windows 8

Start 8 One of the things about not having a Start button on the desktop that is so frustrating to many early adopters is that the very first public test release of Windows 8 actually had one! It still re-directed you to the Start Screen that we see today, but the button was there for anyone who wanted to use it. Start 8 took that one step further, and implemented an experience that gently blends the Windows 8 Start Screen and the UI that every Windows user is already familiar with. Apps, using the same icons that are generated in the Start Screen, populate the Start 8 menu. Everything about the UI meshes very well with the rest of the Desktop UI, right down to the use of flat colors and simple animation. It also offers all of the same functionality that was available on the Start menu in Windows 7, including the Control Panel and shut down functions. In my opinion, Start 8 is what traditional Windows PC users would expect from the next version of Windows. Start 8 has a free 30 day trial, but is available for $4.99 on the Stardock website. ViStart When Windows Vista came pre-loaded on PC’s, there were several companies that offered the ability to downgrade back to XP almost as an apology for including the OS on their products. ViStart looks and feels almost exactly like that for Windows 8, only it’s designed to work as far back as XP. Everything about the UI looks like the classic style Aero Glass experience out of the box, with open theme tools available so third parties can release custom UI’s for the program. If you were to install ViStart on a Windows 8 system before handing it to them, the user would have a difficult time telling you that they were using Windows 8. Unfortunately, even on a high end system, there were points in which ViStart lagged out or crashed altogether. At one point, a complete reboot was required in order to restore ViStart to a functional state. ViStart is completely free, but the quality is not great. To make matters worse, their installer includes a lot of pre-selected options to install unrelated third party software that many users would likely glaze over during installation. Pokki If you’re going to re-invent the wheel and bring back the Start menu, you might as well do it with some style and make sure yours stands out, right? Pokki is more than an unusual name, it’s a completely fresh take on a Start Menu. Pokki’s UI creates a self contained user experience that allows you to be as simple or as complex as you like. Your Start Menu can be just an application launcher, it or can be the launchpad for your twitter feed, the portal for your email, and a quick launch dock for your favorite apps. Pokki takes the Desktop experience and adds notifications, just like you would expect in your mobile experience. As a Start button replacement it is a cool animated tool, but it is also designed to work well with touch. It takes all of the features of Windows 8 and bundles them up in a tool that is much easier for someone who has never seen Windows 8 to understand. Of course, if you’re just looking for a Start replacement, Pokki serves as a quick and pleasant to use menu that grants access to shut down as well as file management and Control Panel. I would have expected to pay for Pokki, and was surprised to see that it was not only free, but requires the least effort to install and use out of the batch of Start replacements that were tested. These options should be more than enough to quench your thirst for a Start menu in Windows 8. And, don’t forget, some PC vendors are including Start menu-like tools with their Windows 8 systems in an effort to differentiate their offerings and satisfy users who miss the operating system’s most prominent feature.