I briefly helped out a friend, who has an HP laptop (not new). I saw she had a start button for her Windows 8 floating in the corner of her desktop. Is this something HP provided? I didn't get a chance to investigate and I'm pretty sure she didn't download a third-party program.
2 Answers
Microsoft is committed to having everyone use the Start screen instead of the Start button and start menu found in previous versions of Windows and therefore has no setting to enable or disable the start button in windows 8.
But in windows 8.1 Microsoft brought the start button back even though it isn't the Start button of old. The classic multi-step application launcher is still missing.But you may be able to use third party software like Start8 to bring back the old Start button experience in windows 8.1 once it is released.
Either your friend is using Windows 8.1 preview or she installed a third party software.Third party software like Start8 can be used for start button in windows 8.The article here gives 6 start menu replacements for windows 8.
ViStart is a great free tool , that gives you the same start button in Windows 8
I found a link which explains step by step procedure with screen shots about how to install and use Vistart
You get the same Start button orb icon, the same Start menu search box, the same jump lists, and — for better or worse — even the same Aero transparency! e
Start Menu
. Most of those same choices will be updated to support Windows 8.1