Windows 8's hidden taskbar launcher menu

Just discovered this and thought I should share.

(1) Put shortcuts for every program on the desktop that you would normally have pinned in your start menu. Or put folders of shortcuts if you want them in particular groupings.
(2) Go to taskbar properties, select the "toolbars" tab, and select "desktop."
(3) You now have the word "desktop" on your taskbar with a down-arrow below it. CLICK IT AND BEHOLD.

A menu roughly the size of the Windows 7 start menu appears. All the shortcuts and documents you placed on the desktop are there. It also includes tiered folders for "Libraries," "My documents," "Computer" "Network," "control panel," etc. The folders you placed on the desktop now appear as tiered folders in this menu.

I'd post a screenshot but half the files on my desktop have client names on them that I'd have to redact, and I'm lazy.

EDIT: And here's the screenshot. I just threw some shortcuts and folders on the desktop to show how it functions; obviously you could flesh it out a lot more if you wanted to use it as your primary launcher interface instead of the start screen.

Spoiler

 

Yep, this is the same toolbar that existed in prior versions of Windows as well. You could consider using this as a crutch for a Start Menu button, if you're really desperate, although, in that function, it is woefully incomplete. Nevertheless, I agree, it would make for a much better program launcher than that inane Start Screen. But that's not saying much, of course.

The best course of action remains to simply ignore Windows 8 entirely. There is nothing worthwhile that Windows 8 has over Windows 7, at least nothing that would justify the considerable loss in productivity due to the mucked-up user interface.

 

Okay, instead of using emotional rhetoric like "really desperate" and "crutch," can you explain to me what functionality you routinely use in Win 7's start menu that is not satisfied by either the Desktop Menu's tiered folders of shortcuts or the Start Screen Search?

This is not a thread about whether people prefer Win 7 or Win 8 overall. God knows we've had plenty of those and we know exactly where you stand. This is a thread about a particular feature in Windows 8 and how it may be used as a taskbar-based launcher.

 

This thread is about enabling a hidden taskbar in Windows 8; I'd appreciate if this thread remained only that. Take the initiative to create a new thread about passively related topics like Windows 8's usability as this thread isn't the correct vehicle for that discussion.

 

And here's the screenshot. I just threw some shortcuts and folders on the desktop to show how it functions; obviously you could flesh it out a lot more if you wanted to use it as your primary launcher interface instead of the start screen.

Spoiler

 

I love this feature and use it very often. I use it exactly as I used to use my W7 start-menu. Most important apps and folders get pinned! Thank you for sharing, hope many more find this useful!

EDIT: Actually, I was mistaken, it's a completely different feature I use! On the "File Explorer" icon in the taskbar, you can "Pin" folders, and when you right click, it acts as a pop-up menu with shortcuts. I find that works very well for me.

 

Ok, now this makes more sense to me. It is not about the original entitled "Windows 8's hidden start menu" but about a feature of Win 8 as "Windows 8's hidden taskbar launcher menu" as the thread is now titled. I thought it meant start button and full features and what not that became missing. This is yet another good workaround to help bring back some of the lost functionality of Win8.

I agree with Jefferies, a lot of people purchasing new machines are being force to Win8 and those limitations without the availability of a different OS. We as a community should search for and discuss all the workarounds we can to help others and ourselves. Not options others may not have in threads of a different topic.

Then again the original topic title refers this as a workaround enabling the prior OS's primary missing feature, which it is not. On topic and enough said........................

 

Call it whatever you want. Windows has always had some sort of taskbar-based program launcher, but it's been a totally different beast depending on the version of Windows. For those who were complaining that Windows 8 lacked a taskbar-based menu with tiered folders of shortcuts...well, this is how you can get that without using third-party software. I don't care whether you consider it a "start menu" or a "launcher menu"--it is a taskbar-based menu with configurable tiered folders of shortcuts, which is a feature that many were claiming Windows 8 didn't have.

 

Nobody was claiming that Windows 8 doesn't have "a taskbar-based menu with configurable tiered folders of shortcuts". What people were claiming was that Windows 8 doesn't have a Start Menu. That claim is correct. This poster may or may not understand that the desktop toolbar he is describing is not a Start Menu.

 

You didn't answer my question. I asked what functionality you wanted that was not satisfied by either a start screen search or by the desktop menu. I know it says "desktop" instead of "start" on the button. That doesn't answer my question of what specific functionality isn't served by either the desktop menu or the start screen search function.

 

That is not the point of this thread, you are not keeping a hold of your own topic. If you want off topic then no one here has said that anything that can be done in windows 7 can not be done in windows 8! It is the occasional awkward steps to get there. My complaint is what can't be done properly, Aero Glass and Gadgets.

Personally that you have found this, even though it apparently was in 7 as well, could make some users transitions a bit easier. IMHO who needs the start button, I prefer rocket dock for about everything. Then again that is me and I do not morn the loss of the start button. I, like others, do not like Modern UI as a default startup screen but I could have lived with that...........

 

Indeed, I did not.