The Start Menu was removed from Windows 8 and its turned into one of the major sticking points with some users. It has turned into enough of a big deal that Stardock has sold tens of thousands of copies of Start8, a $5 application that restores a fully functioning Windows 7 Start Menu interface to new Windows 8 PCs and seen thousands more downloaded of the free version.

“We were having some success with word of mouth before the Windows 8 release, and since the release, the floodgates have been opened, and the demand is surprising even us,” says Kris Kwilas, Stardock’s vice president of technology. “It tells me that early adopters of Windows 8 feel there’s something missing — a comfort factor for how they want to use their PCs, vs. how Microsoft has decided for them how they should use their computers.”

Microsoft’s Windows executive Steven Sinofsky was let go just two weeks after Windows 8 released. While it isn’t explicit what the reason for the departure was, he was leading the charge to remove the Start Menu interface.

Source: USA Today.com