MrGRiM

There are fixes and improvements expected for v1.2Final, which is expected next week. Not sure what you changed there mate but I am getting some strange results now with the user pictures when using it with some of my other custom themes, last version was working correctly but now the user picture frame is placed too high, seems there are new properties that override the ones from the theme. Edit: never mind I figured it out, I see that you changed some of the properties to read from the main style and not the one from the style folder in SIB.

I never asked why you use it,all I am saying is to add a feature that possibly only one person would use would be a waste of time, especially when you only have to pin it to the taskbar next to the start button and use a left click instead of a right, I also think that asking $30 for xplorer2 is a bit much for most people to consider it, that is more then what most are paying to upgrade to Windows 8.

This is not a copy of Start8 if you prefer Start8 then use that, this is meant to bring back the start menu that was taken away, hence the name, he has already added so many extra features and done an awesome job to do what he has done so far, he is just one person, Stardock would have had a whole dev team working on theirs and it's still buggy as hell. This would not be possible, he can not change the way the start menu is drawn in that way, he bound by what is in the msstyles so if you can do it on Windows 7 then he can do it on SIB but there are limits to what can be done. Did not get any answer... So I have to specify my question. Is there a way to change the link on explorer to point at xplorer2.exe ? Is this really a necessary feature, you are in a minority of users who may use this program, I have never even heard of it till now, would it not be just as easy to just pin it to the taskbar?

That's great, but would it not be better to load start menu skin from a windows 7 msstyles file? I mean there are very few msstyles for win 8 and who knows if the authors even add a start menu to them. I think the main reason for doing it this way was to have a start menu that matched the look of Windows 8 that needs no extra patches or tools and was very easy for users to apply, it is not so much about creating new themes, just an easy way to have a new matching start menu, plus everything but the start menu has been stripped out of the msstyles so it is very lite and causes no performance degradation.

Better use adequate browser. I didn't make that clear, but skinning engine is not the almighty solution. It serves only one purpose - provide rectangular skin for StartIsBack. It may have limitations and not intended to skin everything. I may create sth like UxStyle ofc, but that's not what i want. I think it's great that it only changes the start menu, in fact I have had requests in the past just have a start menu added to another theme, this way makes that even easier, I would like to try a nice full glass start menu though so if we can get that other property included it would be great.

I don't know of anyone else having this problem, are there any other programs you installed that may be causing a conflict?

I really like the way we can add a custom start menu now, I will use the Aero 8 msstyles you modified now as a base to create more start menus but I still feel it would be good to have the added option to add a custom user picture frame in the same way you have implemented the start button as that is a much easier option for the average user, also I noticed one bug with the start menu as it is at the moment, it does not seem to include properties from "Start Menu > Menus" in Windows Style Builder and as a result some changes that are made there will not be implemented. Here is an example of where the problems are, if you look at my start menu when used with SIB it does not use the composited:bool to allow transparency in the programs list. Maybe you could have the option to apply a complete theme as well instead of just the start menu.

Here you go, just add to the SIB style folder and select it in your options

Awesome work mate, so happy that you were able to add this feature, we already knew SIB was the best start menu around but this is pure awesomeness, just want to say a big thanks for including my theme as well. @romuald777 The user picture can be disabled pretty easy by modifying the msstyles userpicture:bool and content margins using Windows Style Builder, if that is something that a few are interested in I could release another version with it disabled, would be a shame though considering how much work Tihiy just put into being able to change it lol.

Stay tuned, 1.2RC will bring some nice things. Thanks mate, seen the update available, installed with no problems, looking forward to see whats in store for v1.2

This is your fist post on the site and you just come here and demand something, how about asking for a requested feature instead of just demanding it.

Thanks for the offer, but there's a slight problem: if high contrast mode isn't enabled, many programs mix their colours with system colours, which usually results in invisible text (some actually still do that with high contrast enabled, but they're rarer).This is the actual theme I use. well that isn't an actual theme,well it is but what I meant is custom visual style, I am very sure that I can help you out mate and give you a great looking desktop as well.

I'm using high contrast theme with dark background and bright text because I find it's much easier on my eyes than any theme with white backgrounds (my theme is actually customized, but I switched to one of the default themes shipped with Windows just to verify that the problem happens with them, too).I also noticed another problem: I can't pin a shortcut to a text file to Start (even with 1.1rc). Had to change it to run the program, passing the filename as a parameter. OK mate well I found out I can make complete custom themes in HC so I will make a better one for you mate, it wont be anything too flash but it will get the job done

I don't think Tihiy could do anything about that mate, that was just Microsofts lack of care with the HC themes that resulted with that, especially when they were never meant to be used with the start menu, is there a particular reason you would want to use HC, maybe I could help you with a better solution with a custom theme in HC.

