It's back! Hackers inject Windows 7 start menu code in Windows 8

Software & Apps Windows 8 and Windows 10 (Archive)
#1

I just posted the article It’s back! Hackers inject Windows 7 start menu code in Windows 8.

We’ve been reporting about it a lot before, Windows 8 is missing the well known start menu. Now it’s really, really back…

Click to read the full article here: [http://www.myce.com/news/its-back-hackers-inject-windows-7-start-menu-code-in-windows-8-64344/](http://www.myce.com/news/its-back-hackers-inject-windows-7-start-menu-code-in-windows-8-64344/)

Feel free to add your comments below. 

Please note that the reactions from the complete site will be synched below.
#2

"StartIsBack is in beta testing currently, and while you might think this is the ideal software to get your Windows 8 start menu, it also has a drawback, the author has announced that after the beta it will become paid software. It’s yet unknown what it will cost. "

Kind of makes you wonder if “Tihiy” is on Microsoft’s payroll and the Fees will get funneled back to Microsoft. They get you at the front door and the back door, just like Apple.

#3

[QUOTE=olddancer;2659689]Kind of makes you wonder if “Tihiy” is on Microsoft’s payroll and the Fees will get funneled back to Microsoft.[/QUOTE]

I dunno. If someone were able to provide proof, Microsoft would suffer a serious public relations backlash. It would cost them their reputation and more cash than the plan would generate. The Department of Justice would be all over them.

#4

[QUOTE=olddancer;2659689]"StartIsBack is in beta testing currently, and while you might think this is the ideal software to get your Windows 8 start menu, it also has a drawback, the author has announced that after the beta it will become paid software. It’s yet unknown what it will cost. "

Kind of makes you wonder if “Tihiy” is on Microsoft’s payroll and the Fees will get funneled back to Microsoft. They get you at the front door and the back door, just like Apple.[/QUOTE]

No excuse not to upgrade now olddancer.

#5

I knew something like this would happen. Microsoft removes start menu against the wishes of many (don’t worry, you supposedly weren’t using it, anyway). Third-party software devs bring it back. Microsoft makes it harder to bring it back. But, like life itself, the devs find a way.

Just watch, Microsoft will release a “security update” which will make it even harder to get it back. A few months later, you’ll have the start menu back again. Hopefully, at this point, Microsoft will realize how self-destructive it can be to force their customers to deal with exactly what they don’t want, and will give up.

Microsoft:
With Halo, I want to finish the fight. With Windows, no one wants any fighting in the first place. You’ve been in business long enough to know that.

PS: Does anyone else get the feeling that Microsoft will soon be sending hitmen to fix this “problem” once and for all? :bigsmile:

#6

[QUOTE=TSJnachos117;2659789]PS: Does anyone else get the feeling that Microsoft will soon be sending hitmen to fix this “problem” once and for all? :bigsmile:[/QUOTE]

Knowing MickeySoft they will try and make it illegal to modify the OS for a Start Button.

But they are “kinda” right. We did not have a Start-Button in DOS, DOSShell and Windows 1, 2 or Bob. We gradually got used to it starting with Windows 95. Then again, it was an awesome thing to finally have a central starting point from which you could access everything. This is now, with Windows 8, kinda lost again.

Even Android and IOS have this big “if you’re stuck, just push this” button from which you can access everything. Why lose it?

#7

For me, Microsoft was castrating Start Menu benefits way back in Vista, and Win7’s Start is even less customizable.

Win95-98-2000-XP - all of those had easily customizable Start Menu ‘top halves’ and [B]Programs[/B]’ folder-lists that could be sub-foldered off. Vista and Win7 stripped that away unless we went to Classic Menu, which returned users to their own productivity standards.

That Microsoft has finally bit the bullet and destroyed it altogether is only the next step in their effort to dumb-down the interface and disallow users from being their most productive.

“You must judge all things by Microsoft’s standards of Microsoft Efficiency and Microsoft Productivity. Users are not allowed to determine what’s best for themselves. We control the horizontal… we control the vertical…”

#8

undoubtedly this is a brilliant idea, I can’t see Micro$ allowing it after all the effort of trying to get rid of it. Although it wouldn’t surprise me if they try to sell the start menu as an add on later. or worse for Tihiy, supply it for free!

#9

[QUOTE=voxsmart;2659830]undoubtedly this is a brilliant idea, I can’t see Micro$ allowing it after all the effort of trying to get rid of it. Although it wouldn’t surprise me if they try to sell the start menu as an add on later. or worse for Tihiy, supply it for free![/QUOTE]

Undoubtly they will call it a Service Pack or a High Security Patch. :slight_smile:

What’s even more annoying is that it seems that the Start Button is still in the code of W8 , yet not used.
Give consumers a choice dammit!

