Between the rumors of Windows 8.1 seeing the return of the Start button and having the option of booting straight to desktop, one may feel the Start Screen is a little, shall we say, lost.
But fans of this new feature of the OS can rest assured that this is not the case.
Redmond is hard at work improving the Start Screen on Windows 8.1, and the recently leaked build 9374 shows a few interesting details about the Start Menu replacement.
The folks over at WinBeta.org are running a story that reveals that Microsoft has introduced a new button (called Customize) on the Start Screen — one that seems all set to provide a bunch of new customization and personalization options.
As of this writing, however, it provides only the most basic of functionalities.
Clicking on the button in the leaked version allows users to move a selected tile from one position to another on the Start Screen. But it is reasonable to expect more customization settings to debut in future builds of the OS.
Additionally, the Start Screen is said to allow the use of four different Live Tile formats — large, standard, wide and small — along with more color and background customization options.
And finally, an app download progress bar for the Start Screen, as mentioned earlier, is also said to be part of the upcoming Windows 8.1.
Expect Microsoft to shed more light on all these options when it releases the public preview of the operating system, sometimes this June — at the time of this year’s BUILD developer conference.
