One of the most striking features of Windows 8 is the new Start Menu. When you launch the operating system, you’re greeted with a grid filled with images and icons representing programs that you can launch. You can still go to an old-fashioned desktop-and-taskbar view, but when you want to open a new program, you’re dumped back to the new full screen Start Menu.
While the new view makes a lot of sense for tablets and other computers with touchscreen displays, you might not want to use it all the time if you’re using a traditional laptop or desktop computer. Unfortunately, the Windows 8 Developer Preview that’s been released to the public doesn’t offer a way to disable the new Start Menu.
BluePoison does. It’s a free app available from the folks at Italy Windows 8, and it offers access to a bunch of features that are hard to find in Windows 8. You can also use BluePoison to change the Windows 8 theme and background colors or alter other settings.
The app is available as a free download
here
