Windows 8 has new Start Menu with Modern UI. It is kind of fresh look but you may not want to use it on your Windows 8 laptop or desktop. There are more than couple of programs or apps to bring back the old start menu & start button in Windows 8.

Windows 8 logins to new Start Menu directly. You may want to skip it & see classic Windows desktop screen with Start Menu & options to “Run”, “All Programs”, “Program Shortcuts”, “My Computer”, “Control Panel”, “Shut down” menu etc

How to bring back old Start Menu & Start button in Windows 8
There are couple of Start Menu programs. You can decide which fits good for your needs & install it. You can always uninstall any of these below Start Menus & try a new one.

1. StartMenu8 – Best Start Menu Replacement for Windows 8

a. Download (direct link) StartMenu8. This is free. You can bypass Modern Start Menu in Windows 8 & boot directly into desktop mode.
b. You can still access Modern style Start Menu by using Windows Key & switch between the old start menu & new start menu
c. This looks exactly same as classic or old Windows 7/Windows Vista/Windows XP start menu. If you just want the same old look, this is what you need.
d. You can search for programs, files, modern UI or metro apps etc. You can access control panel, settings, my computer, power options like shutdown, restart, hibernate etc.
e. It runs at Windows 8 start up & has the options to skip Windows 8 new Start Menu.

2. Start8
a. Download Start8 program. It costs about $5.
b. You can get Windows 7 style Start Menu in Windows 8. It looks professional. It has all the options you see in Windows 7 start menu.
c. You can search for both Windows 8 Programs & Windows 8 Modern UI apps.
d. Option to go directly to Windows 8 desktop mode instead of Windows 8 Start Menu
e. You can still access new Windows 8 Start Menu from this old start menu.
f. You can create shortcuts to programs in this Start Menu.

3. StartMenuX (also called StartMenu8 same as #1 above. Confusing)
a. Download StartMenuX. It is free.
b. This is not exactly a Windows 7 Start menu but It is little different. It has more options to customize like Program groups etc.
c. You can change Start button image.

4. Pokki Start Menu
a. Download Pokki Start Menu. It is free.
b. This is much more than Start Menu. You can do lot of things with it. Search for Windows 8 apps, programs, files etc
c. Go directly to Windows 8 desktop bypassing Windows 8 Start menu.
d. Pokki has its own App Store. You can install popular apps like Gmail, Tweeki, YouTube etc. You can even get notifications from Twitter, FaceBook etc.

5. Power 8
a. Download Power 8 Start Menu for Windows 8. It is free & open source.
b. It has all options same as Windows 7 Start Menu. It can be localized for other languages like Russian, Swedish, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian etc.

Which Start Menu you like most on your new Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro laptop/desktop?

Also, read post about comparing Windows 8 RT tablets