Friday, August 23rd 2013
Lenovo First Major PC OEM to Bundle Third-Party Windows 8 Start Menu
It's been a long time coming, sensing market resistance to the Start menu-devoid Windows 8, Lenovo became the first major PC OEM to bundle a third-party Start menu emulation software with its PCs. The company is bundling SweetLabs Pokki custom UI suite, which adds a Start menu to the Windows 8 taskbar, and lets you boot the operating system straight to desktop, pole-vaulting the Start screen. Pokki may come pre-installed, or the bloatware disc might have its installers. Lenovo plans to give away Pokki with most of its ThinkPad, IdeaPad, and IdeaCenter products. As the single largest PC OEM, Lenovo's move to bundle such software could force Microsoft to sit up and take notice of what the market wants.
13 Comments on Lenovo First Major PC OEM to Bundle Third-Party Windows 8 Start Menu
I don't know why Microsoft cant have an option for traditional or modern UI.
At least bundle Classic Shell and use the Windows 8 theme for it. This doesn't even look that much like the windows 7 start menu and nearer to XP or KDE. o_O
And when are they going to re-instate the windows explorer search options that were in XP, so you don't have to look up help online everytime. :shadedshu
Wake Me when they bundle it with a Copy of a PROPER follow up to 7.
So this is a bit confusing IMO. Who did it first?
h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&docname=c03557078
The Arstechnica artical is claiming some issues with it:
“Start menu” on Lenovo Windows 8 PCs will nag you to install apps
It looks kind of like a Start menu, but it's really an App Store