Which start menu (software) do you use for windows 8.1?


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can i ask why you simply "Need" the old startmenu? as the mew start screen does more

hi

because sometime it's handy to find quickly what i need

my laptop came with many software bundle

sometime i hard to find the program , i got to scroll

that's all

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hi

because sometime it's handy to find quickly what i need

my laptop came with many software bundle

sometime i hard to find the program , i got to scroll

that's all

 

Hit Windows key, start typing, profit.

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As much as I stopped trying to purchase Stardock software after it's whole lack of development on Fences 1 and then charging loyal users for Fences 2 - I use Start8.  If you can find a good alternative then I encourage you to try and not put money into Stardock as they simply don't care about customers.

 

Fences was free though, so its not like you paid any money for it in the first place. You can happily keep using the version Stardock gave away for free, or upgrade if you feel the new features are worth the cost.

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I thought Start8 was good for me. I used it when I was using Windows. If I use Windows again, then I'll probably use it again.  :)

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hi

because sometime it's handy to find quickly what i need

my laptop came with many software bundle

sometime i hard to find the program , i got to scroll

that's all

I'm sorry, what? Are you saying that the Start screen covering your whole desktop holds less icons, forcing you to scroll, than the Start menu in the corner of your screen? Do you even make sense to yourself?

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I'm sorry, what? Are you saying that the Start screen covering your whole desktop holds less icons, forcing you to scroll, than the Start menu in the corner of your screen? Do you even make sense to yourself?

 

Everybody has there own preference on how to use an OS. There nothing to argue about, each to their own.

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I'm sorry, what? Are you saying that the Start screen covering your whole desktop holds less icons, forcing you to scroll, than the Start menu in the corner of your screen? Do you even make sense to yourself?

 

Why does the OP have to explain himself or his preferences to you or anyone else?  He asked a simple question which was made clear in the title (it wasn't vague that required further exploration...you and others could have skipped this)

 

I use classicshell which seems to be a popular choice.  For the trolls...I use classicshell because I extremely dislike the start screen and all modern aps.  That is all you need(?) to know.

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I'm sorry, what? Are you saying that the Start screen covering your whole desktop holds less icons, forcing you to scroll, than the Start menu in the corner of your screen? Do you even make sense to yourself?

The wall of icons in the All Apps view in the Start Screen (which I think he was referring to) is an atrocity of UI design, and by comparison, you don't have to scroll anywhere near as much in the Start Menu because icons are grouped into folders, despite being provided a much smaller space.

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sometime i need the old start menu :(

did you have some issue to uninstall classic shell ?

You can set it up so a regular click of the start button or Windows key brings up one version of the start menu and an alt-click or whatever brings up another, you can use both at the same time. Myself, I have the 8 start screen as the "regular click", once in a while when I need easier drag-and-drop, jumplist access or whatever I alt-click. It's pretty flexible.

My Windows 7 desktops only show the ClassicShell start menu no matter what I click, don't need the old version of that one, just the same thing anyway but better. Extra bonus for allowing me to scroll with the mousewheel when you're in a menu with a ton of entries in it.

Uninstall is easy, it's just a background process, pretty clean removal.

 

How much time does one actually spend in the start menu to warrant an alternative, I really do not understand.

Depends on your needs. As neat as the new start screen is there's some pretty useful functionality that was lost. For example, I manage a bunch of servers via jumplists pinned to my start menu, that's gone, now I need to make a bunch of extra entries for each server, lots of wasted space. Could have easily been implemented, say click-and-hold to bring up the jumplist. No easy music access anymore, trivial but still useful. Collapsable nested submenus.. the start screen desperately needs these when you're searching.. the wall of icons thing isn't terribly useful there. Reorganizing the thing is a nightmare still, the start screen "back end" needs a lot of work yet. Can't wait for the next version if it's as good as I hope it is, you get the best of both worlds at the same time.. live tiles and regular menus. Yes please.
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Startisback for a 1:1 W7 start menu experience. I actually don't mind the start screen, I just don't really have a use for it.

 

Start Is Back is IMO the closest thing you're going to get to the native start menu in Windows 7.

Third'd. Closest one to the Win7 start menu that you will find.

 

I tend to use the start screen on my (keyboardless) tablets and StartIsBack on (touchscreenless) desktops. I simply cannot work without pinned documents and the jumplist. I go through hundreds of documents in dozens of applications each and every day, so the start screen as a "quick launch" is practically useless.

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I love Start8. I'm sure other programs are also good, but I don't have any further needs.

 

Though for some reason, when I enter "Windows Update" in the search/run box, it starts Windows Phone. Don't think that is Start8, it is Windows, but meh.

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None - I use the Start Screen + boot-to-desktop.  If an application has high or even medium priority, it's either pinned or has a desktop shortcut - this started with 7, which introduced Taskbar pinning.  Neither Windows 8 - or updates since - took either away.  Therefore, WHY does the Start menu even matter?  If your workflow is THAT dependent on the Start menu (even in 7) despite desktop shortcuts and Taskbar pinning, then your workflow has problems anyway.  That is why I call those that are unwilling to leave Windows 7 - or the Start menu - change-averse, if not outright change-hostile, as my workflow is now at the point that I hardly use the Start Screen's Search functionality - or the Start Screen at all - due to two unchanged (from 7) features.

 

Browsers - THE most common alternative application cited.  While IE is my default, I'm always evaluating other browsers (except Opera).  By default, browser installers pin to the Taskbar (specifically, the Quick Launch menu) - except for main Firefox, all are pinned there.

 

Office - I have two primary Office applications, Word and Outlook.  However, I launch both via the Runbox (WinKey + R) - neither has a desktop or Taskbar shortcut.  (That IS a change, but due to personal preference; I actually used to pin both to the Taskbar.)

 

Gaming - all games have desktop shortcuts, as do both Steam and Origin.  This is unchanged from Windows 7.

 

Development - Visual Studio has a desktop shortcut; however, other than the IDE, anything else included with VS is either accessible FROM the IDE or, if separate, is so low a priority that going to the Start Screen (or Start menu) is not exactly a major workflow-breaker.  (If someone does mostly development, you can still add traditional desktop shortcuts OR Taskbar pinning - right from the Start Screen.  (It's not THAT hard.)

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Right now I use start is back, because tis cheap and awesome.

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Straight up Start Screen, I like consistency of the default. I  learned my lesson installing Stardock's Object Dock on 60+ PC's when Vista came out (having some crash, others resetting to default others loosing the icon's) I took joy in removing it when Windows 7 was released.

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I love the start screen and now that I'm used to it, I won't ever switch back. If I had to use XP, Vista or seven I'd look for a tool for a start screen or simply write it. When Windows 8 was still fresh, many of my colleagues hated it. Now that were using Windows Server 2012 (R2) everywhere and everyone has adopted, the complaints died. You can do nearly as much as you could do earlier in Windows and by using the whole screen it shows more.

 

Some local Admins installed the Classic Shell on their servers and it's always a pain to administrate those. You have to click through so many menus to get the start screen back. And worse is that our support forwards support tickets to us that clearly come from unsupported software like "Classic Shell".

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Just the windows start screen, I always start by programs by typing the first 3 letters and pressing enter or clicking their tiles :p

 

What I don't like about the windows 7 menu is the bad overview, it's so small and I have to open every single folder to find a certain program :/

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