The native Start menu is back, everyone rejoice!

By flexkeyboard
in Microsoft (Windows)

 Share

Recommended Posts

Community Regular

flexkeyboard

Posted
Posted

It was going to be sooner or later that someone is going to bring back the native Windows start menu. Fortunately it's sooner. Tihiy over at msfn forum has released StartIsBack beta 0.

It not yet clear what method he was able to do to get the start menu back. But it's not likely to be made public because Tihiy is probably looking to offer the final version at a fee. The beta 0 is set to expire on the 25th October ( just in time to make a profit from Windows 8's release hahahah :shifty: )

Anyway here are some screenshots I made:

The customize menu that used to be in the taskbar property setting is wrapped in an isolated dialog box. Everything from the native start menu is there as you can see the correct right-click menu on the computer item. Even the old trick Shift+Ctrl+Right click shows the hidden "Exit Explorer" menu item.

6KjfB.jpg

You can get to that isolated dialog by right click on the start button and choose its setting.

OUhzE.png

The Modern UI tab allow to you to disable the hot corners. The bottom-left hot corner is disabled by default permanently.

e7KjX.png

Other goodies include straight booting into the desktop without any automated keystroke hacks. It literally boots to the desktop from a cold boot-up.

Well, what are you waiting for metrohaters =D, go grab the beta 0 over at http://www.msfn.org/...-start-is-back/

The only thing left for someone to do is to bring back Aero Glass as you can see it is absent. Only time...=D

edited: quick note, after running the registry hack, just logout and log back in. No need for a reboot.

Grand Master

+InsaneNutter MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

Looks nice, however at the moment the creator states:

it won't withstand Windows Updates (although it seems to withstand GA update), because some things are deliberately hard-coded.

With that in mind i think Start8 appears to be the way to go at the moment, and you can still use Metro Apps if you wish (Can you with this, not had time to test). Great to see various solutions out there though, ill be interested to see how this develops (Y)

  • oliver182 and FiB3R
  • Like 2
Rising Star

RandPC

Posted
Posted

It'll need to be able to handle Windows Updates to be viable IMO, there are already too many competing start menu replacements without any such issues and some of them offer more customizability then the native start menu. Not going to be worth the hassle relative to other options if it can't.

That said Aero Glass is now the only thing holding me back from adopting Win8, I really really hate the look of Win8. It's just horrific. All my other issues have been resolved to the point where Win8's benefits would be enough to sway me.

Grand Master

Noir Angel

Posted
Posted

It'll need to be able to handle Windows Updates to be viable IMO, there are already too many competing start menu replacements without any such issues and some of them offer more customizability then the native start menu. Not going to be worth the hassle relative to other options if it can't.

That said Aero Glass is now the only thing holding me back from adopting Win8, I really really hate the look of Win8. It's just horrific. All my other issues have been resolved to the point where Win8's benefits would be enough to sway me.

It's a little easier on the eye if you copy the visual theme over from the RP, if you simply rename /windows/resources/themes/aero to something else, then place the same folder (aero) from the RP in then perform a reboot, you get a much nicer feel. It's still not glass but it's less ugly.

Veteran

FaiKee

Posted
Posted

It'll need to be able to handle Windows Updates to be viable IMO, there are already too many competing start menu replacements without any such issues and some of them offer more customizability then the native start menu. Not going to be worth the hassle relative to other options if it can't.

That said Aero Glass is now the only thing holding me back from adopting Win8, I really really hate the look of Win8. It's just horrific. All my other issues have been resolved to the point where Win8's benefits would be enough to sway me.

About this aero-glass thing, there's a (quite interesting) story: Sometime ago I started a thread about a MS China guy who succeeded to put back the source codes and got aero-glass back on win8RTM, unfortunately the story seemed to end there, no further news from this guy.

A while ago, a MDL guy posted about his little project to get aero-glass back:?

image_590.jpg

And then, the next day he claimed that he got a DMCA from MS:

image_591.jpg

The funny thing is, we learn from Neowin News that some of these DMCA notices are just a joke; of course, we don't know if the DMCA for this MDL guy is real business, or just a victim of another joke.

