I have switched to Windows 8 on my main laptop a little about 2 months ago. I am 95% of my time in the desktop mode. So I have been looking for a start menu icon on my desktop because the toolbar pinning was not enough for me.

Last Saturday, I was doing a presentation on the new features of the VS2012 IDE and I was asked what was this icon/start menu.

I found a couple:

• http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/ (4.99$ - the one I use)
• http://www.startmenux.com/index.html (free)
• http://www.petri.co.il/add-a-windows-8-start-menu.htm (free)