Microsoft has shown some screenshots of some of the user interface improvements and alterations it’s going to deliver in Windows 8.1 later this year.
These include more personalization, a Settings app that doesn’t force you to use the Control Panel, richer multitasking with more apps visible on-screen, multimonitor support for Metro apps, and unified search.
Also being brought back: the Start button. When running desktop applications—but not Metro applications—a Start button with a Windows logo will be on the taskbar and when clicked it will take you to the Start screen.
Logical progress
Overall, these are sensible changes. Many of the problems we previously noted—such as the incomplete Settings app, the segregated search results, and the way that installed apps dump a load of icons onto your personal Start screen—look like they will be resolved by the update.
Windows 8’s interface was in some ways over-simplified. The fixed split, for example, was not without its merits. It forced developers to consider how to design their interfaces for a narrow view. As a result, many apps have well-designed snap views. This is in contrast to most desktop applications: although desktop applications are generally freely resizable, most applications don’t handle this at all elegantly. Give an application a small window and all too often its toolbars get truncated and its document area gets shrunk to near-nothingness.

Full Story: Microsoft should stick to its guns and keep the Start button gone | Ars Technica.