Stardock Start8 1.1 gains new features, including drag-and-drop and multi-monitor support
Stardock Corporation has released the first major update for its Windows 8 Start button and menu replacement. Start8 1.1 adds full drag-and-drop support, plus allows users to pin folders to the Start menu that can be viewed as a Jump List.
Version 1.1 also adds rename support, an option to access the Quick Access menu via the Start button and a Custom places location along with numerous other tweaks and improvements.
The headline new features in Start8 are found when using the Windows 7 Style menu. First, users can now quickly and easily rearrange items in the Start menu as well as the All Programs tree thanks to drag-and-drop support. Also added is support for renaming items.
Pinned folders now come with full Jump List support -- a standard feature in Windows 7, while users can now define custom shortcuts to appear on the right-hand side of the menu by clicking Advanced when in Configure mode. Custom place support has also been modified to allow the selection of libraries.
Version 1.1 also improves multi-monitor support by adding an option to disable the multi-monitor corner stickiness feature in Windows 8. Users can also now define an additional action when right-clicking the new Start button, bringing up the Win+X menu -- do so via the Desktop > Advanced section. Enabling this option disables the default pop-up menu, but users can now also configure Start8 by right-click on an empty part of the Start menu.
The search box now supports environment variables such as %appdata%, while the Jump List code has also been modified and tweaked with various improvements and fixes, including one that ensures they respect the OS setting for the number of entries that should be displayed in each one.
The update also comes with various performance enhancements and other bug fixes -- a full list of which can be read in the program changelog.
Start8 1.1 is available as a free 30-day trial download for PCs running Windows 8. The full app costs $4.99. Free alternatives include ViStart 8.0 and the Classic Start Menu portion of Classic Shell.