Menu- a set of functionally combined items, each of which denotes a command or submenu that can be opened click on point. If there is a submenu, then the menu is obtained hierarchical(multilevel).

When working in Windows, the user has access to four types of menus:

• Main system menu (or Start menu);
• context menu of various objects;
• window menu bar;
• window system menu.

Window menu bar

Folder windows and application windows have a menu bar located below the window title. Selecting a menu item brings up a drop-down menu. Dialog and secondary windows do not have a menu bar.

System menu

Apart from the usual menu bar, everything Windows windows have the so-called system menu. The system menu commands are designed to perform window management actions, in particular, using the keyboard.

Main menu Windows systems(Start menu) - menu Microsoft Windows, launched by clicking the Start button on the taskbar or by pressing the Windows logo key on your keyboard. It is the central starting point for launching programs as well as opening recent documents and accessing system properties.

The main, pop-up and drop-down (context) menu of Windows.

Main menu

The main menu is one of the main system elements Windows controls. Using the Main Menu, you can launch all programs installed under the operating system or registered in it, open latest documents, with which you worked, access all configuration tools, as well as the search and help systems of Windows. In the classic style of the Main Menu, programs are accessed using the menu item Programs, in XP style - All programs. The main menu refers to hierarchical pop-up cascading menus.

Ways to call the Main Menu:

Context menu

This is the name of the menu that appears after you right-click on an object or control. It is called a context menu because the list of items in it is determined by the type of object on which the click occurred, i.e. context dependent.

The context menu lists all the actions that can be performed on this object. Moreover, in all context menus of any objects there is an item Properties, which allows you to view and change the properties of objects, that is, to configure programs, devices, and the operating system itself. Context menu refers to hierarchical pop-up cascading menus.

Calling methods context menu:

Windows taskbar.

Taskbar (English taskbar) - an application that is used to launch other programs or manage already running ones, and is a toolbar. In particular, it is used to manage application windows. The taskbar can be a component of the operating system (for example, it is present in operating systems ah Microsoft Windows since Windows versions 95), an element of the desktop environment, or a separate third-party program.

Components of the panel WINDOWS tasks:

§ "Start" button to call the "Start" menu;

§ Area for displaying buttons of open windows, for quick switching between windows;

§ The notification area (often erroneously referred to as the "system tray"), where the icons placed there by some programs are located;

§ "Quick Launch" (introduced with Internet Explorer 4), on which you can put shortcuts to launch frequently used programs;

§ " Language bar";

§ Other panel elements from third-party programs.

If the taskbar is not pinned, you can “stick” it to any of the desktop borders by simply dragging it with the mouse, and also change the size (number of lines).

The "Start" button can be called without exaggeration one of the symbols personal computer, it is also difficult to overestimate the impact that it had on the development of user interfaces. Appearing in 1995, it, along with the menu of the same name, took its place for a long time and Microsoft's decision to get rid of it in Windows 8 was perceived very ambiguously, which forced the company to return the Start menu back.

What was before

Many users who have begun their acquaintance with computers relatively recently may think that the button Start and the familiar interface concept has always been, or almost always, and before that it was command line and DOS. But this is not so, various kinds of window interfaces began to appear quite a long time ago, and in the late 80s they began to confidently occupy their niche, since PC resources began to fully allow this.

The most popular at that time was released in 1992. Windows 3.1, which offered users a new, fully graphical interface, which made it possible to fully reveal the capabilities of modern hardware for those years.

The main window that opens when logging in was Program Manager, which gave access to programs, utilities, and data locations. Minimized windows were displayed as icons on the "desktop", although the desktop in the modern sense did not yet exist, you could not place your files, folders or shortcuts on it. When closing Program Manager the Windows session was terminated.

AT UNIX systems has become the industry standard for many years CDE, working on similar principles, although it was undoubtedly a more developed shell.

A common drawback of the shells of those years was the lack of a single point of access to installed and running programs and data. At the same time, these were full-fledged graphical shells that made it possible to conveniently work with windows and multitask.

Classic start menu

By the mid 90s computing power computers made it possible to work with full-color graphics and multimedia, and the Internet also began to take its first steps. This made computers closer to the user and led to the need for a simpler and more convenient shell.

The new interface has been introduced in Windows 95. First appeared here Desktop where the user could place their documents and shortcuts, task bar, where all running applications and of course start button, which represented a single point of access to programs, documents and system settings.

It was a significant step forward, the system became more convenient, integral and intuitive. Almost any action in the system could be done with the mouse, simply by clicking on an icon or by dragging an object.

The Start menu allowed you to quickly jump to programs, recent documents, or settings without being distracted from your work and without minimizing the main program window. The only settings available are adding or removing menu items.

The convenience of the new interface was quickly appreciated, and it appeared in the 1996 release NT4, a system for networks, servers and corporate users.

The same interface without significant changes moved to Windows 98. Panel has been added quick launch and more deeply integrated into the system networking capabilities. Section collapse also appeared Programs on the menu Start when the system hides rarely used software, making it easier to access frequently used programs. A handy innovation was the ability to add menu items by dragging icons, as well as change their position in the same way.

