We know Windows 8 is still missing the Start button and not
sure if Microsoft has any plans to put it back. I don't think so. You can
download Windows
8 from your MSDN or TechNet account now. Windows 8 will be available to public
on Oct 26.
Since we are missing the Start button, it makes it difficult
to find an application in non-Metro mode. One option is you go to the metro
mode, search the application and launch it. But I found that time consuming
option. When I am writing articles, I switch between several applications. So,
I write article in Microsoft Word 2013 and code in Visual Studio 2012. Then I
need IrfanView for my image resizing and cropping and I need Notepad to clean
up the word text for Web. I do not direct copy from Word to Web because that
adds lots of junk HTML to the article.
I also run a few more programs. For example, I use
Expression Blend to create my article's custom images and so on.
So, the faster way I found is to use the command prompt in
non-Metro mode. Check out how
to open command prompt in Windows 8.
Let's say, I want to run Notepad, I would WIN+X and select
Run (ALT+R) from the command prompt.
![Windows8-Run-Command.jpg]()
In Run dialog search text box, I type notepad and hit ENTER.
![Windows8-Run-Command2.jpg]()
This launches Notepad for me.