…With a start menu replacement from Stardock, that is, mimicking the good old Start menu you remember and love from Windows 7. The guys behind Start8 — the invaluable tool that fixed the chaotic mess that was the Windows 8 Start screen, and its almost-universally-reviled Modern interface — have a new tool that does exactly the same thing for Windows 10.
Let’s be clear, though — the Windows 10 Start Menu is a lot better than Windows 8’s, and even the massive improvement that 8.1 brought along with it. Still, Start10 can make it a lot more familiar if you’re not willing to learn the intricacies of Windows 10, and true to developer Stardock’s history it’s extremely configurable.
You can turn off menu transparency if you don’t like it, or switch between the classic Windows 7 look, a Modern compromise that looks like Windows 10 but has all the familiar layout of Windows 7, and the existing Windows 10 interface. That last one might sound a bit pointless, but you can change the Start icon to any one of a dozen different looks.
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Start10 is still in beta, for what it’s worth, with a full version on the way in about a fortnight. If you want it now, and you’re happy to work with the beta — which you can then upgrade to full, although in my testing it’s almost perfectly stable and fully-featured anyway — you’ll be paying US$4.99.
And, if you previously bought Start8 to fix your Windows 8 or 8.1 Start Menu woes, you’ll get a small discount — depending on when you bought the last app, you might save a dollar or two. I got mine for US$3.99. [Stardock]