Start Screen - Add Taskbar or Dock on Desktop in Windows 8

Brink · Dec 23, 2012

How to Have Start Screen Docked on your Desktop with Taskbar in Windows 8 and 8.1

Information

This tutorial will show you how to choose to have your Start screen docked to the top or bottom of your desktop with a custom height, or add a taskbar to your Start screen in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1.

This is only applied to your account. Each user must do this tutorial in their own account if they would like to do so.

Note

To do this, we will use the free Start Menu Modifier program created by Daniel Moxon.

"Start Menu Modifier" is a standalone exe file that doesn't install anything on your computer.

"Start Menu Modifier" will need to remain running in the background minimized as an icon in the notification area for this to continue to work properly.

EXAMPLE: Start screen Docked to "Bottom (custom height)" of Desktop
NOTE: This is with the default 360 pixels height.

EXAMPLE: Start screen Docked to "Top (custom height)" of Desktop
NOTE: This is with the default 360 pixels height.

EXAMPLE: Start screen "Fill screen, show taskbar"

Here's How:

1. If you have not already, you will need to download Start Menu Modifier, and save it to your desktop.

A) Extract (drag and drop) the StartMenuModifier.exe from the downloaded ZIP file to your desktop.

B) Unblock the extracted StartMenuModifier.exe file.

C) Move the unblocked StartMenuModifier.exe file to where you would like to keep it save at. You might would also like to create a shortcut of it somewhere for easy use, Pin to Taskbar, Pin to Start, or add to Quick Launch.

2. Run the StartMenuModifier.exe file.

Note

If Start Menu Modifier is already running minimized in the background, then you could click/tap on it's icon in the notification area on the taskbar, and click/tap on Settings.

Note

3. Set the position you want for the Start screen. (see screenshots below)

A) If you select a position with a "custom height", then you can type in how many pixels high you want the Start screen to be, and click/tap on OK.

NOTE: The default is 360 pixels.

4. If you have more than one display screen, you can select what display number you want to have the Start screen display on when using the hotkey in step 5 below. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: You can open Screen resolution settings, and click/tap on Identify to see what number is assigned to each display.

5. Click/tap in the Hotkey field, press a key (ex: S) that you want to be used as the hotkey. If you like, you could check one or more of the boxes (ex: Ctrl) below this to have as part of a hotkey combination (ex: Ctrl+S). (see top screenshot below step 3)

Note

Whenever you have the Start screen opened, you can use this hotkey to toggle between the default full screen Start screen and whatever position you have set in step 1 above.

Note

A) Click/tap on Register Hotkey, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

NOTE: You can click/tap on Unregister Hotkey to remove the hotkey, and be able to set a new hotkey if you like.

6. When finished, check the Run at windows startup box, click/tap on Apply, and minimize Start Menu Modifier to the notification area. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: Checking the Run at windows startup box will have Start Menu Modifier shortly have you sign in to keep this working.

That's it,
Shawn

Start Screen - Add Taskbar or Dock on Desktop in Windows 8

Brink

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