Lenovo Uses Startup for Return of Start Menu on Windows

Sales for Windows at Microsoft Corp have been besieged by the poor demand for personal computers. For five straight quarters, shipments for PCs have declined, which one online researcher predicts will show 2013 as the worst annual decline on record.

Many people were upset when they learned that the new Windows 8 does not have a Start Menu. Lenovo Group, not content to sit patiently to see if Microsoft would respond, has added the feature back into its computers.

The biggest PC maker in the world will pre-install Pokki software from SweetLabs, which provides the user with a replacement for the Windows Start menu.

The computers by Lenovo bundled with the Pokki software will start hitting stores over the next couple of weeks, starting in countries that are English speaking, with them eventually being available in all countries the computer giant, based in China, sells to globally. This was confirmed by Chester Hg, the chief marketing director and co-founder of SweetLabs.

The software maker has been distributing the same software online through its own website. Over three million users of Windows 8 have downloaded the SweetLabs software.

On average, said the SweetLabs’ Ng, users open it 10 times daily. Also included in the software is an app store that competes with the Windows Store by Microsoft.

When details about Windows 8 started to leak out prior to its release that Microsoft was considering scrapping the Start button and the software menu, SweetLabs scrambled to have an alternative developed.

The small start up, which is backed by Google Ventures and Intel Capital, was ready with the release of Pokki, in October of 2012, when sales started for Windows 8.

Sweet Labs had started talks with other makers of computers about deals similar to what they have done with Lenovo.