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Classic Shell 4.0


xpclient

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Classic Shell 4.0 is now released. :w00t: :w00t: :w00t: as we crossed 1,00,00,000 downloads!!!!!

Major new features:

• New "Windows 7" menu style that replicates the look and feel of the Windows 7 start menu
◦ the programs show in a tree inside the main menu
◦ search results and jump lists show inside the main menu
◦ dedicated shutdown button

◦ Start Menu animations like the original (added in RTM)
◦ the unparalleled customizability you've come to expect from Classic Shell
• You can search for files as well as programs, using the Windows Search
• The menu can show the most frequently used programs
• Programs can be pinned directly from Explorer
• New programs are automatically highlighted in the menu
• The list of Classic Shell settings can be searched to easily find the setting you need
• New more reliable way to start on Windows 8, that doesn't use a service
• The start menu can use the native Windows 8.1 start button
• New status bar for Explorer that shows the total size of the selected files and the free disk space
• Improved support for downloading and installing language files
• Many improvements to performance and responsiveness

Other new features:

• When searching a Classic Shell setting, you can right-click on a setting and choose "Locate" and it will show you which tab it is on
• New shortcut in the Start menu to open the Start screen (Windows 8 and above). It even shows the background color of your Start screen!!
• Start Menu in Windows 7 style can show All Programs by default if you don't want to see Recent/Frequent programs
• Windows 7 treeview style can show folders first
• New setting for the Windows 7 style to control the height of the main menu
• The items in the All Programs tree can be rearranged with drag and drop, just like in the cascading menu
• You can drag and drop website addresses (URLs) from the address bar of all major browsers now into the Start Menu to pin them
• With Classic Start Menu running, the Start Screen will also open using Win key on the correct monitor with the mouse pointer
• Most skin bitmaps (like the user frame) now support masks and can be tinted with the glass color
• In HKLM version of settings, you can add “_Default” to a setting name to override the default value without locking the setting for all users
• You can type “none” for the label of a menu item to keep it blank (previously, "none" was only possible for getting a blank icon)
• To permanently hide a program from the Start Menu's Frequent list, use this "NoStartPage" method: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/284198.
• To permanently hide a Modern app or some new desktop app shortcuts from the MFU list which won't hide with "NoStartPage", use this method: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd378459(v=vs.85).aspx
• The search results category headers can be expanded/closed within the menu itself using Enter key or by clicking them. Clicking on the header's text (or Ctrl Enter) opens results in Explorer
• Support for wildcard filtering of paths in the search box e.g. C:\Windows\*.exe or %tmp%\*.log
• Store, PC Settings and other Modern app shortcuts from Programs folder are listed in the Apps folder on Windows 8+
• A new turn off monitor command that you can add to your Shutdown submenu
• File search can search your emails (Windows Mail, Live Mail and Microsoft Outlook) if they are indexed by Windows Search
• Nested settings. Dependent settings are offset from their parent and greyed out if parent setting is disabled
• Computer/This PC item can now show a list of drives as a menu without expanding each drive further
• Secondary Tiles for Modern apps show the personalized tile name and can be launched from the menu as well
• "Install Updates and Shutdown/Restart" functionality like the original Start Menu
• Aero Glass rendering if the MSFN member BigMuscle's AeroGlass for Windows 8 mod is installed
• Enhanced keyboard shortcuts like Home/End/Page Up/Page Down in addition to F2, Del, Alt+Enter etc working everywhere
• Shift+Win uses a hotkey instead of a keyboard hook so it will give less problems and work with elevated programs
• The icons and data are saved to a cache on disk at %APPDATA%\ClassicShell, so the menu should stay responsive all the time. If you don't want repeated writes to the disk such as in case of an SSD, set the Read-only attribute for the %appdata%\ClassicShell\Datacache.db
• Right-click for the Win+X menu works even when all corners are disabled when using the Classic Shell button
• New setting for the icon size for the Classic button
• Classic IE9 renamed to Classic IE as it has title bar and status bar enhancements for IE9, IE10, IE11 and future
• The installer and binaries are digitally signed
• New setting to override the color used by the menu in its glass areas
• Improved support for systems like Nvidia surround and AMD Eyefinity that modify the position of the taskbar
• The Start Button settings are applied live and you can see a preview of the button image in the settings dialog
• The Windows 8.1 setting to skip the Metro screen can be accessed through the Classic Shell settings
• The installer uses better compression that reduces the download size by half

• Language related improvements (See here how to translate Classic Shell: http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1344&p=6973#p6973)

◦ Country flags in the Languages tab
◦ Language files can be downloaded directly from the settings to %ProgramData%\ClassicShell\Languages
◦ The auto-update checks for new language files
◦ Old language files can be used if newer ones are not available
◦ Currently unsupported languages can be added later
◦ The settings in the skins are localized (and their tooltips)
◦ The names of the menu commands are localized
◦ The Settings dialog has a place to put the name of the translator

• Note: Classic Shell 4.0 no longer supports Windows Vista
• It's FREE!!!