Windows 2000, in addition to a cosmetic change in the interface, brought new opportunities for its fine tuning. In particular, now it was possible to make many menu items expandable, which made it possible to get to the desired items without opening additional windows, and also to choose which items would be displayed. For menu Programs, which could have very a large number of elements, it became possible to use scrolling, instead of displaying several menu bars at once.

Exactly the same changes have occurred in the interface. Windows me, which, however, was perceived by users rather cool.

From classic to modern

Despite the outward resemblance to Windows 2000, the same Windows 98 remained under the hood of the Millennium, which was significantly outdated by that time, and Windows 2000 continued to be a corporate and server system that was inconvenient for home use. The “megahertz race” that began at that time made possible everything without which a modern PC is unthinkable: three-dimensional games with realistic graphics, rich multimedia capabilities, and users could now not only consume multimedia, but also produce it themselves.

The same period saw the widespread use of the Internet and networks, first corporate, then brownie. The computer has ceased to be a working tool for solving narrow problems and has become a means of communication and entertainment for the whole family. This is reflected in the new interface of the new operating system. Windows XP.

The new double-leaf Start menu immediately attracts attention, browser shortcuts are separately fixed at the top left and mail client, showing that the Internet is now not a luxury, but an everyday working tool. Below is a list of frequently used programs, now you do not need to look for them in the menu every time or clutter up your desktop with shortcuts. In addition, the list is interactive, if your work priorities change, the contents of the list will also change.

On the right are the usual items of the classic menu, but for the first time an item appeared in their composition. My computer, which, like many other items, can also be presented as a menu, gaining direct access to disks with a single click on the Start button. The remaining programs are hidden in the item All programs, the content of which repeats a similar classic menu.

For retrogrades, it remains possible to use the old menu, which has been transferred to new system from Windows 2000.

At first, the new interface and the new Start menu were perceived ambiguously, but the system turned out to be successful and the solutions incorporated in it gradually became classics and had a strong influence on the development of interfaces. Also, Windows XP became the longest-lived system, released in 2001, it almost completely dominated for 8 years, until the release of Windows 7, and was almost forcibly withdrawn from support in 2014, continuing to be quite widely used.

The next operating system rightfully deserved the titles of the biggest long-term construction and the biggest disappointment. Yes, that's exactly what you thought - Windows Vista. Today we can confidently say - Vista it failed deafeningly, it is even inappropriate to compare with Windows Me. The millennium just went unnoticed between Windows 98 (1998 and 1999 - SE edition) and Windows XP (2001). The next system had to wait five years, during which a lot of things were promised and interest in the new product was quite high.

It is impossible to say unequivocally that Vista is a bad system, the technical solutions incorporated in it formed the basis of the rest of the line of operating systems and are successfully used to this day. However, underestimated system requirements and compatibility issues led to a sharply negative perception of the system by users. On most budget and mid-range systems, the new OS behaved like a snail caught in a jelly, leading to its massive replacement with Windows XP.

But our story is not about that. Windows Vista received an updated menu and an updated Start button. The button became compact and got rid of the inscription; over the past 11 years since its appearance, it has become one of the symbols of the Windows OS and clearly no longer needs explanations. The menu itself is almost completely similar to the Windows XP menu, except for one really important detail - the search bar. This innovation is difficult to overestimate, now you do not need to scroll through the menu in search of desired program, just type the first few letters.

Changed the menu All programs, now it does not drop out as a separate list, but opens on the left side of the menu, allowing you not to clutter up the screen, sub-items no longer drop out as separate menus, but are folders that expand vertically. Thus, the Start menu has completely acquired a new, modern look, getting rid of the last elements of the classic menu.

Also, Windows Vista was the last system in which the classic menu, a sample of Windows 2000, is available.

Microsoft has learned a good lesson from the failure of Vista, so the next version of the OS is Windows 7 quickly gained popularity comparable to the success of Windows XP. The new release brings many improvements to the Start menu, making it even more user-friendly. The logical conclusion was the idea of ​​pinning items in the left column of the menu, now you can pin any icons and in any quantity.

The second great idea was jump lists, which look like arrows next to the name of the program, if you move the mouse cursor to such an item and hold it, then a list of recent ones will appear on the right side of the menu open documents, visited sites, etc. If necessary, the elements of this list can also be pinned.

Otherwise, the menu continues to use the ideas laid down in Windows XP and Vista, turning from a few drop-down lists in Windows 95 into a powerful and convenient tool for accessing programs and data. Also, Windows 7 was the first system in which the classic Start menu is no longer available.

Start is not needed! Or is it still needed?

It would seem that the Start menu created in Windows 7 has reached a certain degree of perfection, allowing you to quickly navigate to data locations, programs and documents, as well as perform searches. It's time to build on the success ... But the new challenges that Microsoft has faced have turned everything upside down. Having overslept the formation of the mobile market, the corporation rushed to catch up and overtake, almost declaring the decline of the PC and desktop era, in favor of portable mobile devices.