And we also don't know if this MS China guy also got a DMCA, or if he got a warning from his office, he disappeared, and nobody knows what had happened.

Community Regular

flexkeyboard

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Lol, sorry Tihiy. You know mdl isn't all that casual. They actually have more traffic than neowin believe it or not, check alexa =D

Anyway, I actually doesn't miss the start menu at all. I'll donate if I ever get nostalgic.

Well, here's my first constructive feedback. There's a bug with the "number of recent program display". As you can see I set my to 13 in the above screenshot. But some time when I initiated the start menu, it gets shrunken down to the default height. Only then after I dismissed it and open it up again would it return to taller height of 13 recent program items.

It seems all random to me. Now that more apps populated the full 13 recent item, the bug doesn't happen at all...so I guess it's a non-critical.

Rising Star

jamieakers

Posted
Posted

I really wish Microsoft had given the option for power users to change a setting so you could reinstate the start menu and drop the start screen... I just really don't like it :(

We get it - you don't like the start screen. How about making a comment on the thread which is regarding the efforts of an MSFN forum member to make a Start Menu for Windows 8??

I think he's done a great job and for those users that prefer the convenience of the Start Menu it is a brilliant effort. It looks and appears to behave in exactly the same way as users are used to.

Grand Master

Detection

Posted
Posted
PLEASE DON'T TELL CASUAL USERS ABOUT BETA VERSIONS. I ASKED EVERYONE - PLEASE DON'T LINK TO BETA 0 IT IS REALLY NOT MEANT FOR PUBLIC TESTING but i'm glad it works...

Amazing work, I think this is much better than Beta 0 :)

Grand Master

Noir Angel

Posted
Posted

The amount of code should be fairly minimal, I'd be surprised if they saved more than 10 megabytes by removing the start menu code out. Having choice hurts nobody but I am not going to pay for this solution until I see some assurance that it won't be borked by an update.

Grand Master

Japlabot

Posted
Posted

Maybe they could make a version which patches the files in memory so it works with Windows Update instead of actually changing the files. I think that some custom themers for Windows XP used to do this instead of using a uxtheme.dll patch.

Windows 8 does have an advantage over Windows 7, is that it will have a longer support lifecycle, this is a reason that a business may wish to use a Windows 8 base if they like to extend time between major OS upgrades.

Experienced

Panda X

Posted
Posted (edited)

i use stardock start8 and it`s the best startmenu for 8 just paid $3.99 instead of $4.99 for it...final version will be on GA of windows 8.

I really don't see the need to pay for something like that. Even if it is cheap, it's silly to have to pay for it.

<snipped>

Edited by Calum
Snipped a quote from a removed post
Rising Star

Andrea Borman

Posted
Posted

Oh it's that man with his silly software again. You remember him from another thread, where he provides the software, but he does not provide the files, so it does not work. See here-http://www.neowin.ne...-for-windows-8/

I took a look at that link. And he said in his post on the other forum that the software will not be free he is going to charge for it. And he said that it won't withstand Windows updates.

So just stick with Classic Shell or Start Menu 7 they are free to use. And they work. So I have already got my start button and Windows 7 start menu on my Windows 8. With Classic shell.. Andrea Borman.

Grand Master

chrisj1968

Posted
Posted

Looks nice, however at the moment the creator states:

With that in mind i think Start8 appears to be the way to go at the moment, and you can still use Metro Apps if you wish (Can you with this, not had time to test). Great to see various solutions out there though, ill be interested to see how this develops (Y)

couldn't someone simply reinstall the app after an update to get it back?

