EB insists that Windows 8 is easy to use with a mouse and keyboard — she likes to be contrary. TC, on the other hand, the kind, old soul he is, agrees — this time — with the masses: Windows 8 can be a labyrinth to navigate with a mouse and keyboard. And those of you who are holding out for Windows 8.1 — forget about it. As of now, clicking the Windows 8.1 start button takes you back to the place you were trying to avoid in the first place — the start screen.<\/p>\n
Let’s stop right there. Right-clicking the start button in Windows 8.1 does bring up some useful things — but not your programs menu. If you right-click the start button in Windows 8.1 you see things like Control Panel, Windows Power Shell, File Manager (formerly called Windows Explorer), search, and other things, including one called Programs and features…but this is the old Control Panel’s Programs and features — where you can uninstall a program. Right-clicking the new Windows 8.1 start button also gives you typical shut down options. It’s better than nothing, but it would have taken MS an extra minute or two to make the start button like the one on Windows 7. Why not give people what they want? Who knows? Only Microsoft knows.<\/p>\n
There are two good, free, start button programs for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. The other good one, Stardock’s Start8, is not free.<\/p>\n
#1. Classic Shell (Free)<\/p>\n
This is EB’s favorite. It installs a reasonable facsimile of Windows 7’s start button and start menu. EB says it’s exactly the same, but her eyes are old – she can’t see the minute differences. Still it’s pretty close — and all you Windows XP lovers will love the fact you can make it look like the Windows XP start button and start menu too. I guess I’ll admit Classic Shell is the best, but #2 isn’t too shabby either.<\/p>\n
You can get it here:\u00a0http:\/\/www.classicshell.net\/<\/a><\/p>\n #2 Start Menu 8 (Free)<\/p>\n We are not fans of IOBIT software. In fact, for the most part, we dislike everything IOBIT makes. But, as of now, they make one of the best free start buttons for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 . Who knows when they’ll start gumming it up and giving it that nice IOBIT bloat. But as of today, July 26, 2013, it’s still a really nice start button. If it weren’t for EB’s love of Classic Shell, and our mutually dislike for IOBIT software, Start Menu 8 might be #1. As it is, it’s #2. I’d like to keep my job. And besides, if you’re reading this a year from now, IOBIT might have work its usual bloatmagic on it. So get it now, mateys, before the tinkering begins.<\/p>\n As of this writing, both are free from malware and do not come bundled with other stuff. But Caveat Emptor — let the downloader beware: things can change in a heart beat, and white-hatted cowboys have been known to trade in the white hats for black hats with Jolly Rogers on the front.<\/p>\n You can get IOBIT’s Start Menu 8 (Start button for Windows 8) from\u00a0http:\/\/www.iobit.com\/iobitstartmenu8.php<\/a><\/p>\n No EB, I don’t want your Jolly Roger flag from the yacht you keep on Lake Michigan. I’d like a boat ride though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" EB insists that Windows 8 is easy to use with a mouse and keyboard — she likes to be contrary. TC, on the other hand, the kind, old soul he is, agrees — this time — with the masses: Windows 8 can be a labyrinth to navigate with a mouse and keyboard. And those of you who are\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5987"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5987"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5988,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5987\/revisions\/5988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}