How to add a Start menu to Windows 8
- Fill taskbar with frequently used programs
- Add-on programs will recreate Start menu
- Windows adds archiving options
Question: How can I add a Start menu, or something like it, back to Windows 8?
Answer: Much of Microsoft's new operating system will surprise or confuse users when they first boot into it, but its desktop's absence of a Start menu looks to be its biggest long-term annoyance.
Without that and its list of all of your installed programs, you have to go subject yourself to a form of computing whiplash to run an application that doesn't already have a shortcut on the desktop or the taskbar.
First you flip over to Windows 8's new-look Start screen (by clicking in the bottom-left corner of the screen or with a tap of the keyboard's Windows-logo key), then you can either start typing a program's name to launch a search for it or right-click on a blank area and select an "All apps" icon to see a screen listing all of your choices. To me, and most other Windows 8 users I've heard from, that's too much of a detour.
The simplest way to avoid that is to fill up the taskbar with shortcuts for all of the apps you run regularly. To do that, launch an app, right-click on its taskbar button and select "Pin this program to taskbar." (Don't forget to add one for the Control Panel too.)
Otherwise, you may want to install third-party software to recreate the Start menu in some form. I tried out four apps I saw recommended at the tech-help sites Lifehacker and the How-To Geek: Classic Shell, ViStart, Start8, Start Menu 8.
I agree with the writers at those two sites: Start8 (30-day free trial, then $4.99), by Plymouth, Mich.-based Stardock, is the best all-around option. It installs quickly, matches the cleaner looks of Windows 8's desktop instead of looking like some grafted-on growth and lets you prune such Start menu clutter as the "Games" and "Default Programs" links.
Start8 also comes preset to boot Windows into the desktop instead of the Start screen and allows you to disable some new Win 8 features such as the "charms bar" that materializes when you mouse into the bottom or top right corners.
San Francisco-based IObit's Start Menu 8 is free and installs as quickly as Start8, but its beta status results in distracting orange "Send Feedback" button below your account picture at the top of the Start menu. It doesn't provide as many options to clean up the Start menu and leaves some clutter of its own: a desktop shortcut that did absolutely nothing on my laptop.
I'd avoid Lee-Soft's ViStart (its installer pushes unrelated third-party apps) and Ivo Beltchev's Classic Shell (it defaults to restoring a Win 95-stye Start menu, which I find vaguely horrifying). Both are are free; both will cause Windows to flash a warning about the risks of installing an unknown application, on account of their lack of a digital signature authenticating their origin.
It's possible that Microsoft will restore the Start menu on its own, so you might as well wait to pay for Start8 until that 30-day trial expires. But if the status quo still holds, $5 is a reasonable price to restore some order to your desktop. Even if you still have to tidy up all of the junk--uninstaller apps, readme files, redundant folders--that developers insist on stuffing in the Start menu's programs list.
Tip: Windows 8's "Refresh" option can rejuvenate your PC
For several years now, one of my favorite Mac OS X features has been the "Archive and Install" option (since Snow Leopard, the default installation method), which puts a clean copy of OS X on your Mac while keeping your files, settings and applications intact. It's a quick, convenient way to toss out a glitchy installation without having to rebuild your system.
With Windows 8, Microsoft has added something comparable to its own operating system. The new "Refresh" command still doesn't preserve applications (in Windows, they mingle too closely with the operating system) but does keep your data as it puts a clean copy of Win 8 on your computer.
To run it, bring up the charms bar from the desktop or the Start screen, click its Settings gear icon and then click "Change PC Settings." On the Settings screen, select "General." There, you'll also see a reset option that scrubs everything from the machine before reinstalling Windows--a handy option if you're about to sell or donate the computer.
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Rob Pegoraro is a tech writer based out of Washington, D.C. To submit a tech question, e-mail Rob at rob@robpegoraro.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/robpegoraro.