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Simple workaround for no Start Menu in Windows 8

I recently went with Windows 8 and if you’ve gone down this path you’ll no doubt have noticed the absence of a Start Menu in Desktop mode.

A few utilities have cropped up, some free, some paid for which add some variation of this missing feature.

I’m not a huge fan of adding lots of little apps to my system as it leads to needing another rebuild in 6 months time.  I’ve only just installed the new OS!

Besides I only want it for a short time until I pin all my regular applications to the taskbar.  So here’s a quick tip you may also find useful.

  1. Right click on the Taskbar and select Toolbars > New Toolbar
  2. In the resulting dialog, navigate to your Programs folder, which will be something like:
    C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
  3. You should now have a menu Toolbar marked Programs
  4. Simply click the little arrow next to Programs and enjoy a noddy start menu.

If you prefer your menu in a more traditional place, you can unlock the taskbar and drag the Programs toolbar to the left.

Hope this helps.

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