How To Get Start Bar On Windows 8
Editors' note: This story was originally published on August xx, 2012. It has been updated several times since then to include additional programs and other details, nigh recently with 8Startbutton, StartIsBack, and Kickoff Bill of fare 8 on May 27, 2014.
Still miss the classic First carte du jour in Windows 8 and 8.1? Never fearfulness, alternatives are here.
Microsoft lopped off the Start menu in Windows 8 to force people to employ the Offset screen. And I'll admit it, the Beginning screen does offers several benefits.
Live Tiles can clue y'all in to the latest eastward-mails, appointments, news, and other information. You can hands search for any app, setting, or file just by typing its proper noun.
Just I all the same find the binder-structured Start bill of fare the quickest and easiest way to launch any application when I'm already working in the desktop. And Microsoft seems to accept finally realized that many other users do as well. At its Build conference in April, the software giant revealed that it will bring back a new and hopefully improved Kickoff carte in the next update to Windows 8.i.
In the meantime, though, the only option for those of y'all who require the good, old Start menu in Windows viii or eight.1 is to apply a Start carte du jour alternative. And those are just what y'all'll find here. Most of the programs covered in this overview are complimentary or at least offer a complimentary version. Many go across just replicating the Start menu by letting you customize their look and feel.
Here is a rundown of several Windows 8 Start menu replacements that you can have for a spin.
Archetype Trounce
Classic Shell bills itself equally a "collection of features that were bachelor in older versions of Windows but were later removed." Topping the list for this complimentary open-source plan is a new just familiar take on the classic Start menu.
Clicking on the Windows orb after installation lets you cull between displaying all settings in the Get-go menu, or simply the basics. You tin also select between a elementary single-paned card or the more than mod dual-paned menu.
The Classic Shell menu displays shortcuts to all of your programs, documents, and settings. The familiar Run command and Search field are visible. Clicking on the Shut Down icon brings up choices for Shut Down, Restart, Hibernate, Lock, and Switch User. The Help command even calls up the new Windows 8 Help and Support folio.
The latest version of Classic Shell lets yous bypass the Start screen even faster. It also adds jump lists to the main carte du jour. And you can now search for and launch Windows Store apps direct from the program's submenu.
Classic Shell lends itself to customization. The plan offers an array of bones and avant-garde settings that you tin tweak all you want. Y'all can even back up your tweaks as an XML file in case you e'er need to restore them or transfer them to some other PC running Classic Beat.
You lot can learn more through the program's detailed FAQ page. Windows 8 users in search of a gratis, unproblematic, and flexible Start menu program will find all of that and more than in Classic Crush.
8Startbutton
8Startbutton offers a different twist on the familiar Start menu. Instead of directly displaying the carte, the programme shows you a series of six buttons that class more of a Windows command center. Each push triggers a different office. For example, one push shuts down Windows, another restarts it, and another signs you out. A fourth button taps into Windows search. A fifth takes you to the Offset screen. And a sixth opens the 8Startbutton carte du jour.
Clicking the push for the 8Startbutton menu conjures upwards a Beginning carte with a single-cavalcade display featuring shortcuts for your programs on the right and a series of icons on the left.
One icon points y'all to a congenital-in file browser so you lot can navigate to any folder on your PC. Another icon shows you a list of contempo files. A third reveals a collection of tiles with pointers to pop Windows spots, such as your figurer, your network settings, your personal folder, your photos, your music, and your documents. With the card every bit your starting point, you lot can navigate to near whatever application, file, or area in Windows.
The bottom of the menu sports more features, notably a search tool. A dropdown field provides options to shut downwards, sign out from, or lock your PC. And another field displays tools to admission the control line, Registry Editor, Device Manager, and fifty-fifty all of your Metro, aka Modern, apps.
Right-clicking the push for 8Startbutton displays a different menu, one with options to shut down, restart, or sign out, as well equally pointers to the Job Manager and a handy listing of Windows tasks that you tin can trigger all from one window.
