  hide cookie message 70,555 News Articles  Slick trick: $5 tool
runs Modern apps on the Windows 8 desktop  ModernMix goes where
Microsoft fears to tread  A Michigan developer last week started
selling a $5 utility that lets Windows 8 customers shun the new
Modern UI by running apps on the classic desktop.  Stardock,
best known to Windows 8 users for Start8, software that restores
the Start button and menu, shipped a beta of ModernMix on March
6. As it did with Start8, Stardock priced the ModernMix beta at
$5 and promised buyers the final software when it's released
later this month or in early April.  Once installed, ModernMix
lets Windows 8 users run Modern apps -- still labeled "Metro" by
most outside Microsoft -- within a Win32 frame on the desktop,
eliminating the need to switch from the familiar Windows 7-style
user interface (UI) to the newer, and to many, the jarring tile-
based UI of the Janus-like OS.  Because the Modern apps run
inside a traditional desktop window, they can be resized, which
is impo