Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system 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 from Windows 7. [1] [2]
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. [3]
The following is a list of Start menu replacements for Windows 8 which have received coverage from third-party sources:
Name | Developer | License | Skins | Run | Pinning | Aero | Sort | Boot to desktop | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
BringBack [4] | Revel Software | Discontinued | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Discontinued [5] ( http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/revel_bringback8.html) |
Classic Shell [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] | Classic Shell team | MIT License [11] | 10+extensible [12] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Allows Modern UI related tweaks Discontinued and forked to Open-Shell |
Classic Start 8 [13] | Crawler, LLC | Freeware | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
Classic Windows Start Menu [14] | SourceCodeBoy | CC-BY-NC-ND (Freeware for non-commercial use only) [15] | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Discontinued (last version here http://www.pypa.es/Utilidades/Software/) |
Ex7forW8 [16] | Tihiy | Freeware | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Discontinued ( http://tihiy.net/files/ex7forW8_1.0.zip) |
Finalbird [17] | Svyatoslav Yudin | Freeware | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Favorites of Start Menu is unified with the other software parts |
Handy Start Menu [18] | ChemTable Software | Freeware | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
Open-Shell [19] | ? | MIT | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Fork of Classic Shell |
Pokki [6] [7] [9] [20] | SweetLabs, Inc. | Freeware | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | |
Power8 [6] [21] | Power8 Team | GNU General Public License | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RetroUI Pro [6] [8] [23] [24] | Thinix | Trialware | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
Samsung Quick Starter [25] | Samsung | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
Start Menu 8 [6] [7] [9] [26] | IObit | Trialware | ? | ? | No | ? | ? | Yes | |
Start Menu Reviver [27] | ReviverSoft | Freeware | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | touch screen support |
Start Menu X [28] | OrdinarySoft | Freemium | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
Start8 [6] [7] [29] | Stardock Corporation | Trialware | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | |
StartFinity [30] | WinAbility Software | Freemium | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Supports automatic localization of Start menu |
StartIsBack [6] [7] [8] | Пуск Будет Удобнее | Trialware | 4+ | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | modifies existing hot corners |
StartMenuPlus8 [31] | Winok | Trialware | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
StartW8 [32] | SODATSW | Freeware | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
SyMenu | UGMFree | Freeware | 6 | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | The menu is fully portable |
Tweaks.com Start for Windows 8 [33] | Advanced PC Media | Freeware | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
ViStart [34] | Lee-Soft | Ad-supported | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? | Yes | |
Wentutu Start Menu [35] | Wentutu | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
Win8StartButton [36] | Torch Media Inc. | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
Win8Starter [37] | Engelmann Media GmbH | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
Xeesa 1b QuickStart [38] | Xeesa Services | Freemium | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Cloud Start Menu available |
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, StartIsBack, Classic Shell, Start8, and Pokki are five of the more notable of these. [6] [7] RetroUI is offered in 33 languages, and also for Windows Server 2012, and adds a taskbar and resizable windows. [39] StartIsBack is also localized. [40] Classic Shell 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. [41] The Pokki download to restore the Start menu is free; as of January 2013, it has about 1.5 million users. [42] The Pokki application platform, based on Chromium, enables desktop applications to be built—like mobile apps—using standard web languages like HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. [43] It is also available for Windows XP and Windows 7. [44] Pokki has raised $21.5M from investors like Google, Intel, and O'Reilly; [45] its business model is to make a commission on software sold through its app store. [43] [46] Start8 has been downloaded over 5 million times. [47]