From the correct-click menu, y'all can as well customize various settings for 8Startbutton. You lot tin can cull whether your left click triggers the 8Startbutton menu, the Windows 8 Starting time screen, or the Windows 8 apps screen. Yous can opt to hibernate the plan'south Commencement button and instead trigger its roundup of half-dozen buttons past simply moving your mouse to the lower lefthand corner. You tin can cull to boot directly to the desktop when Windows starts, an option built into Windows viii.1 as well. And you can change the epitome used past the push button.
Adult by a firm called Total Idea, 8Startbutton comes in both gratuitous and paid versions. The paid edition costs a hefty $14.88 for a unmarried license but drops down to $6.95 for anywhere from 2 to nine licenses. What'south the departure betwixt the free and paid products? The free flavor limits your customization options while the paid edition lets you tweak all of the settings. The free version also nags yous to upgrade each time you start Windows and launch the carte du jour.
I still prefer Classic Shell. But 8Startbutton offers a different spin on the classic Windows Kickoff carte du jour. The gratuitous edition is certainly worth checking out.
Pokki for Windows eight
Adult by the folks at SweetLabs, Pokki for Windows 8 offers a slick and well-designed Start menu. From that carte du jour, you can access all of your programs and open specific folders, such every bit Documents, Music, and Pictures. A search field lets y'all rail down any program. And a Shut Downwards card includes several options, such as Shut Downward, Restart, Sleep, and Hibernate.
The developers of Pokki aren't continuing nevertheless either. The latest update to the programme ties in more heavily with the Windows 8 UI. A new folder called Windows eight Apps displays links to all of your Windows Shop (formerly Metro) apps. And when y'all search from the Pokki menu, Windows Store apps are now included in the results.
Pokki for Windows viii is one of my favorite Start menu programs, both for its design and its host of customizable features.
Power8
Billed equally "yet another First menu replacer for Windows 8," the gratis Power8 displays a Start button in the usual spot on the desktop. Clicking on that button brings up the familiar two-pane menu. From the left pane, you can pin your favorite applications and access all your programs via the Programs card. From the right pane, you tin can open specific folders, such as Computer, Libraries, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, and Network.
A handy search field at the bottom can rail downward any awarding, file, or other particular on your PC. The familiar Run command lets you lot type the name of a program, binder, or file to open it. The carte du jour offers easy access to the Close Down, Restart, Sleep, Hibernate, Log off, Screensaver, and Lock PC commands.
Right-clicking on Power8'due south Kickoff button triggers a pop-up carte with several options. The Settings command lets you customize the software'south behavior. Y'all can set up it to auto offset each time you log in to Windows 8. You can also resize the button or modify its image.
Yous can block all Windows eight UI, aka Metro, aka Modernistic, features, which means your mouse volition no longer trigger the Showtime screen thumbnail or the Charms bar. Even with that choice enabled, you can nevertheless click on the Windows key to get to the Start screen or press Win+C to activate the Charms bar.
Created past a squad of developers in Ukraine, Power8 is a simple just effective Start menu replacement.
RetroUI Pro
Created past the folks at Thinix, RetroUI Pro tries to bring together the two worlds of the Windows viii UI and the standard desktop, and so you get a slick blending of both.
Right off the bat, the programme's Beginning card looks and feels different than the Start menus offered past other programs. Clicking on the Start orb brings upwards a menu filled with tiles and blocks in a nod to the Windows 8 Start screen UI.
The left pane displays square icons for both standard desktop applications and Windows 8, aka Metro, apps, while the right pane offers access to your library folders, Command Console, programs, and your user binder. You can pivot whatsoever correct-pane folder or other item to the left pane so that information technology's more easily attainable. You can also easily right-click on any left-pane particular and select the delete command to remove its icon from the pane.
Y'all'll find defended buttons to launch the Starting time screen, Charms bar, Task Switcher, and Windows eight search screen. A shutdown push offers links to sleep, lock, log off, restart, and close down your PC. And the familiar Run control is handily bachelor.
Thinix designed RetroUI Pro and then information technology's equally at abode on a Windows 8 tablet as well equally a PC. A TabletView push at the summit of the menu transforms it into a tiled screen displaying all of the programs and other items from the left pane. You can then click or tap on any tile to open up the item.
RetroUI Pro as well provides a twist on Windows 8 apps that Microsoft never bothered to implement. Thanks to a feature chosen Enforce, yous tin can launch a Windows 8 app from the program's Start carte, and it opens in its own resizable window straight on the desktop. You can compress the window by dragging any of its sides or corners. You can motion the smaller window around the desktop by dragging it from its title bar. You tin can also close the app by clicking on the familiar 10 in the upper right corner.
The desktop taskbar also remains visible when you switch to the Windows viii First screen or All Apps screen, so you can easily return to the RetroUI Pro menu from anywhere in Windows. The RetroUI carte is itself a taskbar toolbar that can be turned on and off.
Thininx provides a variety of ways to customize the plan. Clicking on a desktop icon called RetroUI Settings offers several sections of options to configure. You tin choose to open the RetroUI carte du jour by pressing the Windows key, bypass the Windows 8 Start screen subsequently logging in, and fifty-fifty hibernate the Windows viii hot corners.
Yous can change the size of the TabletView screen and display its icon in the taskbar. Another section lets you command the Enforce feature to control if and how Windows 8 apps open in their ain resizable windows. Other options allow yous to gear up the default language, change the colour of the Showtime carte, and disable all Windows 8 feature.
Finally, a desktop icon called RetroUI Pro tutorial displays a series of slideshows to fully explain all the ins and outs of the program.
You can download a free 7-twenty-four hour period trial version of the program. A single PC license sells for $4.95 while a 3-PC license costs $9.95. RetroUI Pro offers a novel and clean way of uniting the Offset menu with the Windows 8 surround and is well worth the price.
Start8
Bachelor from Stardock, Start8 offers several options depending on how fond you are of the new Start screen. You can gear up the orb to display the traditional Start carte or the Start screen. You tin also select the carte way, themes, and a variety of other features.
The Start menu appears in the traditional 2-pane format with shortcuts to your programs and folders on the left and links to Documents, Pictures, Command Panel, and other areas on the right. A Shut Down command offers options to Restart, Sign Out, Sleep, Hibernate, and more. Every bit in Windows 7, you tin command which items appear on the Starting time menu, which ones appear as links, and which ones as menus.
You tin can also still retain admission to the new Windows 8 features. For example, you lot can set up the Windows key and the Offset screen hot corner to open the Start screen. If you lot desire to avert the Windows 8 UI instead, you can disable the Charms bar and hot corners to stay fully in the desktop.
Start8 sells for $4.99, though the company offers a full thirty-solar day trial version. Other costless and equally good Beginning menu replacements are bachelor, just Start8 is nevertheless worth considering.
StartIsBack
StartIsBack looks, feels, and acts like a traditional Windows Start menu. Clicking on the Offset orb displays a familiar two-column menu with your programs on the left and various Windows settings and locations on the right.
Y'all tin can switch the left view between all your programs and just the nearly recent ones. Y'all can even access Modern apps either through individual shortcuts or an entire folder.
A search field at the bottom lets you find programs, settings, and files past proper name, while a Shutdown push button allows y'all to close down or restart Windows, lock your PC, sign out of your account, or switch to a different user. The right column provides admission to all of the core Windows features and locations, including your user profile, documents, pictures, music, Devices & Printers, and Control Panel.
You tin hands customize StartIsBack by right-clicking the Start orb and selecting the Properties command. You can and then choose which programs you lot want to appear, how to sort them, and whether or not to display links to Modern apps. You can change the look of the orb and the color of the menu itself. You can also tweak some cardinal Windows settings, such as whether to bypass the First screen and go directly to the desktop, what Windows does afterwards you close a Modernistic app, and what happens when yous printing the Windows key.
StartIsBack starts you off with a free xxx-twenty-four hour period trial. If you want to keep running it, you'll then accept to dues up $3 for a single PC, $5 for two PCs, or $10 for 5 PCs. The program doesn't offer a lot of bells and whistles. But if you want a unproblematic, down-to-earth Start menu, StartIsBack fits the pecker.
Outset Carte du jour 8
Starting time Menu eight is another traditional Get-go menu replacement with some handy customizations.
