Apparently a lot of people miss having the Start menu in Windows 8. SweetLabs’ Pokki app, which adds a Start menu and app launcher to the Windows 8 OS, has attracted 1.5 million downloads to date.

Pokki for Windows 8 launched back in mid-October and hit 500,000 downloads on Dec. 20. In just a few weeks, the app has tripled in popularity with 1.5 million downloads. And people are using it — SweetLabs said that users open the Start menu an average of 10 times a day.

“We think this is a decent indicator that Windows 8 users see value in having a Start menu, in particular our Start menu,” SweetLabs co-founder Chester Ng told VentureBeat. “When we launched the Pokki Start menu, we had the hypothesis that Windows 8 users would enjoy it more if they had easier access to their stuff. We’ve seen a tremendous uptake that validates that original hypothesis.”

Microsoft said that Windows 8 has sold 60 million licences to date, but we don’t know how many of those copies have been activated. Still, if all of those copies had been activated, Pokki would still have an incredible install base.

To celebrate the milestone, SweetLabs has updated Pokki with a refreshed interface and a brighter color scheme, which you can see in the photo above. The company said the app now has a more accurate search function. Ng puts the changes in two major categories:

• The interface has had a facelift. — “It comes down to simply making it look better. We’re leading with a light color. It’s cleaner and more readable.”
  
• There are more customization options. — “We’re giving users more control over their experience. For example, you can now replace the Pokki acorn icon with a Windows icon, which a lot of people were asking for. You can also disable hot corners.”

SweetLabs still has plans to monetize Pokki by offering paid apps that can be accessed from the app. Ng said that paid apps will likely be tested “some time this quarter.”

San Diego-based SweetLabs has more than 70 employees and has raised $21.5 million from investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Google Ventures, Intel Capital, and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures.

Pokki via SweetLabs

One of the biggest changes Windows 8 will bring to users when it is released next week is the removal of the Start menu on the desktop. Many Windows users will find it jarring.

That said, SweetLabs‘ new Pokki app for Windows 8 offers its own version of the Start menu for users who want to check out the new the things Microsoft’s latest OS offers but still want a handy menu on the desktop.

“This is a bridge for users who want to upgrade and still access everything on their computers easily,” SweetLabs co-founder Chester Ng told VentureBeat. “We want users to be able to do their everyday tasks again.”

As you can see in the photo above, the Pokki app for Windows 8 emulates the Start menu’s functions and makes it easy to search the computer, launch programs, change settings, and shut down the PC. All of these things are just a tad more complicated using Windows 8, but Pokki makes it possible to embrace the old way of doing things.

On top of adding Start menu functionality, Pokki’s menu includes a notification center, an app store for finding new apps, and a home-screen-like section for launching apps, files, folders, and more. One other cool thing: Pokki can change Windows 8 so it boots to the desktop so you don’t even have to see the Start screen upon booting up. (However, Microsoft could issue a patch to block this.)

SweetLabs isn’t the only company to add a Start-menu-like function — Samsung has added the S Launcher widget to its slick lineup of Windows 8 PCs.

While Samsung will help its users with that widget, Pokki will be available for the other Windows 8 users and won’t cost a cent to download. Ng said that SweetLabs wants Pokki to develop a substantial user base before it monetizes the product with an app store. Thankfully, SweetLabs already has traction with more than 1 million PC users hooked on Pokki.

San Diego-based SweetLabs has more than 70 employees and has raised $21.5 million from investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Google Ventures, Intel Capital, and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures.

Check out the video below to see Chris Pirillo ask Seattle residents what they think of Windows 8. Much like Pirillo’s video with his father or the video with my father, everyday folks aren’t quite sure what to think about Windows 8.

Pokki for Windows 8 photo via SweetLabs

Has Microsoft, in focusing its attention on touchscreen devices, forgotten about the people who sit in front of computers all day long? That’s the contention of SweetLabs cofounder Chester Ng. He believes the software titan has left the door open for his product, Pokki, which today makes it formal debut.

Pokki is the 14-month-old application store for Windows — and eventually Mac — with a platform intended to modernize the PC. The product is run by four-year-old SweetLabs, which operates out of a hip office in downtown San Diego.

Thursday, Pokki exits a lengthy beta period with 1 million monthly active users and a shiny new release that provides PC users with an even more alluring desktop application experience.

“There is no reason why apps, an app interface, and an app store on a PC shouldn’t be just as fun, convenient, and elegant as what users have become accustomed to on smartphones and tablets,” Ng told me. “The bar has been raised, thanks to iOS and Android, and it’s time for the PC to catch up. And Windows 8’s tablet interface forced on desktop users just ain’t going to cut it.”

