Download: Classic Shell

The decision to hide the Start Button in Windows 8 has not been a popular one. Classic Shell returns this familiar tool to Windows as well as bringing back some useful functions in Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer.

Installation is simple and the 'read me' file is automatically loaded in WordPad. It might not sound like much but a pleasantly formatted read me file makes getting started much easier. The Classic Shell button will also appear in the Taskbar.

Read more: Windows 8 downloads

The first step when you click on the Classic Shell button at the bottom-left corner of the Windows Desktop is to decide on which style of Start Menu you want. There are three styles, the classic menu from Windows 9x and Me, Windows XP and Windows Vista/7.

Click on one of the menus and then confirm the change to the settings in the window that appears.

This step can also be used to access the other settings in for the Classic Start Menu. One worth remembering is that holding down Shift when clicking on the Classic Shell button will open the Start screen.

This is necessary as the Classic Shell button takes over the new Start button that appears when the mouse moves to the bottom-left corner of the screen.

This can be changed and the Windows button returned to showing the Start Screen. 

There are several skins that can be applied to the Start Menu and options including small icons. The latter is useful for those of us with lots of programs installed. 

Classic Explorer adds a new toolbar to Windows Explorer that includes the traditional menus in some views, as well as some icons for copy and paste.

It would be good if there was also a button to create a new folder. Options include changing the navigation pane on the left-hand side of the Explorer window and disabling the breadcrumb folder display.

Settings can be saved to an XML as a backup. This is very useful, not only as a way of keeping settings safe but to share settings with other people.