Probably the biggest single issue that I have with Windows 8 is that I cannot see the gain in using the new Metro interface when I use my desktop PC. Actually, I can see it work very well for touch based PCs, but that’s about it.

The new interface has many shortcomings, beginning by simple things like not being able to close applications to not being able to display more than two windows at the same time on the screen.

When you switch to the desktop you get the standard Windows desktop interface known from previous versions of the operating system. There is one difference though: The start button is not displaying the start menu, it leads right back to the Metro interface. And the Windows key does the same.

If you are like me, you would like to have an option to disable Metro UI completely on your desktop PC. While there is no official way to do that yet, it is possible to activate the standard start menu and disable much of the Metro functionality.

Windows 8 Start Menu Toggle is a free software for Windows that changes a single value in the Windows Registry to disable and enable the traditional start menu.

The program, when executed for the first time will trigger the installation of the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5.1 from within the OS. That’s an interesting feature right there that does not seem to have been mentioned before. Instead of having to run all different versions of the .NET Framework side by side, only those that are needed are active after installation.

When you run the program on Windows 8 you get a single button interface. When you click on it you either activate or deactivate the start button.

The program does the following in the Registry:

It switches the RPEnabled string to either 0 (inactive) or 1 (active) under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

The value 0 enables the start menu, the value 1 disables it again.

Windows 8 Start Menu Toggle can be downloaded from the developer’s Deviant Art website. (via)

One of the main points of criticism is the lack of options to organize the start menu. Practically any application that gets installed places an entry in the start menu, usually a folder with one or multiple program, file and website links.

This fills up the start menu over time, and even though it is sorted alphabetically, it often takes longer than needed to find and start a program from there.

It is possible to organize the start menu manually. But that is only a temporary solution, considering that every new program that adds an entry to the menu breaks the order of items.

The free software Handy Start Menu offers an alternative. Probably the best feature of the program is its simplicity. Simply install it in Windows, select to enable the organized start menu and watch the magic happening.

organize start menu

All start menu items are instantly organized into categories like Office, Internet, Security and Utilities. Everything that cannot be identified by the program is put into the Without Category folder.

The program offers options to manage all start menu items and the available categories. This option is directly accessible by clicking on “click to manage the menu”.

The category manager displays the categories and items, with options to move items into different categories. There does not seem to be a way to create new categories, but the existing ones should be sufficient for the majority of applications available.

category manager

The category manager lacks customizability, which is the greatest weakness of the program. Besides the already mentioned inability to create new categories, it lacks the ability to delete items from the start menu. Even worse is the fact that it overrides the core functionality in the start menu. The user has to switch to the standard menu to delete entries, or browse to the folder in Windows Explorer to do so. Not a practical thing to do.

And while we are at it. Other standard options are not available as well anymore. A right-click displays only the options to open, move or manage the entry. No options to start the program as an administrator and no options to pin it to the taskbar or view its properties.

The Handy Start Menu has a lot of potential, but its shortcomings are what will keep a lot of users from using it permanently. Finally, the start menu appears only ordered for as long as the program is running in the background. A better solution would have been to sort it once, and save the structure.

This would remove all the shortcomings that we have identified in the review.

If you want to try it, The Handy Start Menu is available from the developer website. It has been tested on Windows 7 64-bit, but is said to be working on all Microsoft operating systems from XP to Windows 7. (via Addictive Tips)

The broken links checker will automatically scan the Windows Start Menu for broken shortcuts. Each shortcut found to not working anymore will be displayed in its interface giving the user the option to delete them from the start menu.

Some or all of the broken shortcuts can be selected in the overview. A click on the finish button will delete all selected links from the Windows Start Menu. The software program will only delete the shortcuts and not the folders that they reside in.

It should be noted that popular system cleaners such as CCleaner are also capable of deleting broken shortcuts from the start menu. An easy way to delete empty folders in the Windows Start Menu is to use a program like Remove Empty Directories and point it to the path on the computer system that stores the start menu entries (Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\).