The new version of Pokki includes a remodeled menu for faster access to apps, easier app discovery, and improved organization. Also new is a notification center that highlights real-time updates for installed applications —  think Gmail messages, Twitter mentions, or Facebook “likes”. In addition, Pokki added Angry Birds, Pandora, and Pinterest applications to its collection.

Pokki’s store may be small with just hundreds of apps, and its one million members may pale by comparison to Microsoft’s audience, but for Ng and co., Pokki is an opportunity to prove that Microsoft’s shift to tablet-driven innovation is premature.

Ng believes that Windows 8 leaves behind the software maker’s more than 1.3 billion PC friends as it pushes ahead to new domains. It’s a viewpoint shared by others.

VentureBeat reporter Sean Ludwig called Windows 8 terrible for desktops; he identified eight major desktop issues with the operating system. In his review of the OS, Ludwig concluded that Windows 8 favors tablets, touchscreens, and laptops with touchpads.

“[Windows 8] works very well for these kinds of computers,” he said. “Traditional desktops with a keyboard and mouse, on the other hand, have been left in the dust.”

Ng, however, embraces the keyboard and the mouse; he challenges the notion that PCs need to evolve to be more like touchscreen devices. His hope is that Pokki wins over the nine-to-fivers and the all-day computing types who want elegant and sophisticated applications that are tailored to fit their desktops, not their mobile devices.

Pokki’s message is loud and clear: Your PC doesn’t have to suck. But are enough people paying attention? Maybe. Those that are taking note are liking what they find. Between 15 precent to 20 percent of active users of the top Pokki apps return on a daily basis, Ng said. Most popular are the Instagram app Instagrille, Tweeki for Twitter, and the Gmail Pokki.

SweetLabs has a staff of more than 70 employees. The San Diego-based company is backed by Bessemer Venture Partners, Google Ventures, Intel Capital, and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. It raised $13 million last September to finance Pokki’s development.

How sweet it is to be loved by Instagram users.

A 22-year-old Ukrainian developer’s quest to win an application contest with an Instagram desktop app called Instagrille won him something more sugary than the $30,000 grand prize purse. Denys Denysiuk, who actually placed third in last year’s Pokki app challenge, won the attention of Pokki creators SweetLabs.

SweetLabs is the San Diego-based startup that runs the one-year-old Pokki application store and platform for Windows users. The four-year-old company has acquired Instagrille for an undisclosed sum and has today released version two of the app to bring a richer Instagram experience to the desktop.

“The thing just started taking off — it took on a life of its own,” SweetLabs co-founder Chester Ng told me during an interview at the company’s downtown San Diego headquarters. “It became one of the most popular Pokki apps.”

After Instagrille, which was immediately uplifted by the increasing popularity of the Instagram application, was downloaded millions of times, Ng and company reached out to Denysiuk, then a student with little free time to support the ongoing development of the application, to see if they could join forces and take the application to the next level, Ng said.

“We care about modernizing the PC. We care about bringing apps to the PC,” Ng told me in an attempt to explain the rationale behind the purchase (the deal closed in the first quarter of the year). “It should be our responsibility to the build the best Instagram experience on your computer.”

Of course, as Ng was quick to point out, the purchase also helps SweetLabs’ fledgling Pokki application store ride the tidal wave of current Instagram interest and reach more users.

“[Instagrille] is a killer app on Pokki,” he said. “What we’ve seen is that people who install Instagrille click on the Pokki store and they install all these other apps.”

With Facebook as Instagram’s parent company (though that deal is still pending), it’s now or never for SweetLabs, which needs to not only capitalize on Instagram interest while its still hot but also significantly beat Instagram at its own game — at least on the desktop.

And Ng thinks the new Instagrille application, released on the Pokki app store today for Windows users (coming soon for Mac users too), offers a compelling enough experience to draw in millions of Instagram users, especially while Instagram lags on creating a fully-functional web app and releasing a desktop app of its own.

Instagrille, rewritten from scratch with the help of Denysiuk, aims to make photos shine on a large screen. The app features photos in feed and popular streams, and in grid or list views. It also includes people and photo search (with saved searches), real-time notifications, the ability to follow or unfollow users, and resizable windows to maximize the photo-viewing experience on large monitors.

Instagrille application users can also download Instagram photos to their computer and view photos nearby, two things they can’t do in any of Instagram’s own applications.

The application is sexy enough to make even Mac-addicts drool. Thankfully, Ng promised a Mac release of Instagrille just as soon as Pokki pushes out a Mac version of its app store, which he said will happen “soon.”

