Software : In Depth: Windows 8 Start Menu replacements: 6 free apps to bring the Start button back

---

• In Depth: Windows 8 Start Menu replacements: 6 free apps to bring the Start button back
• Blip: iOS 7 concept artist wants widgets
• Blip: Google internally testing new Play Store design

In Depth: Windows 8 Start Menu replacements: 6 free apps to bring the Start button back Posted: Windows 8 delivered a number of major design changes, but none has been quite as controversial as the removal of the Start menu. Microsoft claims this was in part because people just weren't using it very much, but the sheer volume of complaints from users says otherwise, and there's now a host of tools you can use to get your Start button back. Some of these are commercial products, and if you're interested in this area, we would recommend you take them for a spin (try RetroUI and Start8) . You'll use the Start menu so much that it's absolutely vital to find a program which is right for you, and spending three or four pounds for a faster, more comfortable desktop could be a very good deal. If you're looking for a free Windows 8 Start Menu replacement, though, there are some very interesting contenders to choose from - and restoring the Start button is just part of what they can do. Read on for the best free Windows 8 Start Menu replacements. 1. Classic Shell Classic Shell does an excellent job of restoring the Start Menu to Windows 8. In many ways it looks and feels just like previous editions, with Search and Run boxes, a Recent Items menu, a familiar shutdown menu, and more. You also get useful extras, like a menu of your Windows 8 apps - so you can launch them directly from the desktop - and the ability to switch to the Start screen with a click. The menu is just the start, though. Classic Shell will by default skip the Start Screen almost entirely, so you boot to the desktop. The package also provides enhanced toolbars and status bars for both Explorer and Internet Explorer. And it's highly configurable, so just about every feature can be turned on or off at will. 2. StartW8 Installing StartW8 gives you a Windows 8-style button rather than the usual orb, but click it and everything else looks very familiar: search box, All Programs and Shutdown menu, recently launched programs, common system folders (Computer, Control Panel) and so on. There are some useful optional extras, too, including the ability to automatically switch to the desktop after signing in, and ignore the lower-level hot button corner. StartW8 doesn't provide a way to disable the other hot corners, or launch your Windows 8 apps, though. It looks good and works well, but for real power you should look elsewhere. 3. Start Menu 8 As you'll guess from the name, Start Menu 8 is mostly about bringing back the Start menu to Windows 8. And it mostly does this very well. The menu looked and behaved just as we expected, and you can even choose your preferred Start Button from one of six options. This isn't the only tweak on offer, though. The program can also help you bypass the Start screen and boot to the desktop, and you can even turn off Windows 8's "hot corners" with a click. Start Menu 8 still doesn't have the features of some of the competition - there's no menu to launch your Windows 8 apps, for instance - but it's still a solid tool which delivers the basics well. 4. ViStart ViStart gains major black marks immediately by the way it tries to force toolbars and browser tweaks on you as a part of the setup process. It is possible to bypass these "extras", though, and if you manage that then the program works quite well. ViStart can skip the Start Screen, booting you to the desktop; you're able to disable selected Windows 8 hot corners; and the interface is very configurable (you can choose your Start button, the menu style, decide which links go where, and more). The Start menu itself looks a little different, but it works well enough, has a fast search tool, and has buttons to display the Start Screen and your Windows 8 apps (though there's no menu to launch them individually). It's a good mid-range menu replacement tool - just be careful during installation. 5. Power8 Power8 doesn't add a regular Start orb by default (the button you get is much smaller), and its Start menu also looks a little different. The power options are displayed one above the other, rather than hidden in a menu, for instance (good for faster access, bad for their heavy use of screen real estate), and the developers themselves say the "All Programs" menu is intended to reproduce the "XP & 98" look than Windows 7. The end result is a Start menu which doesn't look quite as good as some of the competition, and is lacking some Windows 8-specific features (there's no option to view or launch your installed apps, for instance). Power8 is reasonably good at the basics, though, and if you like the older Start menu style then it might appeal. 6. Pokki Most Start Menu replacements aim only to reproduce what has gone before, but Pokki is more ambitious - it tries to make something better. There's a big smartphone-like area for your favourite apps, for instance. And it's easy to pin programs there, just by clicking a star icon to their right. The Search box is faster, too - start typing and matching apps, files and folders appear immediately. There's a cascading Start menu; a shutdown button with all the old options, and a button to switch to the Start Screen. And Pokki even provides a framework to download and install its own apps. Lots of big names are available - Twitter, Facebook, Angry Birds, YouTube and more - and many apps deliver far more functionality than we'd expected. Give it a try.

Blip: iOS 7 concept artist wants widgets Posted: A dilligent designer has mocked up a video showing how he'd like iOS to work on his iPhone and iPad, with features like Android-style widgets on the top of his must have list. Frederico Bianco has created quite a detailed breakdown of his vision for iOS 7, not just of what the features should be, but of how they should work, too. As you might expect, a number of the features Bianco wants are some of the best ideas found on Android phones. He wants to be able to launch apps from the Lock Screen, for example, and he wants to access certain apps through widgets, rather than having to launch the apps themselves. One of his better ideas is for a new app called Shelf. This would be a repository for all of the webpages you select to read later, with a two-step process for adding them through the Safari browser. Take a look at Bianco's video for yourself and let us know which of his ideas you love, and which are completely bonkers. Via Mashable YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JdW4qNeFkBk#! Blips are TechRadar's new news nuggets that you'll find percolating through the homepage - or you can see them all by hitting the blip keyword below.

Blip: Google internally testing new Play Store design Posted: A Google Plus misfire from a quick-fingered Googler has revealed the next major redesign for the Play Store on Android devices. A post from YouTube employee Eileen Rivera (since removed) included the image of the new Play Store, which is apparently in the "dogfooding" stage of development -- where Google "feeds" its own staff the next flavour of the app for testing. In a cute reference to this, the Play Store app icon has been changed to a dog's bowl with Play services icons mixed up in the slop. The image gives very little away as to what new features or usability tweaks we can expect in the update, though. We're hoping for more detailed search options, with filters to improve results, but then, we've been hoping for a change like this for a while now. Via Ausdroid Blips are TechRadar's new news nuggets that you'll find percolating through the homepage - or you can see them all by hitting the blip keyword below.

You are subscribed to email updates from TechRadar: All latest Applications news feeds To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610