How To Enable Windows 7 Start menu And other apperence Hacks in Windows 8

In this topic we are going to share 3 methods to enable old Start Menu in Windows 8:

• Using Registry hack
• By renaming a system file
• Using 3rd party Software

METHOD 1: Using Registry Hack

This method involves a small registry trick which can enable old Start Menu in Windows 8. Please keep in mind this registry trick will also disable the new Metro UI stuff and ribbon in Windows Explorer.
1. Press "WIN+R" key combination to launch RUN dialog box then type regedit and press Enter. It'll open Registry Editor and go to following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

2. In right-side pane, change value of "RPEnabled" to 0

3. That's it. It'll bring back the old start menu in Windows 8.

PS: If you want to restore default settings, change the value to 1 again.

METHOD 2: By Renaming System File

This method involves renaming a system file "shsxs.dll". It enables old Start Menu but disables new Start Screen. Unlike the above registry method, this method doesn't disable Ribbon UI in Windows Explorer:
1. Press "WIN+R" key combination to launch RUN dialog box then type %windir% and press Enter. It'll open "Windows" folder.
2. Now look for a file with the name "shsxs.dll". Once you find it, rename it to some other name like "shsxs.dll.bak".


3. That's it. Restart your system and now you'll have access to old Start Menu.
Thanks to our readers "Chris123NT", "Andy" and "billstelling" for sharing this file rename trick...

METHOD 3: Using 3rd Party Software

If you don't want to modify registry or rename system file manually, you can try ViStart which also works in Windows 8 and will not disable Metro UI, Start Screen or Explorer Ribbon UI: