* It has the smooth, modern feel of the Windows Modern UI, so it is a great match for Windows 8.
* It has an icon tray to add favorite programs, folders and documents, but it also works with Windows Store Apps, so you can keep the Modern UI apps you want on your Start Button.
* You can configure it to show Facebook and Twitter updates right in the Start Button.
* You can add widgets to it for Gmail and others.
* It changes the function of the Windows key to now open your Start Button like in Windows 7 and before instead of going to the Win8 Start Screen.
* By default it makes your computer boot directly into the desktop, which is typically where I am wanting to go.
* If you want to totally ignore the Modern UI, you can even disable all of the Win8 corner-of-the-screen shortcut bars, essentially shutting out the Windows 8 Start Screen.
However, I am not ready to abandon the Start Screen, so I have not disabled the shortcuts. Instead, now I can bring up the Charms Menu on the right edge and click the Windows charm if I want to go to the Start Screen. Some of the apps in the Windows Store are actually pretty cool, they are convenient, and it could be argued that by turning your back on them you would be losing one of Pokki's most compelling features. And that compelling feature is bridging the gap between the Start Screen/Modern UI/all of the Windows Store Apps and the desktop. It brings the new, intriguing world of Windows Apps into the environment I am comfortable with (desktop).
So I am going to be keeping Pokki not to cover my eyes to the future, but to augment a convenience I have known and loved for years with the best parts of the new Windows 8. I know many others have missed the Start Button as well (even to the point of avoiding Windows 8), so get Pokki, and you can have the best of all worlds. The Windows 8 desktop is superior in every way to Windows 7 and all before it, and with a Start Button replacement, there is really no excuse not to upgrade.
I highly recommend it!
EDIT: Oh, and I forgot to mention for anyone wary: they make money through their own app store, which has a small icon inside the Start Button. It actually has a nice array of free apps (reminds me of the Chrome App Store), and while all of the apps are free, some have in-app-purchases that they no doubt take a percentage of. So you can completely ignore that if you want (it is quite easy to do), but that is the revenue that is driving development of Pokki, not spyware, installware, or any other garbage.