#10

I downloaded and installed this last night, and it is exactly like the Windows 7 start menu. Their website says it’s fully customizable like the original Windows 7 start menu (drag and drop, renaming, etc.), and that the Metro Start page is renamed Apps and is customizable so that only Windows Apps appear on it. But there doesn’t seem to be a way to customize either the right column of the start menu or the Metro page. But, it’s just Beta 1, so they will probably get those things fixed. I’ve been a big fan of Classic Menu (still am), but if they can fix those customizing feature, this will be much better. (The drawback is that this only works through October 31st.)

#11

[QUOTE=FreqNasty_RiseS;2659693]No excuse not to upgrade now olddancer.[/QUOTE]

Too many bugs and unresolved issues.
I’ll keep XP untill I absolutely have no choice but to change!
Just wrapped the score again on Space Invaders on my Atari 800XL!

#12

[QUOTE=BradWright;2659833]I downloaded and installed this last night, and it is exactly like the Windows 7 start menu. Their website says it’s fully customizable like the original Windows 7 start menu (drag and drop, renaming, etc.), and that the Metro Start page is renamed Apps and is customizable so that only Windows Apps appear on it. But there doesn’t seem to be a way to customize either the right column of the start menu or the Metro page. But, it’s just Beta 1, so they will probably get those things fixed. I’ve been a big fan of Classic Menu (still am), but if they can fix those customizing feature, this will be much better. (The drawback is that this only works through October 31st.)[/QUOTE]I was wrong. It turns out StartIsBack can be customized exactly as they say, and I now say this is amazing. All I had to do was go to the web site and read. Go figure.

#13

HOW microsoft could “know” that many aren’t using it is based on a false premise on their part.

See that customer experience monitoring program you either allow or not on the initial install of your OS is DECLINED by most “power users”, because power users in the main tend to be atleast a little bit paranoid

So microsoft is getting information about actual useage based on only those
user who are NOT paranoid and those using factory installed operating systems.

So based on that they decided that “we” don’t actually use the start menu.

I’ll admit that I use it mainly to create desktop icons, but without it…?
See part of the problem is Windows is all too willing to delete some icons
for you…

create a desktop icon for the Windows solitare game of your choice
then restart your computer… Ok, where’d the icon go?

Seems the self-check on startup even in windows7 checks to see if all
the desktop icons are valid links, if not it “cleans” them.

The problem is that it runs that self-check BEFORE the OS starts all
it’s services.

Ok, so now you have no Icon to play Solitare and you go into start menu,
to look on the all programs list… Oops, it’s gone from there too.
(Now you are starting to talk to yourself and you do NOT like the words
you are using or your tone of voice)
What you have to do is go into Windows “Control Panel” then "Programs and features"
and look there for Solitare… and it’s gone there too? (WTF?)

But it’s not really gone, what you need to do is turn off “Games” by unchecking
the box, “apply” then check the windows games box and presto it’s back on the
all programs list.

But if you are like most Windows7 users you have no idea what made it disappear
in the first place.

The fix is to turn off the agressive system startup checking.

If anyone here had even a dim snails perception of how much time I
spent on this issue with customers… (Mostly NOT getting paid) you’d
really know how much I dread the first two or three months from the
official release of 8.

Now imagine you are having the same problem in Windows8… I’m not even
sure if you can an issue like that in Win8 but I’m betting all the unmined gold
in the US that there WILL issues just as annoying (Even the Almighty wouldn’t take that bet)

two to three months after Release I can see thousands of NEW computers with
windows8 factory installed on them floating across my workbench to have Windows7
installed on them.

Several months after that I expect to see Windows8 SP1 with the start menu back in.

Failing that I see thousands of new notebook computers impaled on wooden stakes
with a microsoft software engineer (Hurry, supplies are limited!) impaled on top of
those notebook to keep someone from stealing them (to scavenge small parts from them).

Personally I don’t want my default desktop, the (formerly refered to as Metro) to look
like windows8 does
I have a collection of over 700 landscape images of various interesting places (mostly
national parks and geological features) that I use as wallpaper than changes every 30minutes
(it takes >2 weeks to cycle through all of them.

Metro, or whatever they are calling it now, looks like the startup screen for an ATM
when it’s asking me what language I want to use, right before it asks me if I want
a receipt or not.

Frankly I think the engineers responsible all need new jobs, where asking if I want fries
is a part of that “new job”

#14

[QUOTE=AllanDeGroot;2660038]HOW microsoft could “know” that many aren’t using it is based on a false premise on their part.

See that customer experience monitoring program you either allow or not on the initial install of your OS is DECLINED by most “power users”, because power users in the main tend to be atleast a little bit paranoid

So microsoft is getting information about actual useage based on only those
user who are NOT paranoid and those using factory installed operating systems.

So based on that they decided that “we” don’t actually use the start menu.

I’ll admit that I use it mainly to create desktop icons, but without it…?
See part of the problem is Windows is all too willing to delete some icons
for you…

create a desktop icon for the Windows solitare game of your choice
then restart your computer… Ok, where’d the icon go?

