Not every user is a fan of Windows 8’s Metro UI. Users who are upgrading from previous versions of Windows aren’t happy with the new UI. The new Metro-style Start screen helps you search and launch apps faster. But unfortunately, many users are looking for a workaround to make Windows 8 Metro UI free!
Users who aren’t in love with Microsoft’s new user interface and apps can easily get rid of the UI by following some smart solutions given below.
1. Skip the Metro-style Start screen: Most of you hate to see the Start screen, right? Just skip it! While it’s not possible to completely disable the Start screen, you can follow our how to skip the Start screen guide to skip the Start screen while logging in. That is, whenever you login, you will see the desktop instead of the Start screen.
2. Add Start menu: If you aren’t going to use the Start screen, you must need the Start menu to search and launch programs. Just install either ViStart (Start menu for Windows) and Classic Shell for Windows 8 to get the Start menu.
3. Set legacy programs as default: By default in Windows 8, audio files open in the Metro music player, PDF files open in Reader, and pictures open Metro picture viewer. To make your favorite media player as the default program, simply right-click on an audio file, select Choose default programs and then select your media player as the default program. You can do the same for pictures and PDF files as well.
4. Disable Ribbon UI: Ribbon UI in Windows Explorer isn’t exactly the part of Metro. But if you like to disable the Ribbon Explorer and love to see the old toolbar, you can use the tool named Ribbon Disabler. You can use the same tool to revert to the original settings as well.
5. Uninstall Metro apps and disable Windows 8 Store: If you don’t like to see Metro-style apps in the Open with menu and other areas of the OS, you can easily uninstall Metro-style apps.
Just right-click on the app tile on the Start screen that you wish to uninstall and then select the Uninstall option. To avoid other users from installing Metro-style apps from the Store, you can disable or turn off the Windows 8 Store as well.
And for the record, I love Windows 8 and Metro UI.
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