If you want to play "Angry Birds, " instead of flicking through screens to look for the icon, you can just start typing "Ang" and the game icon pops up.
He said it was an attempt to do away with app-centred systems that were a legacy of the computer world in which people clicked on an icon to start a program.
That's why Windows 8 opens in the start screen, why Microsoft is working to build up a large catalog of tablet-type apps that run only in the start screen, and why the traditional desktop has been relegated to a mode you reach by clicking on an icon on the start screen.