Seems the self-check on startup even in windows7 checks to see if all
the desktop icons are valid links, if not it “cleans” them.

The problem is that it runs that self-check BEFORE the OS starts all
it’s services.

Ok, so now you have no Icon to play Solitare and you go into start menu,
to look on the all programs list… Oops, it’s gone from there too.
(Now you are starting to talk to yourself and you do NOT like the words
you are using or your tone of voice)
What you have to do is go into Windows “Control Panel” then "Programs and features"
and look there for Solitare… and it’s gone there too? (WTF?)

But it’s not really gone, what you need to do is turn off “Games” by unchecking
the box, “apply” then check the windows games box and presto it’s back on the
all programs list.

But if you are like most Windows7 users you have no idea what made it disappear
in the first place.

The fix is to turn off the agressive system startup checking.

If anyone here had even a dim snails perception of how much time I
spent on this issue with customers… (Mostly NOT getting paid) you’d
really know how much I dread the first two or three months from the
official release of 8.

Now imagine you are having the same problem in Windows8… I’m not even
sure if you can an issue like that in Win8 but I’m betting all the unmined gold
in the US that there WILL issues just as annoying (Even the Almighty wouldn’t take that bet)

two to three months after Release I can see thousands of NEW computers with
windows8 factory installed on them floating across my workbench to have Windows7
installed on them.

Several months after that I expect to see Windows8 SP1 with the start menu back in.

Failing that I see thousands of new notebook computers impaled on wooden stakes
with a microsoft software engineer (Hurry, supplies are limited!) impaled on top of
those notebook to keep someone from stealing them (to scavenge small parts from them).

Personally I don’t want my default desktop, the (formerly refered to as Metro) to look
like windows8 does
I have a collection of over 700 landscape images of various interesting places (mostly
national parks and geological features) that I use as wallpaper than changes every 30minutes
(it takes >2 weeks to cycle through all of them.

Metro, or whatever they are calling it now, looks like the startup screen for an ATM
when it’s asking me what language I want to use, right before it asks me if I want
a receipt or not.

Frankly I think the engineers responsible all need new jobs, where asking if I want fries
is a part of that “new job”[/QUOTE]

You win the award for the longest ever post on the news site. Actually, that wasn’t a post, that was an essay!

#15

[QUOTE=olddancer;2659689]“StartIsBack is in beta testing currently, and while you might think this is the ideal software to get your Windows 8 start menu, it also has a drawback, the author has announced that after the beta it will become paid software. It’s yet unknown what it will cost.”[/QUOTE]

Who cares. Most of us will be using this:

http://classicshell.sourceforge.net

#16

[QUOTE=Mr. Belvedere;2659832]Undoubtly they will call it a Service Pack or a High Security Patch. :slight_smile:

What’s even more annoying is that it seems that the Start Button is still in the code of W8 , yet not used.
Give consumers a [B]choice[/B] dammit![/QUOTE]

Just give them a few more days, and they’ll give you a choice: Metro or nothing! But at least they’ll make the OS more secure, by making it “harder to hack”. It makes me :Z

[QUOTE=negritude;2660734]Who cares. Most of us will be using this:

http://classicshell.sourceforge.net[/QUOTE]

I’ve found that Classic Shell doesn’t quite function as well as the old Windows 7 Start Menu. I actually love the improved 7/Vista menu, and h8 Microsoft for removing it. One thing I loved was the fact that items like My Computer, and My Documents could be displayed as either buttons or menus. With CS, customization isn’t nearly as user-friendly as a Microsoft menu. When I finally added My Computer as a menu, I found that, in order to browse one of my drives, I had to right-click on it immediately, or else CS would try to open the entire drive as a menu (creating a considerable amount of lag). Start8 wasn’t very good, either, as it hardly had any customization at all. StartIsBack reigns supreme, for the time being. I’ll bet other similar programs will come, so we’ll see what happens next.

#17

[QUOTE=DoMiN8ToR;2659684]I just posted the article It’s back! Hackers inject Windows 7 start menu code in Windows 8.

Click to read the full article here: [http://www.myce.com/news/its-back-hackers-inject-windows-7-start-menu-code-in-windows-8-64344/](http://www.myce.com/news/its-back-hackers-inject-windows-7-start-menu-code-in-windows-8-64344/)

Feel free to add your comments below. 

Please note that the reactions from the complete site will be synched below.[/QUOTE]

Apparently, there’s more than 10 application to allow you to get back your Start Menu.

Pokki Start Menu
Vistart
Classic Shell
Win8StartButton
Start Menu Modifier
Revel BringBack
Spesoft Windows 8 Start Menu
Power8
Start Menu X
IOBit StartMenu8

There’s a nice review post of these app here :

#18

With this start Button back I am quite enjoying Windows 8 well…
Still it’s new and different without Start Button too but We got too used to “start button” to not miss it…