*Solved* 1.45 Clicking on Start Menu icon brings up tiles instead of start menu

Found it, apparently somewhere along the line the default settings made clicking on the start button show the old tiles screen instead of the start menu.

Kind of a boneheaded design decision for a program that touts getting away from the tile nonsense as it's main feature.

Had that happen to me today, but for a different reason.

During upgrade, the registration information was lost and once I launched Start8, I was required to reactivate. The reason, it appears to me, is that I didn't let the Start8 installer (or SasUpgrade.exe) through the firewall during installation. I usually don't let applications which have no explicit network-related functionality, that is essential to me, through the firewall.

At no point during the installation procedure it was made clear that an online connection would be necessary for reactivation. Neither was there any error message that the reactivation procedure has failed and therefore the application will fall back into unregistered state. In my opinion, it would be more appropriate to clearly state the reactivation prerequisite, during the installation/upgrade process, the next time licensing mechanisms change in a manner which would require reactivation.

One more thing, I am not particularly fond of activation procedures which require information exchange with remote servers. I am much more cotent with the old serial number based schemes. Perhaps software activation is more secure, but to me, as a client, accessibility is of very high importance. I want to be able to reinstall the software I purchased whether I have internet access or not.

The default setting IS the Windows 7 style menu.  I can only imagine you had accidentally clicked on the Windows 8 mode in the config UI at some point.

Our activation has used servers since well before Start8 was released.  Unfortunately software piracy stopped the basic serial number systems from being viable about a decade ago.  Key gens were just too common.

Hi Neil, thanks for replying!

I understand and by no means was I critical of this. By the way, by correctly employing a certain class of asymmetric cryptographic algorithms, it is possible to thwart pirated key generators entirely (although not serial number sharing, which is bad on its own) even without implementing activation-based techniques. This is still prone to binary patching, but so are activation-based techniques.

Software vendors calculate their risks and make their own choices. True, these choices don't always suit all customers perfectly. That's why my desire of being able to install and use the software entirely offline better resembles "wishful thinking" rather than reality (even though surprises still pop up, here and there).

What I tried to emphasize in my original post is the fact that it would be preferable to display a warning message during the upgrade procedure, informing the user that a possible reactivation is in order, and that such a process would rely on the availability of an internet connection. I also stated my opinion that it would be preferable to display an error message, instead of proceeding silently, upon a connection failure (all the more so when under such circumstances, the activation status of an application might be reverted). Myself, after a reboot, I ended up with is the traditional Windows 8.1 Start button (an experience I am not used to! :-)), at first thinking that the upgrade process was not successful. That is, before I launched the Start8 configuration application and got prompted to activate.

I enjoy using your products! Keep up the excellent work you are doing!