Not sure what your looking for but have you tried using the Win+X shortcut?

I know this is pretty old but just want to say thank you for this, I don't know why I put up with it opening the Library for so long in Windows 7 when all I ever wanted was to explore computer

If your referring to me then let me state that I am not pushing any competing product, I have talked to Tihiy about making a supporting theme to go with StartIsBack to bring the start menu up to date with how Windows 8 looks, I simply posted it here because this is where it has the most relevance and I hoped people trying StartIsBack would be able to give me some feedback so Tihiy can decide if he would like to package this theme with StartIsBack, I am not in any way requesting money from Tihiy or anyone else, I am doing this to say thank you and to help improve users experience on Windows 8.

I made an update for my Default Windows 8 theme style and made a new Start menu for use with StartIsBack that I think goes better with Windows 8, this is still pretty much a beta so if you have any ideas on how to improve the start Menu let me know, this is just a first draft. http://www.mediafire.com/file/c088b9aaoa8a4kh/Default_Style.7z Edit: Added a second style with better colorization and a more unified look. http://www.mediafire.com/file/aaanrijus9ymz13/Default_Style_v2.7z

If you installed it properly you can just go to add/remove programs and remove it. Either way you just can install on top of it. It'll work fine. Sorry mate you misunderstand me, I am not talking about the user picture, I am referring to the frame surrounding it in the start menu, the one with the curved sides and rounded corners that has been left over from Windows 7 and Vista, although I would like to be able to change the user picture there as well and I know that is possible, thanks @Tihiy I realize that some of my requests are probably not what you had in mind for StartIsBack and minimal is probably best for most users but maybe you could consider bringing out a customizers edition with added features, I have a very powerful machine as do many others and extra features would not impact performance at all on our machines and I think it will increase popularity in the customizing community with these added features, I think you should also talk to PandaX about the possible bundling of this program with Windows Style Builder 6 for theme builders.

1.0 already checks for new versions and will show a notice in the configurator if new version is available. Is there any chance that in the next version we can add our own custom User Picture frame, the default one is very ugly in the explorer.exe and with no way to change that at the moment it really sucks, I noticed that with Start8 they added there own custom frame for the user picture, I would like to make this Windows 8 start menu with a nice matching windows 8 style user picture frame, if you can help with that at all it would be great mate, even if it was a separate app to StartIsBack

Sorry, but this question is too easy to answer. Of course login screen is not affected by StartIsBack at all. I was supposed to know this how, and if it was too easy to answer, then how come it took two days..?! You could've easily installed the program and try it and uninstall it if you didn't like within 5 minutes. I don't know why you would even expect a replacement Start Menu program to affect Windows login screen anyway. I couldn't've installed the program, because I haven't installed Windows 8 yet, I am still deciding if I want to or not. Also, if I'm going to have to pay for this app eventually, I'd much rather buy Stardock's Start8, as it's a lot more mature. LMAO good luck with that, sounds like you just came here to troll, maybe you should try both products before you go praising Start8, I have and I can tell you Start8 has way more issues and it also wont let you customize it with Custom Themes. @Tihiy I think a better way for activation would be to use a valid email address, make it so you have to buy the product using a valid email address and you have to become a member of your site using that email address and only then can you download StartIsBack, I had to do that for Windows Style Builder and I think the system works pretty good, maybe not a perfect solution but maybe that plus the use of a serial key may be good enough.

This is a bit off topic but just wanted to see if we can get another feature request, I have noticed with Windows 8 that some of the exe files do not like to be changed in any way, I always change my default icons from those horrible yellow ones from the 80's but I can not change the one for explorer.exe and as your reintroducing the start button then maybe there is a way for you to add the explorer icon also, I know it's not something everyone would want but it will add even more value for me any many other that I know who love to customize every last icon lol

Awesome work mate, look forward to buying the final product, for my use it was already perfected in BETA 3 pretty much but glad you have continued with further improvements

Just select item with keyboard and press F2. F2 is universal hotkey to rename things. OK Yeah that works, I have never used it, I guess I found it easy enough using right click, never thought to see if there was another way lol anyway Shift+Right click also works on pinned taskbar items, it's like an advanced right click that I use most of the time.

Uhuh. Not sure how to fix that I thought everyone uses F2 to rename. Is there any way you could make the Shift+Right Click the default Context menu without needing to press shift? that way the rename function is immediately available, also what is this F2 to rename your talking about, never done that before lol