[Silent Rage]

I've been a Windows 8 user since the Developer Preview and I honestly love the Start Screen concept, but lately I've been finding myself thinking about how it can be improved. I just upgraded to WP8 a couple weeks ago and I have really appreciated how the Windows Phone team really made Metro shine and I started comparing it to Windows 8. The more I started to use WP8 and Windows 8, I started coming up with an idea of how the Start Screen could be gracefully displayed in the RT environment without overtaking the screen or minimizing the app whenever someone presses the Windows button.

So I've come up with an idea of displaying the Start Screen by utilizing the "snap" space provided in Windows 8. When pressing the Windows button, the Start Screen appears from the left side and does not minimize the current running app (but instead it pushes it over a bit) and allows a user to glance for any changes in the tiles they've set up such as weather, FB notifications, etc. You can scroll up and down to view additional tiles and use it to launch another app if desired. Obviously I borrowed the WP8 UI in this example as I feel this would fit better, but would make improvements such as adding categories like what Windows 8 has. This is merely a suggestion that I feel could improve the experience of Windows 8.

W8Concept.jpg

[CJ Thunder]

Looks great.

I constantly wish my desktop or app would stay open when I hit Windows Key or go to the corner. This looks like a good way to do it and get more people to look at WP as well.

[power5]

Its worse on dual screens. If I have a metro app open and then open a desktop app on my other screen it closes the metro app. I would like your concept better than the start screen, but I wonder if it would be possible to do the snap or the full screen start screen.

[Paladinleeds]

Actually, I would like to suggest this appears on the right hand side. But with a difference. Swiping from the right and going to Start from there would open it in that view, whereas hitting the start button on the keyboard would open up the full start screen.

But, a small issue with that. How would it work on my MacBook Pro? I have a 13" MBP (non retina display) which cannot support a high enough resolution to make use of Snap. So, what will happen on my MBP were this to be implemented?