How to Boot Directly onto Desktop & Skip Metro Start Screen in Windows 8 Release Preview

Posted by Ahmad Wahid on Jul 1, 2012 in Set of Instructions, Tips & Tweaks RP, Windows 8 Release Preview, Windows 8 Tips & Tweaks

You can now boot directly onto desktop of Windows 8 without the need of any physical key stroke or command and you won’t stay on Metro-UI (Start). Your Windows 8 would go to desktop automatically every time you login to Windows.

Classic shell, which is the primary source of adding a Start menu in Windows 8 has now introduced a new feature which lets you choose to skip Metro Start Screen and go to desktop. We have previously posted a tutorial on how to get start menu on desktop with button on taskbar and now, the same trick is now more awesome.

You just need to install the latest version of Classic Shell and you would be able to boot directly onto desktop after just seeing the Metro Start screen for only few seconds.

How to boot directly to desktop?

Just head over to download page of ClassShell and get the latest version of ClassicShell found here and install it like a regular desktop program.
After the program has installed, you would see a start button on taskbar which on clicking would open the start menu just like Windows 7 or previous versions of Windows.

Note: You can customize the start menu and start button according to your needs. You can also get the Windows 8 logo as the start button. We have posted a tutorial on how to get Windows 8 logo as start button in Windows 8.

Now, that you have installed Classic Shell, you don’t have to do anything further, except, some start menu and button customizations. On next login to Windows 8, you would be taken directly to desktop without any command.

Note: You would firstly see the Metro Start screen for few seconds but, then immediately, you would be redirected to desktop.

Is Metro Start Screen still accessible?

You would be wondering just like I did, whether the Metro-UI screen is still there or not. Well, the Metro-UI is always there, you just switch to desktop start menu temporarily. There are many options available in classic shell to set as the behavior of Start button e.g. pressing it would open Windows 7 style menu or Metro-UI etc.

How to disable direct boot to desktop?

You can also disable the direct boot option of ClassicShell to stop the automatic redirect to desktop. You have to go to settings of Classic Shell to disable that feature.

Right click the start button brought by ClassicShell. You would see a pop-up menu where a ‘Settings’ link would be found. Press it.

A pop-up window would open displaying different options for ClassicShell. Here, go to ‘Basic Settings’ tab and find the ‘Skip Metro screen’ option.

Uncheck that box and press ‘ok’.
Now, reboot your PC and next time you logon to Windows 8, you won’t be taken to desktop until you give a command.

There is also a way to disable Metro-UI and Charms Bar in Windows 8 Release Preview.

You may visit our Tips & Tweaks section for more tips, tricks and tweaks about Windows 8.

Via: Ghacks

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