Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012; it was subsequently made available for downl ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

introduced an updated Start menu known as the "Start screen", which uses a full-screen design consisting of tiles to represent applications. This replaced the Windows desktop as the primary interface of the operating system. Additionally, the on-screen Start button was replaced by a hidden button in the corner of the screen; Microsoft explained that the Start button was removed because few people used it, noting the addition of "pinning" apps to the

taskbar A taskbar is an element of a graphical user interface which has various purposes. It typically shows which programs are currently running. The specific design and layout of the taskbar varies between individual operating systems, but generally a ...

from

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearly ...

. The change was controversial among users, and a market ensued for applications which restore the visible Start button, emulate the previous Start menu design, or allow users to boot directly to the Desktop instead of the Start screen. The following is a list of Start menu replacements for Windows 8 which have received coverage from third-party sources: The number of skins in the table givens the number of built-in skins. If there are downloadable skins, then a "+" is appended to the number to indicate that download extensions are possible.

RetroUI RetroUI is a utility for Windows 8 (applies to the Pro edition) and Windows Server 2012 (the Server edition) by Thinix that modifies Windows Shell, especially the Start menu and taskbar. RetroUI places a Start menu and start button on the Windows ...

, StartIsBack,

Classic Shell Classic Shell is a computer program for Microsoft Windows that provides user interface elements intended to restore familiar features from past versions of Windows. It focuses on the Start menu, File Explorer and Internet Explorer — three majo ...

, Start8, and

Pokki Pokki is a free digital distribution platform and Windows Shell extension by SweetLabs, Inc. that alters the start menu to a look and feel like the second generation start menu used before Windows 8. The extension also adds additional functiona ...

are five of the more notable of these. RetroUI is offered in 33 languages, and also for Windows Server 2012, and adds a taskbar and resizable windows. StartIsBack is also localized.

used to be free and open source (now proprietary freeware), major items are localized and installing the Language Pack from Windows Update makes all items fully localized; Classic Shell is also available for Windows 7 and Windows Server, and claims over 25 million downloads. The Pokki download to restore the Start menu is free; as of January 2013, it has about 1.5 million users. The Pokki application platform, based on

Chromium Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and hardne ...

, enables desktop applications to be built—like mobile apps—using standard web languages like HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. It is also available for Windows XP and Windows 7. Pokki has raised $21.5M from investors like Google, Intel, and O'Reilly; its business model is to make a commission on software sold through its app store. Start8 has been downloaded over 5 million times.

References

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External links

Compare Start Menus:Classic Shell vs StartIsBack, Start8 etc

5 Windows 8 Apps to Bring Back the Start Menu by LAPTOP Magazine
Windows 8 Start Menu replacements for Windows 8

See also

References

External links