The upcoming Windows 8 update, 8.1 or Blue, will see the return of the start button, according to The Verge. It also seems likely that you will be able to boot directly to desktop, avoiding the new user interface entirely if you want.
These features are not in the leaked builds of Windows 8.1, so have yet to be seen in the wild. The new start button is rumored to look like the Windows 8 logo, and will be used to return to the Start Screen. It would be a really popular move from Microsoft, as the removal of the start button and imposition of the Modern UI has been a source of loud complaints from users.
A ‘boot to desktop’ option would be great for Windows users who work most of the time with the traditional desktop.
The absent Start Button was widely joked about when Windows 8 was released, including by a YouTube video showing a man unable to return from the traditional desktop to the Modern UI.
Windows 8.1 will also include Internet Explorer 11, which continues to build on the much improved IE 10. In IE 11 for Modern UI there will be a download manager, and the touch browsing controls will be made uniform across both versions. WebGL support is also coming, and browser synchronization will work with all active tabs, as it does in Firefox and Chrome already.
If you want a start button in Windows 8 now, you can install Pokki, which is a good replacement until Windows 8.1 is released.
