Microsoft really doesn’t want you avoiding the new tile-based Start screen in Windows 8. Over the course of its lengthy public preview, the Redmond-based company has done all it can to disable hacks, tweaks and other means of bypassing the new Start menu in favour of something more traditional.
That the Start menu is here to stay cannot be disputed, but for those of us who will still spend a lot of time at the traditional desktop, the need to manually click the Desktop tile (or press [Win] + [D]) to access it after first logging in might seem like an unnecessary waste of time. Which is where Skip Metro Suite politely coughs and introduces itself.
Skip Metro Suite does three things, all of which can be selected or unselected with a single click Its primary focus is to allow you to boot direct to the classic desktop after logging on, but it offers two more tweaks, both to do with disabling various hot spots on screen. The first disables the task switcher hot spot in the top left-hand corner of the screen; the second removes the two right-hand hot spots that trigger the charms bar. Both remain accessible via their respective keyboard shortcuts – [Win] + [Tab] and [Win] + [C] respectively – and any or all of these tweaks can be switched on or off at will.
The biggest issue with Skip Metro Suite is installing it – start with the .NET Framework 3.5 installer (setup.exe), which SmartScreen Filter will try to intercept. Click “More info” followed by Run anyway to bypass this. Once done, Skip Metro Suite will install itself. Reboot your PC and after logging on you should find yourself at the classic desktop.
It’s a bit of a fudge – Skip Metro Suite doesn’t so much bypass the Start screen as simply launch the desktop from the Start screen automatically. Nevertheless, it’s still more convenient than doing it manually, and the hot spot disabling works perfectly without requiring reboot too. For these reasons it's worthy of your attention.
v2.0 brings these changes:
Fixed broken Windows 8 x86 support
Fixed annoying bug: application starts twice when you have many active users at one PC.
Apllications was rewritten for better code and optimized for performance
