ModernMix 1.05

ModernMix is a simple tool which allows you to run Windows 8 apps in a window on the desktop. You can also pin them to the taskbar, so reducing any need to use the Start screen at all.

The program installs quickly, and is extremely straightforward to use. All you have to do is return to the Start screen, fire up an app, and press F10 (or use an overlay in the top-right corner): you'll immediately switch to the desktop, and the app will be running in a resizable window, where you can use it just as before.

Look at the taskbar and you'll find your apps have a button there, too, so they'll behave just like older applications: simply click a button to bring any running program to the foreground.

If you really don't like the Start Screen at all, right-click the button and you're able to pin the app to your taskbar, allowing you to launch it from there in future.

And when you do restart an app, ModernMix is even smart enough to restore its last window state, so once you've positioned and resized the app window, you won't have to do so again. (If you don't like this for some reason then a basic Settings dialog allows you to turn the option off.)

ModernMix 1.05 changes include:

- Adds background sound support for apps which do not explicitly support it (like Netflix).
- Right click or double-click on the item in the per app section to configure.
- App settings page lists all installed Modern apps.
- New right click option to force fullscreen always
- Create shortcut to app on desktop from within the config UI now force creates the icon (as you may use it before an app has been run)
- On first-run of the app, a dialog reminds you about the top right corner overlay.
- Fix for drag to close on a fullscreen app ignoring the return to Windows 8 menu setting
- Fixed naming of some apps in the list that had yet to be run (they got truncated in error)
- Fix for Netflix playback when the windows is inactive on a secondary display
- Tweak to code to detect if the launch is from the Windows 8 menu or elsewhere (some reports it sometimes remembered the Win8 menu launch even after launching something else from a pinned item / Start8 menu)
- App settings menu now has options to force background sound On / Off. Note that if the app already supports background sound (say YouTube), the off setting has no effect.

Despite being a beta, ModernMix ran very smoothly on our test PC, and if you spend a lot of time on the Windows 8 desktop then it's well worth the $4.99 price