Don’t like the new Windows 8 Start menu? Too simple? It’s easy enough to restore the old Windows 7 Start menu! Here’s how. Download the registry tweak after the break or get further instructions.

1. Let’s take a look at the new Windows 8 Start menu. While it’s definitely nice for mobile OS users, this is not really usable as a desktop Start menu, because it lacks all the features that the Windows 7 start menu made so fantastic:

2. Luckily, Microsoft allows us to easily revert back to the old Windows 7 start menu. We can restore it via the registry.

3. You can download our registry tweak here:

Download Registry Tweak To Restore Old Windows 7 Start Menu

4a) Alternatively, you can simply add this text into a notepad file, select “all files” from the dropdown when you save it and add .reg as the extension:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]

“RPEnabled”=dword:00000000

4b) Alternatively, you can also open the registry editor in Windows 8 and change the registry setting there (where is the registry editor in Windows 8)

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

Double-click on RPEnabled and change 1 to 0

The Old Windows 7 Start Menu in Windows 8

And voilà here’s the old new start menu with some pinned programs and the classic Start orb:

• 
  Black Ops 2
• 
  Halo 4
• 
  God of War 4
• 
  Crysis 3