SweetLabs has 71 employees. The startup, which has raised more than $21 million in funding, currently earns all of its revenue from its other product, OpenCandy, a software network that connects developers and advertisers.

SweetLabs is announcing today that Kabam’s social games will be available on its Pokki app platform, which delivers a one-click app experience to the desktop computer.

That means that Kabam games such as The Godfather: Five Families (pictured above) will show up on the Pokki icon bar, which integrates with the task bar at the bottom of the screen in Windows computers. So you’ll see an icon for the Kabam games and other apps that you use frequently, with a number on each icon that shows the number of alerts that have been sent to you within the application.

The idea behind Pokki is to create an easy-to-use app platform on the desktop that replicates the kind of experience that users enjoy on smartphones and tablets.

“We are spoiled by fantastic experiences on smartphones and tablets. There are 1.25 billion people using Windows and no one has brought an app experience to them,” Chester Ng, co-founder and chief marketing officer of SweetLabs in San Diego, Calif., told VentureBeat.

The partnership benefits Redwood City, Calif.-based Kabam because it gives the company a lot more exposure to users. Just by glancing down at the tool bar, users see notifications from games such as the Godfather, Dragons of Atlantis, Thirst of Night, and Edgeworld. You can download the free apps in the Pokki app store, which has about 100 apps now. The app also allows Kabam to more effectively spread beyond Facebook — one of the company’s strategic goals. It will help Kabam reach more gamers and get them to return to the games more often.

“The desktop is like waterfront property,” Ng said.

SweetLabs began working on Pokki about 18 months ago and launched a beta version in June. The Pokki bar has other apps such as Instagram, Facebook, Rdio, Gmail and Twitter. With the Twitter Pokki app, usage went from 5 hours a month to 9 hours a month during the beta period, and users are opening Twitter 18 times a day now.

SweetLabs was able to get those apps in part by holding a contest for developers. It is holding another contest for game developers now with a $50,000 prize for the best new game for the Pokki app platform. The winners will be announced in March at the Game Developers Conference.

SweetLabs has raised more than $21.5 million to date, including a $13 million round from Intel Capital, Google Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners in September. Besides Pokki, SweetLabs also runs the Open Candy ad network, which offers recommendations to users when they are downloading and installing apps. Open Candy has powered more than 400 million desktop app installs since launching in 2008.

SweetLabs has 65 employees and was founded in February, 2008. Ng said the Pokki system works with Windows 8 as well. Over time, Ng said the Pokki app platform will run across multiple operating systems, making it a true independent app store.

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Instragam may be the most popular mobile photo-sharing app of our time, but it could certainly benefit from an official web or desktop application. Don’t want to wait? PC users can get their Instagram-fix with the desktop application Instagrille.

Instagram landed on the App Store in October of last year and found insta-favor with iPhone users looking to add effects to photos. A little more than one year later, the San Francisco-based startup has more than 12 million users and a growing selection of third-party applications that have helped make its stylized photo experience more universally accessible.

Instagrille is the latest addition to that list, and gifts PC users with the rich photo-browsing and commenting traits of the Instagram for iPhone application. The desktop app features feed, popular and profile views, and supports comments and “likes.”

The application is available as a free download though Pokki, the five month-old PC app store and platform created by San Diego startup SweetLabs. Instagrille was developed as part of the SweetLabs Pokki app challenge and is eligible to win a $30,000 grand prize, SweetLabs co-founder Chester Ng told VentureBeat.

And if that app doesn’t quench your Instagram thirst, SweetLabs has developed its own Instagram app for its PC app store, aptly named the Instagram Pokki. It’s not quite as pretty as Instagrille, but it does include a few additional features and supports photo, person and tag searches.

PC users: You’ve got options. Go forth and Instagram.

The San Diego, Calif. company makes an app platform called Pokki, which lets developers create and distribute rich connected desktop apps using standard web languages such as HTML5. e also runs the Open Candy ad network, which offers recommendations to users when they are downloading and installing apps. Open Candy has powered more than 400 million desktop app installs since the product launched in 2008.

SweetLabs launched Pokki for beta testing in June. The idea is to create an easy-to-use app platform that is similar to the app experience users enjoy on smartphones and tablets. The company will use the money to expand that platform. SweetLabs will also expand its Ope nCandy ad network.

Intel Capital led the round. The investment fits with Intel’s strategic goals, since SweetLabs aims to reinvigorate the PC for the age of apps. Existing investors Google Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners also participated. Darrius Thompson, chief executive, said that the PC is the largest platform for applications, but it is the most underserved when it comes to apps.