That's why Windows 8 received a new, gesture-oriented interface in which there was no place for either the Start menu or the button of the same name. They were replaced by the start screen and magic corners, which almost immediately caused sharp fits of rage in everyone who worked with the new OS in the window. virtual machine or by remote access, getting the mouse exactly into the corner of the window is still entertainment.

The new start screen immediately marked the priorities of mobile devices over classic ones. On a tablet it looks good and appropriate, but not on a monitor with a diagonal of 24-27 inches.

And the list of programs, if there are quite a few of them, immediately strives to turn into a multi-colored dump, and even with horizontal scrolling unusual on a PC:

These initiatives were met, to put it mildly, with misunderstanding, and a lot of utilities immediately appeared on the market, returning both the button and the menu back, as well as removing all mobile-tablet misunderstandings out of sight. For example, the operation of the utility is shown below. Start8, which returns the familiar interface to Windows 8.

By the release of Windows 8.1, the company changed its mind a bit and returned the Start button to its place, however, instead of the menu, it continued to use the start screen, making it possible to skip it at startup and boot directly to the desktop.

Having failed to gain a foothold in the mobile market, Microsoft began to revise its plans, which resulted in the return of the Start menu already in the first public assemblies Windows 10, the new menu in these editions was a kind of hybrid start screen and the modern menu: the right side was given over to live tiles, and the data locations (computer, documents, network) moved to the left, to programs.

In subsequent releases, the general trend continued, but the menu itself underwent significant refinement, so in build 10064 the locations turned into regular links, and the freed space was returned to the list of frequently used programs, below which a list of recently added appeared. Also, the menu has changed significantly in appearance, ceasing to resemble a cut off piece of the start screen stuck to the Start button.

The following changes have been made in build 10130, the bright colors have disappeared, giving way to muted shades, and on the left side, all links to data locations and settings, which were one of the advantages of a modern menu, have disappeared.

But test builds are test builds because they are designed to test new ideas, so already in build 10166, the locations returned to the menu again, and it itself acquired a finished look, in which it moved to build 10240 and, most likely, will fall into the release.

Locations reduced to a menu Conductor and links Parameters, which migrated to the bottom of the menu to the shutdown button and the list of all applications. The Explorer menu is customizable, you can pin any location to it, just drag the folder to the taskbar and select Pin to Explorer(spelling preserved). Another controversial innovation: submenus and jump lists are no longer expanded on mouse hover, only on click. Most likely this is done to please mobile users in order to avoid false positives with short touches.

In terms of brevity of settings, the new menu is able to give odds to Windows 95 - they simply do not exist. In any case, calling Taskbar and Start Menu Properties we could not find a single setting of this very menu.

The list of programs outwardly repeats a similar windows screen 8 sorted alphabetically, although this is not always convenient. So the Vivaldi browser logically hid in the folder of the same name, and the applications of the new Office were evenly spread over the entire menu, while placing additional tools in separate folder in the other place. If with familiar applications this does not cause inconvenience, then with new ones it can cause serious difficulties in finding all the components of a newly installed package.

Search is now integrated with voice assistant Cortana and can be represented by a search bar or taskbar button (see screenshots above), or removed from there if you're a minimalist. However, it is enough to open the Start menu and start typing the first letters of the application you are looking for.

In general, the new menu causes conflicting sensations. On the one hand, the return of a familiar interface element can only be welcomed, as well as its development. On the other hand, despite the imminent release, the menu contains a lot of flaws. Take at least complete absence settings or live tiles, in which only a word is alive in the name, it would be logical to expect that the weather tile, taking up double the size, would at least show the current weather, as it was in Windows 8.

However, if we understood everything correctly from Microsoft, with the release of Windows 10, the system does not freeze at some point, but continues to develop, so, as they say, we will see. In any case, the new Start menu looks interesting and has great promise.

And not only Windows

As we have said, the Start menu has had a significant impact on the development of user interfaces. We can find a similar construction of the workspace in a variety of systems, for example, QNX(commercial real-time operating system). The developers did not become wiser and simply named their menu option launch(launch).

The strong influence of Microsoft ideas can be seen in the popular windowing environment KDE:

Moreover, it cannot be said that the KDE developers simply copied Start from Windows, we have a completely independent working environment, but the source of the developers' ideas lies on the surface, latest versions KDE only confirm this assumption.

A certain influence of Microsoft ideas can be traced in the first releases of another popular open environment Gnome.

In the future, Gnome was strongly influenced by the ideas of MacOS, eventually presenting users with a creative reworking of the best solutions from both systems, it turned out so well that Gnome2 is still alive, continuing to develop in the Mate fork.

Also start menu ideas are viewed in XFCE as a shared access point to programs and locations.

AND LXDE completely set itself the goal of copying the familiar Windows users Wednesday.

Even the new window environment Unity largely repeats the ideas of Windows 7.

However, we are not inclined to endless disputes about who borrowed what from whom, but we believe that healthy competition and alternative implementation of ideas are only beneficial for all of us - users of software products and we are sure that the Start button and menu, celebrating 20 anniversary, will continue to set the tone for user interfaces.