[free] Start Menu 10 Pro

[MilesAhead]

BTJ still has Start Menu 10 Pro for free

http://www.bitsdujour.com/software/start-menu-10/in=today-100-percent

I am not sure what features Pro has over the Free version except for the user categories of folder sets.  I got a free Start Menu X Pro in the past and it was just too much work to set up my own categories.  I am going to take a look for a feature comparison chart.

But anyway, on my Windows 8.0 I found that having Start Menu 10 start with Windows and automatically skip Start Screen did not work for me.  I disabled autostart and load it with a delayed loader program I wrote(Delayed Cuts.)  I have the Desktop Tile in the top left of the Start Screen so all I have to do is hit Enter anyway.  No biggie.

Start Menu 10 does have a recently run programs panel that actually seems to put some recently run program there for reuse.  It can be handy for some stuff buried deep in the start menu.

I was using the free version but for nothing I could resist installing the pro.  There is no registration.  Whey you "purchase" it from BTJ you get a download link and four days to install it.  From what they say it will not install after that.  So get it into your backup image. 

Edit: I found the comparison chart

[IainB]

I'm still trialling it, but I would suggest you give some thought to using Listary together with FARR instead of Start Menu 10, which looks to me rather like a waste of space from the blurb.
To escape the dreaded Metro-like interface aspects of Win10, I use the excellent Classic Start Menu anyway, and would have no need of Start Menu 10.

[MilesAhead]

I'm still trialling it, but I would suggest you give some thought to using Listary together with FARR instead of Start Menu 10, which looks to me rather like a waste of space from the blurb.
To escape the dreaded Metro-like interface aspects of Win10, I use the excellent Classic Start Menu anyway, and would have no need of Start Menu 10.

I tried Classic Shell(is that the same thing?) and I got some flaky behavior.  Mainly I use Start Menu 10 for shortcut search of stuff that is not used often.  And now and then I get a hit on the Recently Used programs panel.

I did FARR for a few years.  But one reason I got away from a dedicated launcher is that someone mentioned you can start typing in a folder and Windows will select the icon with the name.  That was most of what slowed me down.  Looking through a maze of icons trying to remember what the logo for the program was etc..

I use Everything Search for general file search.  I don't have much need for file content search.  But if I do I usually go with SearchMyFiles.

Mostly I have a start menu so that I can Winkey r to get the run line for stuff like shell:startup to open the user startup folder.  Stuff that is a pain if you cannot use the shell prefix to open it.