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Windows Server 2012 interface tour
As you may have heard, Windows Server 2012 does not have a Windows Start button. When you log in to Windows Server 2012, the operating system initially places you into Desktop mode, which looks a lot like the Windows Server 2008 R2 interface minus the Start button.
The method you will have to use to access the Start menu options varies depending on what you want to access. If you want to access the new Metro interface, move your mouse to the lower left corner of the screen and Windows will display the Start button. Clicking this tile takes you to the Metro interface, which can be seen above.
As you can see in the figure, the Metro interface gives you access to Server Manager, PowerShell, the Control Panel, Internet Explorer and a few other things. The actual tiles you see on display vary depending on the roles, features and applications installed on the server. If you want to go back to the Desktop mode, just click the Desktop tile.
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Here is the way to get back the traditional start menu and start button back in Windows 2012 or 2012 R2 server operating systems. Like Windows 8, Windows 2012 and R2 servers also come without the start button and menu. Therefore you may feel uneasy while using this OS initially. If you like to get the start button/menu back, you can follow the below steps. It works well on Windows 2012 standard and data centre versions.
Read Also: How to show my computer icon on Windows 2012/2012R2 Server.
We will be using a third-party utility to get the classic start menu/buttons. Therefore, before trying this method on your production Windows 2012 server, do confirm whether really you want this feature by installing third-party software.
A small start button application that was built for Windows 8 desktop version can work for Server 2012 too.
You can download Classic Shell and install it on the server. I recommend selecting ‘Custom installation’ as shown below.
With this custom installation method, we can avoid unwanted extra programs during the installation. The below screenshot was taken from a similar tool built on the classic shell, but applicable for the original classic shell version also.
A restart may require after the installation. Once rebooted, you can see the familiar start button and start menu in Windows 2012/R2 server.
To customize this start button and menu, we have to use the particular application settings only. Do not look for the usual Windows appearance settings for it.
If you are looking for a similar Windows 8 start button application, you can find them here at cnet.com, but I’m not sure how they will work on Windows 2012 servers.
As the latest Windows server updates and major versions come with the start menu, we can avoid these tools on the latest Windows Server Operating systems.
If any of the above solutions did not fix the Windows PC issues, we recommend downloading the below PC repair tool to identify and solve any PC Issues.
Dinesh is the founder of Sysprobs and written more than 400 articles. Enthusiast in Microsoft and cloud technologies with more than 15 years of IT experience.
Introduction
If you are using Windows Server 2012 you probably are struggling with Microsoft’s unsuccessful experimental menu — Metro. However there is quite easy way out and in this tutorial you will find it, it is you will learn how to get back the Classic Start Menu.
For this we will use third party application called Classic Shell. It’s free software that improves productivity, enhances the usability of Windows and has lots of useful features. However on this tutorial we will use only one of them — Classic Start Menu, but you are welcome to check all other of their offered futures.
Downloading
First of all connect to your Windows Server 2012 via RDP and download Classic Shell installation file:
Click here to download
Installing and Configuring
Lunch downloaded file and proceed till Custom Setup options will be shown. As said, in this tutorial we will learn only to use Classic Start Menu, so disable all other options — keep only Classic Start Menu as shown below:
After installation is completed press «Menu» icon in bottom left corner (if you did not change position of toolbar) and Settings Window for Classic Start Menu will be opened.
Select menu style, skin, button style and all other parameters you like most and simply press «OK» button for changes to take effect.
That’s it, you have nice, simply and most important fully customizable Classic Start Menu.
Note: If you want to change some settings press right mouse button on Menu icon and select Settings.
Conclusion
Within only few minutes we manged to make usability of Windows Server 2012 much easier. However you are able to do much more with Classic Shell, so I recommend to try out more of it’s features.
I helped a user set up a Windows 2012 server with Remote Desktop service enabled. The interface is similar to Windows 8, which is not appealing to most people. There are 3rd party programs to let you add the classic start menu to the taskbar. I later found out that you could actually add the classic start menu without any add-on programs. Here are the steps.
- Open File Explorer. Click on View and check Hidden items.
- Right click on taskbar and click on Toolbars -> New Toolbar…
- Browse to this directory: c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs and click on Select Folder.
- The menu appears to the right side of the taskbar. You can drag it and rearrange its position. Here is a screenshot of the final look.
When I first added this classic start menu to my desktop, I thought that the change was only temporary before Windows 2012 R2. I just upgraded the server to Windows 2012 R2. The start button is back, but the menu is still the metro style. I am quite disappointed about this, so I am keeping this classic start menu added to my desktop.
- Windows
- Windows 2012
- Windows 8