>I changed my home notebook and it has Win 8.1. It has a start menu but it's really different. There isn't applications submenu with this weird start menu. I don't like it. I know there are different start menu add ins for W8. What's your "freeware" advice?

I built all the required options that I usually use from the old start menu into the desktop by the use of icons. So, I simply go to the metro layout, find the options and create a shortcut with it.

I would agree however that the suggestion to use a third party software to ease in that direction might be welcome at the very first.