Edited by xpclient
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Hmm. Possibly interested. But under one condition. Will it have a truly native modified Start Menu like Start is Back? Or is it just Windows 7 style like the older Classic Shell? I'm asking because resurrecting native code is better than a customized start menu like Start8 for me anyhow. Less bugs and the way MS intended (before the Metro mess). I don't hate Metro, but in my opinion it is a WIP currently like a snapshot of its true form in Windows 8. So, are they rewriting and adding in old code, or making a completely new "look alike"? A screenshot of it would help if possible. If this is native, you can count me in. If not, not interested. Have too many betas anyhow. Not knocking your project it's a great FOSS solution but I prefer what I prefer. I am very finicky with my software.

Edited by MikeRL
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If by "native" you mean resurrected Microsoft code, then it's not that. It does have the true Windows 7 style now with in-line treeview of "All Programs". However, it is 100% third party code, not one bit of Microsoft code. The advantage is that we can pretty much do any enhancement to it - the search now has Windows Search integration plus Classic Shell's regular EXE path searching and partial word matching, the usual CSM customizations are possible. For example, you can have an "Apps" menu in the right column. It even shows the options to install updates and shutdown/restart. Shift+restart/Shift+shutdown behave like they do on Windows 8. It also supports BigMuscle's revived Aero Glass. Here's a screenshot on Windows 7:

kpWxGOs.png

On Windows 8, it uses a skin with square corners and colors to feel native. The various search categories can expand/collapse in place to show/hide more search results instead of opening an Explorer window. Here's a screenshot on Windows 8:

z7L6Jb9.png

Edited by xpclient
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This version has the user picture smooth fading animation and submenus fade effect. The animations for expanding/collapsing jumplists and the fade effect when showing "All Programs"/search results may dd in a later version. ;)

Latest 3.9.5 RC has all animations, including jumplist and fade animations.

And of course, if you use the classic classic Start Menu, then the main menu and submenus fade.

cGjFiGN.png

Edited by xpclient
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looks good

has the people here speaking about Start Is Back Native Menu, do you know that in Windows 8.1 that will not be possible? StartisBack author are already building a new Start Menu like Classic Shell or Start8 because of that

so in the end resumes with the better third party are the best, the one that most appears to be Native (function, speed and skin)

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I have had enough betas for quite a while. Nothing personal. But good luck with the new Classic Shell! I'm sure it will save many people from smashing their computers to bits or installing Linux. I dual boot myself. But Microsoft shouldn't have removed that start menu code if they cared about all these alternative start menus and developers. Sad. My fear is that every major OS is going mobile-centric (Windows, Mac OSX, and some Linux distros like Ubuntu) is going to cause a lot of users are going to be alienated. Converging platforms is a great idea, but so many companies are doing it wrong. And hurting their sales and user satisfaction at the same time. They ought to have left in some legacy code or open sourced the remains of the start menu code so Windows 8, 8.1, and whatever else would have a little more chance at success. After all, now that the start menu is dead to them, why not let developers maintain it for those who want it? MS is unfortunately becoming more like Apple in one way and forcing these stupid metro tiles on all of us. I can only hope they wake up and give us choice like they would have before this whole tablet fiasco.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Remember though that Classic Shell was created in the first place to fix the Windows 7 Start Menu whose search functionality was excellent but its way of browsing All Programs sucked and cascading menus were missing along with some other customization that was also lost.

What Classic Shell aims to be is a hybrid menu taking the best features from each of the Start menus and abundant customization available. And of course it fixes the rest of the components too, such as Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer 9 and above.

Edited by xpclient
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[...] Here's a screenshot on Windows 7:

kpWxGOs.png

On Windows 8, it uses a skin with square corners and colors to feel native. The various search categories can expand/collapse in place to show/hide more search results instead of opening an Explorer window. Here's a screenshot on Windows 8:

z7L6Jb9.png

Just to make sure -- can one get that Windows 7 Start Menu look with transparency and rounded corners (top image) in Windows 8 (and 8.1), or is one limited to the Win8 skin (bottom image) when using Windows 8?

Keep up the great work.

--JorgeA

Edited by JorgeA
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On Windows 8, the Windows Aero skin (with rounded corners) is still installed so it's available from the Skins tab. However, because MS neutered glass on Windows 8, you would need to install BigMuscle's AeroGlass skin mod. Once that is functional, then simply turn on the option "Enable Aero Glass" from the "Menu Look" tab in CSM settings and you should be able to achieve that look with blur and all. Let me know if you can with BigMuscle's mod installed, the option turned on and the Windows Aero skin. Post your screenshot if possible. :)

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