MetroStart8 Lets You Easily Switch To The Start Screen In Windows 8

Posted April 18, 2012 – 8:43 pm in: Freeware

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Even since the release of Windows 8 Consumer Preview to the public I wanted to install and test drive Windows 8 on a tablet. A couple of days ago, one of my friends purchased Acer Iconia Tab W500-BZ467 and installed Windows 8 on it. This morning, I got a chance to play with the tablet.

All features of Windows 8 worked fine on this tablet. The only feature that I missed while using the Windows 8 on the tablet was the the Start button. Unlike on desktop, when you are using Windows 8 on tablet, you need to slide from the right edge of the screen (see Windows 8 touch gestures) to bring up the Charms bar and then need to click on the Start logo to switch to the Start screen.

While Acer Iconia W500 and some other Windows tablets come with a physical Windows logo key to easily switch to the Start screen, reaching out to the physical Windows key takes some time, especially when you are on a portrait mode.

If you are too using Windows 8 on a tablet and looking for a smart way to switch to the Start screen, you should check out a small program named MetroStart8. MetroStart8 is simple, doesn’t require an installation and acts as a Start button. That is, whenever you click on the new MetroStart8 button, it will take you to the Start screen.

Download, extract the zip file contents, right-click on the Start.exe file, select pin to taskbar and move it to the extreme left of the taskbar (drag and drop also works fine). From now onwards, whenever you click on the MetroStart8 icon on the Taskbar, you will see the Start screen. A simple tool but very useful for tablet users.

Please note that MetroStart8 isn’t for users who are looking for a way to get Start menu in Windows 8. To get the Start menu in Windows 8, please download Classic Shell or ViStart program. MetroStart8 works fine on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 8.

Download MetroStart8