The Windows 10 Start Menu - a Visually Impaired Perspective

More tips & tricks

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Tip #2. Windows 10 - Meet the new Start Menu

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SuperNova users will LOVE the new Windows 10 Start menu! It brings together the much loved elements of Windows 7 & the best of Windows 8. So what does it look like? And how does it work for blind and low vision SuperNova users?

In Windows 10 the Start Menu is back (hurray!) and it's definitely been updated for the better. So what does it look like? The Start Menu no longer fills the screen like it did in Windows 8; the new Windows 10 Start Menu is contained to the bottom left of your desktop. The left side comes with customizable shortcuts. To the right you can pin Live Tiles of your favourite apps.

What do these changes mean for our partially sighted SuperNova customers? Greater efficiency is the short summary! For magnification and mouse users, the new, more compact Start Menu requires much less travel around the magnified screen, when trying to find an app. And because the shortcuts and the tiles are more consistently sized, you'll need to change the magnification level less often. Windows 10 also sports new theme colours. The Start Menu features white text on black menus, so the contrast is better 'out of the box' for most people. Anyone using any of SuperNova's 20+ colour schemes, should also find that Windows 10 looks less lurid as the original colours are much more uniform!

SuperNova's speech and screen reader users will also find the Windows 10 Start Menu more efficient. Plus we're confident that lots of speech users will be delighted to hear that the Search Box has returned, and it performs much like the Windows 7 search that was so useful. The Start Menu also now includes an 'All Apps' shortcut which we've found handy for finding applications we've just downloaded.

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Read the SuperNova and Windows 10 FAQs

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