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The biggest problem with Windows 8 isn't so much the lack of aStart button as the Jekyll-and-Hyde jumping between the "legacy"desktop -- where most of us work and want to keep working -- andthe Metro Start menu. Based on a Building Windows 8 blog that Microsoft posted last week, then yanked, then posted againyesterday, I'm beginning to think there may be a solution. Atleast, I think it might work for me, and it may for you as well. The blog goes into great detail, as Building blogs tend to do,about multiple-monitor support. Most of the discussion centersaround ways Microsoft is (finally!) bringing reasonably goodmultimonitor support to Windows. If you use multiple monitors withWindows 7 and have a good third-party program such asDisplayFusion, you already know most of the shtick. But there's one part of the discussion that just might make a bigdifference in the way I use Windows 8 -- assuming I end up usingWindows 8. Here's the idea: You put a small touch monitor on the left, downnear your keyboard. You put a big monitor (or monitors) up on thedesk, just like you have now. The Metro Start screen runs prettymuch 24/7 on the small touch monitor. The legacy desktop runsalmost all of the time on the heads-up monitor(s). You use yourleft hand to punch Metro buttons, as the situation warrants. Youuse your right hand on the mouse (southpaws could reverse thelocations). You can wade through the discussion in the blog about how to layout the taskbar, which taskbar icons get put where, and how thelanding zone for the interstitial area between the screens comesdown to six pixels. That's all well and good. But this approach,which isn't explicitly mentioned in the article, seems to me to bea reasonably workable solution. To be sure, launching a legacy program from a Metro Start tile onthe little screen isn't exactly optimal. Once launched with a tap,moving the launched program over to the big screen would require aclick and drag (or perhaps some key combination, such as Windowskey + right arrow), followed by the Windows key to bring the MetroStart screen back to the little guy. But that's doable, in atrained monkey kind of way. In the comments section on the blog, a commenter who goes by thename of "super" comes up with the idea of using one touch and onenontouch monitor, which could be adapted to work the way I'mproposing here. Steven Sinofsky replies to him, "Yep, that's how Iwork. I have one touch (I use my primary) and one secondary(non-touch) connected to my tower. I run Metro style apps and domail from primary and then when I go to the desktop I use multipleapps spanning across the two." There are still lots of unanswered questions about multiplemonitors. Foremost among them, will we be able to run twofull-screen Metro apps, one on each monitor? Talking about this method with nothing but a blog post in hand isquite a bit different from using it on a real machine, of course.With the Release Preview due the first week in June -- and reliablerumors running rampant that Microsoft has already signed off on theRP code, final build 8400.0.WINMAIN_WIN8RC.120518-1423 -- we shouldknow a lot more in a couple of weeks. This story, " Is there a workable solution to the Windows 8 Start conundrum? ," was originally published at InfoWorld.com . Get the first word on what the important tech news really meanswith the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter . The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Led Track Lighting Fixtures Manufacturer , Led Neon Signs, and more. For more , please visit Led Neon Signs today!
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