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

  • Posts

    • AI is indeed eliminating jobs, and Oracle just proved it

      By leonsk29 · Posted

      Exactly, this is just the beginning. I hope that by that time, our inept politicians devise something like a Universal Basic Income, because unemployment and poverty rates will skyrocket otherwise. And believe me, robots that perform physical work aren't a matter of IF, but WHEN. No career is truly safe from AI/androids, it's just a matter of time.
    • Politically funny images of the World

      By +primortal · Posted

    • Subtitle Edit 5.0.0

      By Copernic · Posted

      Subtitle Edit 5.0.0 by Razvan Serea Subtitle Edit is a powerful, free, and user-friendly subtitle editing tool designed for creating, editing, and converting subtitles for videos. It supports a wide range of subtitle formats, including SRT, ****, and SUB, allowing users to easily modify and adjust subtitles for accurate timing and formatting. With its intuitive interface, Subtitle Edit provides a variety of features such as waveform audio display, spell-check, subtitle synchronization, and real-time video preview, making it an ideal choice for both beginners and professionals. The software also includes powerful tools for batch processing, translating subtitles, and converting between different subtitle formats. Subtitle Edit features: Create/adjust/sync/translate subtitle lines Convert between SubRib, MicroDVD, Advanced Sub Station Alpha, Sub Station Alpha, D-Cinema, SAMI, youtube sbv, and many more (300+ different formats!) Cool audio visualizer control - can display wave form and/or spectrogram Video player uses mpv, DirectShow, or VLC media player Visually sync/adjust a subtitle (start/end position and speed) Audio to text (speech recognition) via Whisper or Vosk/Kaldi Auto Translation via Google translate Rip subtitles from a (decrypted) dvd Import and OCR VobSub sub/idx binary subtitles Import and OCR Blu-ray .sup files - bd sup reading is based on Java code from BDSup2Sub Can open subtitles embedded inside Matroska files Can open subtitles (text, closed captions, VobSub) embedded inside mp4/mv4 files Can open/OCR XSub subtitles embedded inside divx/avi files Can open/OCR DVB and teletext subtitles embedded inside .ts/.m2ts (Transport Stream) files Can open/OCR Blu-ray subtitles embedded inside .m2ts (Transport Stream) files Merge/split subtitles Adjust display time Fix common errors wizard....and more. Subtitle Edit 5.0.0 changelog: Subtitle Edit 5 is a major new release and a big step for the project. For the first time, Subtitle Edit runs natively on Windows, macOS, and Linux from a single, modern, cross-platform codebase. The builds are self-contained, so no separate .NET installation is required, and on macOS and Linux the needed media components (mpv/ffmpeg) are bundled in. Please read before upgrading: Subtitle Edit 5 is a new application, not just an update of Subtitle Edit 4. It has been rebuilt from the ground up to be cross-platform, so: It is not 100% the same app. The look, layout, and some workflows have changed. Some things are in different places, and a few behave differently than in SE4. Not every SE4 feature exists in SE5 yet. SE5 covers all the core editing, conversion, sync, video playback, OCR, and online services, but some of the more specialized SE4 tools are not available yet. Features will continue to be added. If you rely on a specific SE4 feature that is missing, please keep SE4 installed alongside SE5. The easiest way to run both side by side is to use the Portable versions of SE4 and SE5, which keep their settings separate and do not interfere with each other. Which version should I use? Subtitle Edit 5: recommended for most users on Windows 10 (22H2) or newer, macOS 12+, and Linux. Subtitle Edit 4: please continue to use SE4 if you are on an older Windows version (Windows 7/8), or on older / slower computers where SE5 may not run well. SE4 remains available and is the right choice in those cases. To run SE4 and SE5 at the same time, use the Portable versions - you can try SE5 while keeping SE4 as a fallback. Download: Subtitle Edit 5.0.0 | ARM64 | ~60.0 MB (Open Source) Download: Subtitle Edit Portable | 103.0 MB View: Subtitle Edit Homepage | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Google Pixel 11 series: Here's what to expect

