Comparison of Start menu replacements for Windows 8
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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]