After spending almost 20 years at the bottom left corner of your desktop, Microsoft has decided to replace the start button and start menu in Windows 8 have with a Modern/Metro UI full screen start screen. When I have to search for basic commands (i.e., printing, searching, even turning off the power), I can’t imagine a lot of users will be happy with this change.

If you are not a fan of Microsoft’s Metro Start screen, there is hope. A number of third-party applications have popped up to provide the missing Windows 8 Start menu.

I found some interesting facts regarding downloads of these third-party apps on neowin.net:

"Since the launch of Windows 8, Stardock says it has seen over three million downloads of its Start8 program that brings back the Start menu to the desktop. Another developer, Sweet Labs, recently announced it had 1.5 million downloads of its Pokki program that also offers a Start menu for Windows 8. A few days ago, yet another company, Thinix, released a new version of its own Start menu program, RetroUI. The company has not revealed how many downloads it has generated from the program but did tell Neowin that they were "very pleased" with the results.

People might complain about having to get an add-on but they seem to be willing to give money to other companies for their Start menu replacements. We think this is a missed opportunity."

In works cited:

John Callaham. “Windows 8 users still want a Start menu and a Facebook app.” http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-windows-8-users-want-a-start-menu-and-a-facebook-app. Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher). Neowin.net. February 8, 2013.