      By Hamid Ganji · Posted

      Google Pixel 11 series: Here's what to expect by Hamid Ganji Google Pixel 10 series In recent years, Google has successfully turned its Pixel devices into worthy contenders in the smartphone market. The search giant is now preparing to launch the Pixel 11 series in just a few months, and many Pixel fans are likely wondering what Google has in store for them this year. The next lineup of Google smartphones includes four devices: the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and Pixel 11 Pro Fold. This year, we don’t expect Google to bring revolutionary upgrades to its handsets, and the Pixel 11 series is likely to receive modest hardware improvements alongside a slew of AI-powered features. Here are the rumored specifications of the Google Pixel 11 series ahead of its official debut: When will the new Pixel phones be unveiled? The last two generations of Google Pixel phones (Pixel 9 series and Pixel 10 series) were launched in August, unlike the previous three generations that debuted in October. With that in mind, we expect Google to unveil the Pixel 11 series sometime in August 2026. The exact launch date has yet to be confirmed. Google Pixel 11 CAD renders - Image via AndroidHeadlines How much will the Pixel 11 series cost? Predicting the final price of upcoming smartphones has become increasingly difficult. As you may know, RAM and memory prices are rising sharply, leading to significant increases in the cost of consumer electronics. Recently, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that price increases for some future Apple products are unavoidable, suggesting that the iPhone 18 series could become more expensive. Google has remained tight-lipped about any potential price increases for the Pixel 11 series. If the company manages to maintain last year’s pricing structure, here’s what the lineup could cost: Pixel 11: $799 Pixel 11 Pro: $999 Pixel 11 Pro XL: $1,199 Pixel 11 Pro Fold: $1,799 Given current market conditions, it may be difficult for Google to avoid raising prices unless it adopts cost-saving measures, such as equipping the base model with 8GB of RAM. Google Pixel 11 series anticipated specs: We expect the Google Pixel 11 series to debut with a new Tensor G6 processor as well as an upgraded camera system. The overall design, however, is expected to remain largely unchanged across the lineup. Specifications Pixel 11 Pixel 11 Pro Pixel 11 Pro XL Pixel 11 Pro Fold Display 6.3-inch LTPO AMOLED / 120Hz refresh rate / up to 3100 nits of brightness 6.3-inch Super Actua LTPO OLED, 120Hz refresh rate, up to 3600 nits of brightness 6.8-inch Super Actua LTPO OLED, 120Hz refresh rate, up to 3600 nits of brightness 8-inch inner screen and 6.4-inch outer display, 120Hz refresh rate, up to 3600 nits of brightness RAM & Processor Tensor G6 / 8-12GB of RAM Tensor G6 / 12-16GB of RAM Tensor G6 / 12-16GB of RAM Tensor G6 / 16GB of RAM Storage options 128GB or 256GB 256GB, 512GB, 1TB 256GB, 512GB, 1TB 256GB, 512GB, 1TB Camera 50MP main sensor, 13MP ultra-wide, 10.8MP 5x telephoto, 10.5MP front camera 50MP main camera, 48MP ultra-wide, 48MP telephoto with 5x optical zoom, 42MP selfie camera 50MP main camera, 48MP ultra-wide, 48MP telephoto with 5x optical zoom, 42MP selfie camera 50MP main camera, 10.5MP ultra-wide camera, 10.8MP telephoto camera, 10MP front camera, 10MP inner camera Battery 4,840 mAh 4,707 mAh 5,000 mAh 4,658 mAh Software Android 17 Android 17 Android 17 Android 17 The Pixel 11 series won’t be a major departure from its predecessor, with Google instead focusing on subtle improvements and AI additions such as Gemini Intelligence. However, a patent filed by Google suggests the company is working on a removable battery for its smartphones, and we could see this feature make its way to the Pixel 11 Pro Fold. Given that nearly all smartphones today lack removable batteries, such a feature would be a welcome addition to future Pixel devices. That said, it may not arrive with this year’s lineup after all, and the final decision is yet to be made by Google. The Pixel 11 series could also face an uphill battle in the market. In the Android segment, Samsung is performing well with the Galaxy S26 series, while the Galaxy Z Fold 8 lineup is also expected to launch next month. On the other hand, Apple is preparing to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max in September alongside its first foldable iPhone.
    • AMD confirms 26.6.2 FSR driver breaks on many Windows PCs

      By +Eternal Tempest · Posted

      At least AMD is still taking Windows 10 seriously (after the oops) before it consumer extended support ends. @WaltC - Memories, 2x Voodoo in SLI with a Riva TNT with an Aureal A3D soundcard.

  • Recent Achievements

    • One Month Later
      timbobit earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      nates earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Almohandis earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Rookie
      dorf went up a rank
      Rookie
    • First Post
      mike_rumble earned a badge
      First Post

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      475
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      172
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      105
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      88
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      70
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!