You tin tweak the behavior of the programme'southward Start orb to display a familiar two-column Start menu or the Windows Showtime screen. Should you choose the Start menu, you can opt for the classic expect with your programs on the left and the standard Windows features and locations on the right. Yous can open up both desktop applications and Mod apps from the menu. The familiar Search tool and Shutdown options are also accessible at the bottom of the carte.
Right-clicking the orb presents a bill of fare with options to launch the Start screen, open File Explorer, trigger the Run command, and access the full Shutdown menu. The right-click menu also provides a link to the settings and customizations for Start Menu 8. From the Settings window, you can enable or disable various Windows settings, alter the image for the orb, choose which features should announced in the menu, and tweak the mode and appearance for the menu.
Bachelor from Iobit, Showtime Menu 8 is a bones Start carte with plenty options to tweak it to your tastes. It's besides costless, and then you can run the total programme for as long every bit you like.
StartMenuPlus8
StartMenuPlus8 offers the usual Start menu replacement but throws in a Chore Menu, admitting at an extra cost.
After installation, the programme asks if you want to run it every bit a bones, standard, standard plus, or professional user. Each increase in level offers more than features. You can start off as a basic user and then upgrade later on if yous wish.
Equally a basic user, you tin can click on the familiar Start push orb to display the program's Commencement carte du jour. Shortcuts to various programs and certain folders appear on the left pane, while links to Documents, Pictures, Music, Command Console, and other familiar spots appear on the right. You can too switch the left pane to display a listing of recently used applications.
A search bar at the bottom of the menu lets you locate and open applications, folders, and files. A Shutdown link calls upwardly a menu to common commands, such as Restart, Sleep, Hide, and Log off. In that location's even an option to easily run a program or file equally an administrator.
You lot can customize and configure the program straight from the Start bill of fare. This lets yous add or remove shortcuts that announced in the carte du jour and on the Windows desktop. A more detailed configuration screen allows you lot to change the commands and standard folders that display on the menu also as the font, icon size, background epitome, cavalcade width, and a diverseness of other options.
If you opt to run the plan equally a professional user, y'all tin likewise create Task menus, which requite you direct access to specific applications, Web sites, documents, and other content.
You can download a free thirty-24-hour interval trial copy of StartMenuPlus8. The standard version, which includes all features except the Task menus, costs $four.99. The professional version, which throws in the Task menus, runs $9.99.
StartMenuPlus8 offers an array of features and options, almost too many. I establish the program a flake confusing, non and so much using it as configuring it. Having to choose from amongst four dissimilar user roles just to launch the software was unnecessarily cumbersome. And the more detailed configuration screen seemed chaotic with too many options facing y'all all at once.
If you're looking for a simple, no-frills Start menu, there are meliorate choices hither. Just if you're willing to spend the time learning and customizing StartMenuPlus8, you may want to give the trial version a spin.
Start Menu Reviver
The free Get-go Menu Reviver attempts to bridge the "Modern" world with the familiar desktop earth and pulls off the feat quite nicely. Clicking on the plan's Start Push brings upwards a menu chock full of goodies with access to all of your Windows 8 applications, settings, and files.
Icons on the left side of the carte du jour indicate you to your apps, Windows settings, the Windows 8 Search tool, the Run command, and recently-accessed files. Clicking on the Apps icon lets you choose to run across all of your apps, only desktop apps, or just Modern apps. You can view your Kickoff Menu binder, My Documents folder, contempo items, or even a random folder of your selection.
A Tasks icon easily brings up the Windows 8 task switcher so y'all can spring from one Mod app to another. The Settings icon offers access to the Control Panel, Command Prompt, Device Director, Services, Organization Properties, and Windows Updates.
Icons running downwardly the eye of the bill of fare link to the My Reckoner folder, browser, the Windows 8 Start screen, your e-mail, calendar, and a host of other apps. You can also search for an app directly past typing its name in the search field.
Start Carte Reviver lends itself to customization. You can remove icons for apps that you don't demand and add icons for apps that you utilize more than oftentimes. You lot tin also add Web site icons and sort each bill of fare of icons in alphabetical order.
