Open Windows Server 2012/Windows 8 Start Menu

windows 8windows-server-2012

I realize that Windows Server 2012 (and Windows 8) removed the start menu button and replaced it with moving your mouse to the upper right corner of the screen. This works fine when the desktop is full screen. However, I access all my servers through windowed RDP connections (or through the Hyper-V console window) and in this case, the desktop is not full screen.

Therefore, in order to open the new "start" menu, I have to slowly move my mouse very carefully within the window to just a few pixels within top right corner of the window in order to open the menu. Also, because the session is windowed, the default hot keys (Windows + D, etc.) won't work. There has got to be an easier way. Has anyone else experienced this frustration?

Best Answer

Have you tried pressing Alt+Home?

As a general solution, you should consider changing your Remote Desktop settings to send Windows-key events to the remote server. From Microsoft:

  1. If the Remote Desktop Connection dialog box is not already open, open it by typing mstsc on the Start screen, and then pressing Enter.

  2. On the Remote Desktop Connection dialog box, click Show Options to display connection setting tabs.

  3. In the Keyboard area of the Local Resources tab, select one of the following from the Apply Windows key combinations drop-down list.

    • To apply keyboard shortcuts to a full-screen Remote Desktop session, select Only when using the full screen.

    • To apply keyboard shortcuts to a Remote Desktop session that is contained within a window, select On the remote computer.

  4. When you are finished configuring other settings for your Remote Desktop session, click Connect to connect to the session and start working, or click Save on the General tab to save your connection settings as an RDP file that you can use for future connections.

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