DirectStart: Making the scrapped start menu update real!
As some of you may not know, Windows 8 was actually planned to recieve another update after 8.1 that was meant to bring back the start menu.
Unfortunately, that plan was scrapped in favor of popularizing Windows 10, then later was brought back partially as KB3033055, a small final update for Windows RT which brought back the start menu there. The problem? Windows RT was only released for select arm32 tablets, meaning you can't run it on any normal PC.
After years of frustration seeing no successful attempts at porting that start menu into "normal" PC version of 8.1 we all know, i decided to do it myself, and so, here it is:
https://github.com/lixkote/DirectStart
It has been around for some time now, but i still need to "iron it out" a little bit, so please note there might be some bugs for now...
I am working on a new release coming soon that will hopefully make it easier to install & use, so stay tuned!
Posted Dec 29, 2025, 7:59 PM UTC