How To Restore The Traditional Windows 7 Start Menu In Windows 8......

How To Restore The Traditional Windows 7 Start Menu In Windows 8 Consumer Preview

As far as download numbers are concerned, the Consumer Preview of Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 has gone down pretty well – building on the popularity of the early Alpha release with over a million downloads in its 24 hours.

As PC users digest some of the newer features clustered into the much-discussed Metro interface, not everybody has been too chuffed to see the demise of the traditional Start Menu – a prominent Windows feature since its commercial inception.

Enable Windows 7 Start Menu In Windows 8 Consumer Preview [How-To] | Redmond Pie

**** BE AWARE.
Please note, if you do go ahead and install ViStart, you will be offered third-party programs (Babylon toolbar and Registry Cleaner Pro) during the install process which you probably won’t want cluttering up your installed items list.****

 

[Lee]

Hi JMH,

Stardock as put out a "Start Button" app today - "Start8." This does it as an app, thus not all the work like in ViStart (which I played with a couple of days ago).

Disclaimer: I am not a huge Stardock fan.

 

[DJC]

seems nice and is working.

Thnx a lot

 

[paarkhi]

Stardock Start8 solves nothing, the best I liked was ViStart and Vista Start

 

[Night Hawk]

I created my own Start menu or "Programs quick launch toolbar" without the Start orb of course but still seeing all of the familiars without any 3rd party app involved! Right click on taskbar to select the new toolbar option and browse to the correct folder. "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start menu\Programs"



Making certain the taskbar is unlocked you can then slide the new toolbar all the way over to the left. Note the taskbar will need to be set for top of screen due to the new Start screen popup and right click in lower left corner popup menu.



For the cosmetic appearance then you might select a 3rd party app.

Woops! VIPRE flagged the VIStart download link when opening in a new window! The web filtering kicked in for some reason there!

Since the StarDock is familiar from programs like RocketDock I grabbed Start8 and now can compare that to the Programs Quick launch addon toolbar method. The Pros and Cons of each I would say. For the cosmetic look Start8 gets the award for being in touch with the new 8 look to start with.



The Fast and Easy access for the productive user they find that a bit awkward needing to use the scroll tab at the bottom to go through an inventory of Apps over simply moving the mouse cursor down to a select item to bring out the dropdown list.



It was nice seeing the Start orb back on but for practicality? You decide!

 

[SIW2]

The guy who makes Vista start menu, now has a free version of STARTMENU7- with an optional orb for win8 users.

Give it a go:

Start Menu 7

 

[Night Hawk]

Thanks! I bookmarked it for reference and will have a look the next time I am in the CP again.

In fact I wouldn't be surprized in seeing several tweakers like this by the time W8 reaches the RTM stage. That will be a popular item especially for those still running XP skipping over Vista, 7 finally upgrading to 8 only to find a major gui change has taken place.

 

[Michael]

That's pretty much what it's been for me. I've been an XP user since it came out, and Win98 and '95 before that. I skipped Vista and Win7.

 

[Night Hawk]

I started off actually looking at the first notebook but not buying it back in 1982 then onto DEC using basic to a small extent on the job prior to Dos and 3.1. From there onto 95, 98SE, skipping over ME, 2000 into XP until Vista arrived and right into 7.

I wasn't actually too thrilled about the Aero themes Vista brought about but adopted to them for Vista and 7. I think for most it will take a bit to get used to 8's new approach! We'll have to see how the rest of the new version will work out however before any final calls are made since this is still in beta.

UPDATE: Just applied the StartMenu7 for a quick look with it on. It looks a lot better while a bit wider taking up more screen space then the other two Start8 and ViStart looked at previously. Instead of a shutdown button locked to shutdown the logoff, restart, and shutdown are separate items in the main menu itself. Those will be rearranged however.



In the upper left the Start button itself can see the blue Windows flag as seen there, the multicolor Windows flag or other for 7. You simply right click to select the skin to be used from the dropdown list of choices.

 

[poppa bear]

I have just loaded Windows 8 32bit for the first time and have successfully loaded Vistart. After opening desktop it takes about 30 seconds before the Start Orb appears. While waiting a small window appears saying the program is running. Is that normal?

Also, while all the menu items are there, if I right click a program in the start menu to send to desktop or whatever, nothing happens. Is this normal?

