Classic Shell 4.0

[xpclient]

I wrote a nice article about Classic Shell's search box here: Learn the power of Classic Shell's search box (I hope linking to articles is allowed, if not I will delete it).

Edited October 29, 2013 by xpclient

[Soukyuu]

I recently installed classic shell again and I'm seeing a few issues:

- "windows8.1 settings -> disable active corners: start screen" does not work. Selecting "all" however, does.

- When "show user picture" is enabled in skin, it doesn't show my actual user picture but a stock one. No matter which skin.

- The order of the shutdown submenu is not as it was on winvista/7/startisback. Can we maybe have an option to customize the order of that menu manually?

Also, would it be possible to disable the start button completely? I think classic shell had this option on win8.0

Edited November 6, 2013 by Soukyuu

[NoelC]

Sounds like you need to look around the (considerable) ClassicShell options some more Soukyuu. Yes, you can disable the start button completely.

Thank you to XPclient yet again for the well-written article. I personally like the "Access Normally" search box setting with the "Classic Style" skin. I also like that it works exceedingly well with the ridiculous Microsoft Search Indexer turned off.

-Noel

[Soukyuu]

I already have. Unless it's hidden in some obscure menu, there isn't one.

Earlier versions had a "show start button" option which now changed to "replace start button", if you're talking about that.

Instead of telling me to look some more you could have just pointed out where it is.

[xpclient]

I recently installed classic shell again and I'm seeing a few issues:

- "windows8.1 settings -> disable active corners: start screen" does not work. Selecting "all" however, does.

- When "show user picture" is enabled in skin, it doesn't show my actual user picture but a stock one. No matter which skin.

- The order of the shutdown submenu is not as it was on winvista/7/startisback. Can we maybe have an option to customize the order of that menu manually?

Also, would it be possible to disable the start button completely? I think classic shell had this option on win8.0

Hi Soukyuu, thanks for trying Classic Shell and sorry for the last response but I am not well for past few days. Here's a trick you can use to "disable" the Start button. Go to the Start button tab and set the button size under Custom button to 1 and click OK. Rest of the problems I can't repro but if they are bugs, they will be fixed. They are better troubleshooted in the Classic Shell forum so can you please register in the Classic Shell forum and answer these questions. Ivo should help you get going.

- Is your taskbar not at the bottom when you are setting disable active corners to "Start screen"?

- Do you have a Microsoft account or local account? Is PC connected to Active Directory? Do you have the user picture set in PC Settings?

- Order of shutdown submenu is not yet customizable in Windows 7 style, is fully customizable in classic style. No comments about future releases - but your feedback is counted. The shutdown menu commands are grouped logically so "Restart" and "Shutdown" are together, "Sleep" and "Hibernate" are together and "Lock", "Switch user" and "Log off" are together.

Edited November 14, 2013 by xpclient

[Soukyuu]

Thank you for the reply.

The workaround with size=1 works, the only disadvantage now is that it always shows the advanced (win+x) menu and I can't get into settings via right click.

I reported the other two bugs at the classic shell forums.

The interesting part about the userpic problem is that it was picking another account's picture instead of mine - after deleting that account it now shows my user picture.

I get the idea behind the grouping the shutdown menu items, but for me it's more important to use my muscle memory of, for example, hitting start->right->right->enter and send my pc to sleep. Right now, I land on "switch user", which makes the classic start menu relatively useless for me. If I have to learn a new shortcut, I might as well get used to the start screen ^^

Get well soon.

Edited November 12, 2013 by Soukyuu

[xpclient]

Thank you for the reply.

The workaround with size=1 works, the only disadvantage now is that it always shows the advanced (win+x) menu and I can't get into settings via right click.

There is also a shortcut to open Start menu settings from All Programs. Or you can pin a shortcut anywhere inside the menu itself or the taskbar that points to "C:\Program Files\Classic Shell\ClassicStartMenu.exe" -settings

[NoelC]

Just want to say that ClassicShell was instrumental in our decision to move our development workstations up to Windows 8.1. The advice to install it is actually one of the first pages in my Windows 8 book.

No lie - if ClassicShell hadn't been made available, we'd have stayed with Windows 7 (though we had adopted ClassicShell on that OS too; thing is, if it hadn't been there we'd have been able to use the Windows 7 Start Menu).

-Noel

Edited November 14, 2013 by NoelC

[DosProbie]

Yep, I have switched over to Classic Shell as well for myself and my clients (free is better right?) did have some negative comments about the shell icon as a start button so i did a change to the more modernize Windows Icon (similar to Start8) to my silent installer of classic shell (see reg tweak below)..DP

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00;Enable Custom Start button for Classic Shell[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\IvoSoft\ClassicStartMenu\Settings]"EnableStartButton"=dword:00000001"StartButtonType"="CustomButton""StartButtonPath"="%SystemDrive%\\Program Files\\Classic Shell\\MetroCS.bmp""MenuStyle"="Win7"

[xpclient]

There is also a skin I created for it so the Start Menu better matches the Transparent (or Opaque) taskbar compared to the stock Windows 8 skin: http://winaero.com/blog/get-the-best-looking-start-menu-for-classic-shell-4-with-winaero-skin-2-0/

[ace2]

There is also a skin I created for it so the Start Menu better matches the Transparent (or Opaque) taskbar compared to the stock Windows 8 skin: http://winaero.com/blog/get-the-best-looking-start-menu-for-classic-shell-4-with-winaero-skin-2-0/

I am using Classic ShellSetup 4.0.2 & Winaero Skin 2.0, As it is the only Start Menu then looks right with my theme, Thanks to the Skin setting Reduce glass color.

xpclient Can you POST link to Custom Start buttons, Classic ShellSetup 4.0.2 does not install any Thanks ace2.

Edited November 17, 2013 by ace2

[NoelC]

DOS Probie, it seems to me there's a direct way through ClassicShell's config menu to change the button graphic... I've changed mine so that I don't confuse my host system Start button with those in my virtual machines.

-Noel

[xpclient]

xpclient Can you POST link to Custom Start buttons, Classic ShellSetup 4.0.2 does not install any Thanks ace2.

There are MANY Start buttons on the Classic Shell forum: http://classicshell.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=18 You can use them with other Start Menus too if you want

Edited November 17, 2013 by xpclient

[xpclient]

Classic Shell 4.0.5 released. Here's the change log: http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2398

Here's a comparison of Classic Start Menu vs the competition: http://classicshell.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2399&p=11787

[bphlpt]

Out of curiosity, are you aware of anything that StartIsBack can do that Classic Shell cannot besides "Search network shares added to Libraries"? I had always believed that there were advantages to having both apps installed, and I think that used to be true, but if StartIsBack doesn't add any capabilities then I'm starting to wonder if that is still true.

Cheers and Regards