"The program should work, unless capability for it to function was intentionally stripped away," a StarDock spokeswoman said in an email reply to questions. "We're definitely excited to test with the RTM build and the new Start8 features we've been developing internally."

Instead of a Start button, Windows 8 uses a "hot corner" at the lower left. When that hotspot is touched or clicked, the interface switches from the traditional desktop UI to the tile-centric environment, or vice versa. At boot, Windows 8 presents a log on screen where the user must enter a Windows ID; at that point, the Start screen appears.

But Rivera hinted that other tweaks may be able to skirt Microsoft's lock-down.

"There's always a thousand more ways to skin a cat," he said.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at , on or subscribe to . His email address is .