeta)

What gives, Microsoft? Windows 8’s acceptance on the desktop has fallen even behind Vista’s lousy numbers. The biggest single reason for this is the Metro interface. Sure, Metro may be OK on a smartphone or tablet although you sure couldn’t tell it by the ice-cold reception that Windows 8 Phone and RT have found in the market but it’s awful on the desktop.

Call me crazy, but really Microsoft, would it kill you to add a Start button and make the Windows 8 desktop the default interface instead of Metro? It’s not that hard. Heck, as David Gewirtz pointed out, it doesn’t take that much to make Windows 8 look normal.

Even then, however, you can’t really avoid the Metro morass. Take Matt Baxter-Reynolds’ dad, who after double-clicking on a photo in his desktop mail app ended up dumped in the Metro-style photo viewer: Just an image in the middle of a full-screen gray window with no trace of the decades old windows, icon, menu, and pointer (WIMP) interface metaphor for a guide.

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Read also:

Next from Microsoft: 'Blue', the Windows 8 they hope you don't hate (Register)

Windows Blue: a video preview of what's next for Windows 8 (The Verge)

Windows Blue shows why Microsoft may kill the Desktop in Windows 9 (Computerworld (blog))

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