Start by opening the Windows Registry with [windows R], typing [regedit] and hitting [enter]. Search for the key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}

Double-click on the Default entry in the right window and replace the value with a name of your own. If you want to link to a downloads directory name it downloads.

Create a new key by right-clicking and selecting New > Key from the menu. Name the key DefaultIcon. Double-click on Default again and enter a path to an icon on the computer system. You can for instance use shell icons. To use the generic folder icon you give the key the following value:

%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll,-4

Click here for a full list of possible values.

Open the subkey Instance\InitPropertyBag. Right-click and select New > String from the menu and name it command. Give the string the same name that you have chosen in the first step. We will name it downloads so that it matches the name that we have selected.

Create two additional strings by right-clicking and selecting New > String. Name the strings param1 and param2. Double-click param1 and give it the value explorer.exe. Double-click param2 and enter a path on the computer system, e.g. c:\downloads\.

Navigate to the following Registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

Create or edit the DWORD entry Start_ShowOEMLink. Double-click it afterwards and give it the value 1.

Now restart the computer, log off or kill and restart the explorer.exe process. The new entry in the Windows Start Menu should appear.

One interesting aspect of the software is the option to run the new Start Menu next to the old one for some time to find out if it better suits the needs. The new Start Menu makes use of a search tab at the top and five tabs at the bottom that provides access to various files and services with enough options to customize most of the display and entries.

The Start Menu is separated by the tabs Favorites, Recent, Computer, Programs and Leave.

• Favorites contain links that are added by the user. Links can be added in various ways including from other tabs of the Start Menu or by editing the favorites.txt file that comes with the application.
• The Recent tab displays programs and files that have been opened recently by the user.
• The Computer tab contains links to profile folders like My Documents, Printers or the Run dialog.
• The tab Programs contains links to all programs that are installed on the computer.
• Leave provides links to options like shutting down, logging off or closing the Open Menu application.

The program’s options contain various possibilities to change the look and feel of the application. It is possible to change the skin, remove items from the Start Menu or to change the default locations of system paths.

Open Menu+ uses roughly 20 Megabytes of computer memory when running in the open. The application itself is very responsive and easy to use.

ViOrb Remastered is one small tool that might be one of those that this user groups loves. It does not do more than to replace the Windows XP start button with the Windows vista’s start button. That’s pretty straightforward with no configuration needed at all. The user simply has to execute the file after unzipping it and it will automatically replace the start button for as long as it is running.

The software is currently available as a pre-beta build in the forum of the developer after registration. While it does not throw any error messages during usage the author still has some annoyances to sort out before releasing the software program.

The main problem with the application is that the start button works as intended if the taskbar is at the bottom of the screen. Items get replaced however if the taskbar has been moved by the user to the sides of the screen making it unusable in its current state.

This can be fixed by moving the taskbar to the bottom and then back to the side if auto-hide is not enabled. Once the taskbar hides itself automatically the entries get pushed aside again.

The application uses roughly 5 Megabytes of computer memory while running. The only way to uninstall it is by opening the Task Manager and killing the process (which crashed Explorer). A restart of the system or logging off / on again should do the trick as well.

But even those users who rely on the Windows Start Menu won’t have that many difficulties accommodating because Start Killer, the name of the application, removes the Start button only for the time it is running in the background. It furthermore provides keyboard shortcuts to display the Windows Start Menu even while running.

Start Killer will automatically remove the Windows Start Menu button from the Windows Taskbar once it is running. It works with every taskbar orientation possible which should make users happy who run the Windows Taskbar on the left or right side of the screen.

Windows Taskbar:

Windows Taskbar with Start Killer running:

A few things need to be explained. The Windows Start Menu can be displayed with the keyboard shortcuts [Windows] or [CTRL+ESC]. That opens the Windows Start Menu at the usual position and hides it again once the user has finished the task at hand.

Start Killer adds an icon to the Windows System Tray which provides access to several settings after right-clicking it. The application can be set to load on system startup. It is furthermore possible to disable the System Tray icon in the options.

Computer memory usage of Start Killer is at the low end with about 2.5 Megabytes and barely any virtual memory.