Upgraded to Windows 8 and found that the Start screen is lacking in customization options? Decor8 from tweaking and customization experts Stardock could be just what you are looking for. By default Windows 8 places fairly strict limits on the level of personalization you can make, but this cheap utility enables you to use any image you like as a background image as well as making changes to colors.

This is all well and good, but there’s more. You are not limited to just choosing one image to use as a background. If you are a little indecisive, like to keep things a little different, or just want to view several images, Decor8 enables you to select multiple images so your Start screen background is essentially transformed into a slideshow.

You can opt to have a random image displayed at regular intervals so you never get tired of looking at the same picture. To create a more muted, stylish look, you can choose to fade your chosen image, and you can also choose a new color scheme. The program will automatically create a color scheme based on the colors that are in your selected image, but you can customize this further and create your own if you prefer.

But it does not end there. You can also make changes to the number of rows of tiles that are displayed on screen at once. This is a helpful way to view more app and tiles at once. If you’re not a fans of the parallax scrolling effect that accompanies scrolling through the Start screen you can reduce it or even disable it completely.

Decor8 1.08 offers these new features/fixes:

- Added new SAS activation and trial code