The program offers a quick simply helpful serial of tutorials explaining how to utilize its features. Video clips show y'all how to navigate the card via either mouse or gestures, a useful thought since the carte itself works equally well on a traditional PC or a touch-screen device.
Start Carte Reviver acts every bit your gateway to pretty much anywhere you lot want to go in Windows 8 without having to fiddle with screens, tiles, or charms. Information technology's hard to recollect of a feature the menu left out, yet it manages to pull it off without feeling too cluttered. For those reasons and more, information technology gets my pollex's up.
StartW8
StartW8 is a basic only gratuitous plan that replicates the archetype Outset card expect and feel. Clicking on the orb triggers the traditional 2-pane Kickoff menu with your shortcuts on the left and admission to specific folders and other areas on the correct.
A Shut Down push offers links to Restart, Slumber, Hibernate, Switch Users, Sign Out, or Lock the PC. You tin also right-click on the orb to display several commands, including Run, Command Prompt, and all of the various shutdown options.
You can choose which items you desire to announced in the First carte, such equally your personal folders, documents, Control Console, Devices and printers, and the Run command. Yous can also tell the program to automatically bring you to the desktop afterward you log into Windows.
StartW8 doesn't offering much in the way of customization or advanced features. But that's fine if all you need it a elementary Outset menu.
StartMenu7
Also known every bit StartMenuX, this utility lets you customize the expect, feel, and functionality of its flexible Start Menu.
You can resize the menu to take upwards equally much or as fiddling room as you want. You lot can right click on whatsoever binder or shortcut to admission a pop-upward menu of commands. You can change the Windows orb between the classic Windows seven look and the newer Windows 8 logo. There's even an option to prepare virtual groups to organize your shortcuts.
The traditional Run and Search commands are available. And a Power Command panel displays options to Shut Down, Restart, Hide, Sleep, and fifty-fifty Undock.
Yous can even skip the Windows Start screen entirely and boot directly into the desktop. The programme supports traditional PCs and touch-screen devices, so you lot can farther change its beliefs depending on which device you use.
StartMenu7 is bachelor as both a free version and a $20 Pro edition that offers fifty-fifty more features and customizations.
ViStart
Published by Lee-Soft, ViStart displays the familiar Windows 7 orb. Click on the orb, and up pops ViStart'southward Offset menu with your folders and shortcuts on the left pane and links to popular Windows features and locations on the right.
The search field lets you lot find the name of whatever application or file. A dedicated shutdown button offers access to Close Down, Restart, Log off, and Hibernate commands. And ViStart plays nicely with the new hot corner -- you can nevertheless access the lower-correct thumbnail to switch between your last two open Windows 8 apps.
Yous tin can opt to bypass the Windows eight Offset screen if you wish.
ViStart presents one obstacle, though. I couldn't find a way to organize my Commencement bill of fare. Right-clicking on a folder or other item had no event. And I couldn't locate a folder where ViStart stores its menu shortcuts. And so there seems no way to customize the menu. The ViStart FAQ confirms that no right-click back up is bachelor, but that the feature is on the drawing board for a future version.
ViStart is a simple and quick mode to become dorsum the Start card, as long as you lot don't mind the disability to customize the menu.
Win8 StartButton
Win8 StartButton's carte du jour looks just similar the one offered by Classic Shell. But that's no coincidence. This program is only a recompiled take on the open-source Classic Shell, which the programmer acknowledges.
Like Classic Shell, Win8 StartButton lets you tweak the wait and feel of the Beginning bill of fare with several customizable features. Clicking on the program's Start orb displays the usual 2-pane menu with access to your programs and folders and commands for search, run, and help. Y'all'll besides find options to Shut Downward, Restart, or Hide your PC.
Right-clicking on the orb leads you to a Settings window where you lot can change the layout of the menu and a variety of other features. For case, you can disable Windows eight hot corners if you lot wish, add or remove commands in the carte, and change its pare.
Win8 StartButton is a handy program with a bones Outset bill of fare and several ways to customize advanced features. Simply you might as well stick with Archetype Shell.
Watch this: Windows viii leads with tiles, apps, sync -- and a learning...
Source: https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/how-to-get-the-start-menu-back-in-windows-8/
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