Stardock's Start 8 has given the power back to people. Windows 8 has some great qualities, but those qualities were hidden underneath a drunk, obnoxious, and constantly intruding interface. Like a terrible roommate who ignores the rules and and continually interrupts your date with the head cheerleader (yeah right, dream on buddy...) Metro would repeatedly shows up unannounced and rudely. Think of Start 8 as a return to some normalcy. Giving you the ability to access Metro when you want to, or when you run a Metro app. It doesn't solve all of the usability issues with Win 8. But for me it makes it easier to see all of the good stuff that Redmond has packed under the hood in desktop mode. Little things like a customizable start menu, and booting directly to desktop has made a huge difference. Now when I want to see Metro I click on it instead of the perplexedly strange reversed implementation that Redmond gave us.
How much better do I feel about Windows 8? Well, good enough to upgrade my Win 7 Notebook that my daughter uses for school. Before I didn't want to because it would require a training session which honestly, screw that, simply not worth it. Now, I don't have to explain the desktop's rude schizo neighbor - things are faster and overall better. I have a feeling we will see a form of this in Windows 9 after Microsoft figures out you can't just insert a bully into people's lives and ask that they deal with (at least provide some counseling). Yes their are some hacks that a trained professional could perform that will disable Metro, but that alone does not fix the usability issue. This application gives you back familiarity which most users will appreciate. One slight issue Start 8 is still in beta and I did run into some glitchiness, but nothing to severe, and the pros definitely outweigh the cons. Also Start 8 is shareware, but $4.99 (after 14 day trial) for a piece of sanity is pretty cheap. You can check out Start 8 here along with some user reviews.
P.S. You're Welcome....
