Ever since Microsoft ditched their ever lasting Start button in Windows 8, software vendors who believe there will be a huge need for a Start Menu replacement have been busying on making one trying to squeeze into that little corner. Many nice versions have emerged, some of which are very innovative. If Microsoft ever want to rescue it from the death, they should learn one or two things from these nice versions to make a truly user-friend one.
If you haven’t got tired of these new Start Button and Start Menu, let me introduce another pretty cool one for you.
The 8StartButton is a Windows 8 Start Button with a fully new designed Start Menu that looks quite different, unique, and see-through to the classic version.
It starts like this. 3 separate buttons for Restart, Logoff, and Shutdown, plus another 3 to launch Start Menu, Start Screen, and Start Screen w/ search menu.
The Start Menu integrates Modern UI design style, and looks great.
And the combination of Start Screen w/ Search looks like this:
8StartMenu is also fully configurable, and highly customizable. Right click the Start Button and choose Settings. It will bring up the 8StartButton Settings window that includes a lot of options for you to choose. You can also right click on any one of 6 icons that pops up when you first click on the Start Button to bring up a few options to change the appearance of these icons. You can even change the level of transparence to make a see-through Start Menu.
8StartButton is designed exclusively for Windows 8 system, both 32-bit and 64-bit are supported. It’s completely free but also has a license edition that costs about $13US, though it’s not clear what features that are available in paid version but not in free version.
Don’t forget to check more Start Menu options from this Windows Tweaking Tool list.