I tried the regedit .exe file by Brink to show the power button, and it appeared briefly, but then disappeared.

Update: Apologies! The regedit by Brink did work. I was looking for the power button in the task bar and didn't realize it was in the drop down menu by right clicking a blank space on the desktop.

Update: Deleted Vistart and installed Start Menu7. Used skins to get Win7 Orb icon back. Much better.

 

[SIW2]

I tried Vistart - wasn't that keen on it.

You could see if startmenu 7 works better for you.

Start Menu 7

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
looks HORRIBLE to me -- I really don't like to be presented with zillions of options on an initial click on a menu.

I also avoid like the plague any software which suckers you on to a site as FREE software and then says --BTW a PRO (i.e paid for version) will do x, y, z that doesn't exist in the Free version.

I'm not against marketing or people advertising their wares but this sort of advertising is almost "Sneakerware" -- not as bad as those sites that offer to search and find drivers for you (aka drivermax) for free but then charge you to access the part of the site where they store the (usually public domain) drivers.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[SIW2]

Aside from open source stuff - pretty much all free software has a paid version too.

That is fine - the free versions are all many people will need.

Macrium free is probably the most popular imaging app. around here - it works very well - but it's purpose is to promote the paid version.

Same with partition Wizard and pretty much everything else.

You have been around long enough to know all this .

That is a very odd comment to make, Jimbo.

 

[Calico]

Eighty percent of the applications I use are freeware, most of which also have paid versions. For personal use, the freeware versions are usually enough, however, in those rare situations where the paid version has a feature I feel I really need, I have no problem paying for it. There's really nothing wrong with freeware and if the developers wish to make a living by also offering a paid version, that's fine by me.

 

[Night Hawk]

I have just loaded Windows 8 32bit for the first time and have successfully loaded Vistart. After opening desktop it takes about 30 seconds before the Start Orb appears. While waiting a small window appears saying the program is running. Is that normal?

Also, while all the menu items are there, if I right click a program in the start menu to send to desktop or whatever, nothing happens. Is this normal?

This is not a complaint. Just to have the power button alone is worth it. I tried the regedit .exe file by Brink to show the power button, and it appeared briefly, but then disappeared.

That's the wonders(or blonders) of having 3rd party addons. You can't do everything with an addon you could with a feature that comes included in Windows. No properties screen, no right click options for pinning, copy and paste a shortcut to desktop, etc.!

The Startmenu 7 did prove to be the best looking while having the shutdown, restart, and logoff items mixed in with the rest and unfortunately no way to rearrange items to see those at the bottom. But the layout was the closest to a normal Start menu only lacking the button.

ViStart has the button but no way to change shutdown to restart or logoff through the properties screen there. You were stuck with the Vista style pop out side menu for the other two options.

 

[SIW2]

There is a button (optional).

There are also rt click properties

 

[Night Hawk]

That's the Start orb not the shutdown button I was referring to seen with Start menu 7. ViStart has the shutdown without any right click capability for that one.

 

[gborn]

The problem with ViStart, Start8, VistaStartMenu and so on is, that thouse tools change the behavior of your windows gui. I've tested them all so far and dropped em all, because of "collateral damages".

Although, after working heavy for a month with Win 8 CP (wrote a book about it) - I don't really miss start menu any more - I found a few days ago, that the developer of classicshell finished his long annouced new version that supports Windows 8 CP.

My suggestion: Give it a try and a closer look. It still uses the old Windows themes, but there are many options to customize the behaviors of the new start menu. So you can (for instance) configure it, that the Windows-key on your keyboard still switches between Windows desktop and start screen - or that the "start" hover still will be shown. Also context menu commands like "pin to taskbar", "pin to startmenu", "run as administrator" etc. are available. The guy did his job pretty well.

I've discussed a few issues in [2] (unfortunately in German, but Google translate will do the job).

ClassicShell may be downloaded for free from [1].

1: Welcome to Classic Shell
2: Windows 8 CP: Startmenü per ClassicShell « Borns IT- und Windows-Blog

 

[SIW2]

Yes, we know - Ivo has already posted about that here.

Thanks tho - some may have missed his posts.

 

[Night Hawk]

It's a still a good page to add to your IE Favorites or bookmaks however since many will be looking to get the Classic or familiar look back into Windows once the new version is out. So far not one issue with Start menu 7 in use on either install to drive or VM.