In our continuing quest to fix and finesse some of Windows 8s frolicsome foibles, we turn at last to the Start menu ΓÇö that beloved button that has staked out the bottom left corner of your desktop for almost 20 years, only to be ignominiously removed from Windows 8 and replaced by the desktop-hating Metro Start screen.

Despite MicrosoftΓÇÖs best efforts to ensure that the Start button and menu remain dead, a bunch of third-party replacements have emerged. Really, it just goes to show how devoted the Desktop Windows userbase is Microsoft completely stripped out the underlying Start menu code to quash potential Luddite revolutionaries, and yet just weeks after the release of Windows 8 there are dozens of Start menu and Start button replacements.

LetΓÇÖs take a look at the best, cheapest, and most authentic apps for bringing back the Windows Start menu and button.