I've been using Windows 8 for some time now, and there has been one thing I wanted to change but couldn't. It's the limited choice of colors and images you could use on the Start screen. Come to find out, the folks over at Stardock have a great product called Decor8 that does just that.

The background settings inside of Decor8

With Decor8, you can change everything on the Start screen. You can use your images for the background and adjust all of the colors: background, accent, standard tile, and text. You can even change the color of the Charms bar with Decor8.

The color settings inside of Decor8

Decor8 also has some cool background effects too: fade, blur, color, and contrast. You can change how the parallax scrolling (where the background scrolls, but slower than tiles) works. You can even create a custom color scheme from the background image. Here's a quote from Stardock's website.

What is Decor8?

Windows 8 limits your start screen customization options to only a few provided background images and a few pre-defined color schemes. Decor8 removes these limitations and provides the freedom to personalize your start screen with your own images and colors.

Background Images
• Choose from more background images to personalize your start screen
• Add your own photos and images
• Select multiple images to create a custom slideshow
• Randomize background images in timed intervals for a fresh look
• Apply effects to scroll, fade, blur, recolor and add contrast to your background images
• Choose your own image for your lock screen background

Color Schemes
• Decor8 will automatically create a color scheme to match each of your background images
• Or you can customize the color scheme, it's up to you. Custom color schemes can also be applied to your charms bar
• Choose one of the standard Windows color schemes Create, save and apply your own color scheme

Customization
• Control how many rows of tiles are available on your start screen

Decor8 comes from Stardock, makers of ModernMix, and is only $4.99. I found it to be well worth the $5 bucks. For more information on Decor8, follow the link below.

Decor8 - Personalize the Windows 8 Start screen with Decor8

As many of you know, I've been using two monitors on my workstation for over ten years. I like being able to view two or more programs all at the same time. So when Windows 8 came out, I was happy to see better multiple monitor support. Still, I didn't particularly appreciate running Windows RT / Metro apps, as they took up the full display area. They are nice, but it was just too much for me with a screen size of 2560 x 1024. Then the folks at Stardock came out with a program to run Windows RT / Metro apps in a window on the desktop called ModernMix.

Two Windows RT apps running on a desktop with two monitors using ModernMix in Windows 8

ModernMix allows almost any Windows RT / Metro app to run inside a window on the desktop in Windows 8. It remembers the settings of all of the Windows RT apps you have run, and you can manually modify them if needed. I came across a couple of apps that would only run in full screen. It also has a screen overlay you can enable in the upper right-hand corner that allows you to switch between modes (full screen, maximized, and windowed) and bring up the Settings charm for that app. You can even Pin a program to the Taskbar with ModernMix.

Application settings page inside of ModernMix

Here's a quote from the ModernMix website:

What is ModernMix?

ModernMix is a revolutionary new program that lets you run Windows 8 "Modern" apps in a window on the desktop. Windows 8 Modern apps, also known as Metro or RT apps, will use the full screen on your display regardless of how much of the screen they really need. As a result, that weather app, mail program or stock ticker is going to use the entirety of your computer display.

Features

Run modern apps in windows
• ModernMix enables you to run multiple Modern apps in individual separate windows on the desktop as well as launch them from the desktop.

Apply custom settings
• Modern app window sizes are remembered the next time you launch them.

Pin modern apps to the taskbar
• Active Modern apps will also appear on your taskbar where they can be pinned for quick access later. Also create desktop shortcuts for Modern apps.

Bring back the familiar Windows look
• Standard Windows 8 title bar is enabled for Modern apps.
• Explicitly close Modern apps by clicking its close button.

The price of ModernMix is $4.99 (at the time this article was written). For more information on ModernMix and Stardock, just follow the links below:

ModernMix

Stardock