Where are application folders in Windows 8.1 main menu?

How to find application if you don't know it's name in Windows 8?

It was entity (application folders) in earlier version of Windows, which was lesser in count than total number of programs in menu.

For example, here we see 21 such folders

enter image description here

It is not so hard to find something among 21 items.

Now compare what they did in 8.x

enter image description here

All icons ever installed are heaped into homogeneous senseless scrapyard.

There is never any sense to select item from this list or scroll over it. It is completely useless. The only way to select item from it is to type it's name in search cell.

But what if you don't remember the name of the item?

You will be lost.

So the question is how to return that omitted level of organization, called program folders?

Dims

Posted 2015-02-07T18:44:26.320

Reputation: 8 464

3a) use Classic Shell, b) wait for Windows 10. – user1686 – 2015-02-07T18:47:31.250

1You can't sort by name? – meatspace – 2015-02-07T18:56:48.570

This is a non-issue/question to me.. If you really don't know the name of the program, how would you know which folder to look for? – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2015-02-07T19:09:31.950

Life's a 'beach' if you don't remember the name. I've found Windows is utterly useless if I start to type, "That program what did, you know, the thing with the pictures…" :p – Tetsujin – 2015-02-07T19:32:22.313

@Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 I will look at each by eye and recognize/recall it. This is what "scrolling" is for. I.e. scrolling is sensible in old Windows while senseless in Windows 8. – Dims – 2015-02-07T19:36:30.193

@Tetsujin the progress of GUI was that it was not required to remember names anymore. Windows 8 is regress, since it is taking us back into command line world. Actually, Windows 8 main menu is a command line interface with thingies. – Dims – 2015-02-07T19:38:34.600

I can't argue, tbh. I cannot abide Win 8… or 10 for that matter. I was being light-hearted & hoping it never becomes my main OS at the same time ;-) – Tetsujin – 2015-02-07T19:40:08.780

How about sorting by category? It's a bit more organised that way. – Rsya Studios – 2015-02-07T21:47:47.770

I does, but they are expanded. Is it possible to collapse them? – Dims – 2015-02-07T19:39:44.370

@Dims No. I don’t know any third-party software that enabled collapsing groups on the Metro start screen, but you always get a start menu program, like Classic Shell or Start8 or whatever. – Daniel B – 2015-02-08T01:55:58.977

Where are application folders in Windows 8.1 main menu?

Answers