The biggest complaint about Windows 8 is the Metro interface. Along with that, we lost the Start Menu. Microsoft has decided, like they have in the past with changes to the Start Menu and toolbars in Office and other products, to force users to do things their way. The great thing about PC software is that someone usually comes up with a way to put things back the way they were before. Despite Microsoft’s attempts to prevent reinsertion of the Start Menu, people have done just that.
A free way to get back the Start Menu in Windows 8 and boot straight to the desktop like in previous versions of Windows is Classic Shell. Classic Shell is a free program available on Source Forge that gives you a Start Menu in Windows 8 (or changes the menu in Windows 7) with different Start Menus from previous versions of Windows. It also lets you change the way Explorer works and change the interface for IE 9. If you are hesitant to move to Windows 8 because of the Metro UI (and who isn’t) check out Classic Shell. It works as advertised, giving you many options and bypassing Metro so you can enjoy the real upgrades in Windows 8. Thanks Maximum PC for discussing this project in your review of Windows 8.