How to get Windows 8 Start Menu… kinda

It appears that Windows 8 has become a polarising OS as far as users are concerned. One thing they do seem to agree on though, is a hankering for an old-school Start Menu akin to previous OSes.

There is however a handy little trick that Windows 8 users can put to use that offers some a little Live Tile respite. According to The Next Web, users can bring up a start menu of sorts. The method works across all platforms, excluding Windows Phone 8 devices of course.

By positioning the cursor in the lower left hand corner of the screen and either right clicking for Desktop and PC users or pressing and holding for Tablet users, a grey pop up menu appears that should resemble something like this.

If that doesn’t quite float your boat, there are also a host of apps available for download that offer a better-styled solution. Our personal favorite is Win8 StartButton.

The visual style of Microsoft’s new metro OS has taken some getting use to for consumers. This may be part of the reason it has not sold as well as the company had originally projected. This workaround, although small in its significance, brings up a larger issue, the fact that Microsoft pushed the envelope a little too far with this OS.

Will it hurt the company in the long run? Definitely not, but its lack of adoption by users may push Microsoft to opt for a more integrated OS. Perhaps similar to what we saw in the early Windows 8 mockups.

[Image Credit]