Classic Shell 4.2.1 Has Been Released

[xpclient]

"Beta" is tested by Ivo and me. General release is the "beta" released after more people have tried it but even the general release is not rolled out immediately via Classic Shell's automatic updates feature until enough people have tried it.

Edited July 27, 2015 by xpclient

[ralcool]

Do you think there is any possibility that the fresher looking 'metro' skin, could get a transperancy/blur option so it looks more similar to the native Windows 10 menu?

 

Its the only thing missing, I use it all the time, and it fits the general out of the box theme. I have become so used to have BOTH the MS start screen on my keyboard win-key, and use the mouse to activate-click, the 'real/classic' start menu, I would love it if they shared the blur.

 

Thanks guys, very well done.!!!

[Dave-H]

"Beta" is still heavily tested by Ivo and me. General release is the "beta" released after more people have tried it but even the general release is not rolled out immediately via Classic Shell's automatic updates feature until enough people have tried it.

I'm sure it won't cause any problems, in fact as it seems that rolling back isn't possible without a complete uninstall and reinstall, I'll leave it as it is!

I was just a bit thrown when I downloaded it from mediafire and installed it before I realised that it was a beta and not an actual release.

[dencorso]

That's sure a wise decision, IMO.

[xpclient]

Classic Shell 4.2.3 Release Candidate is out:

 

Here’s what’s new:

 

● Improved support for Windows 10

● Improved support for touch keyboard: The Start Menu has the ability now to move itself, for example, when the Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10 touch keyboard pops up in the docked state or when the resolution changes (like when you exit a fullscreen game with the Win key)

● New command to access the PC settings directly (Windows 8.1 and Windows 10)

● New settings to control the color and opacity of the Windows 10 taskbar

● The Metro skin in Classic styles can have glass. It can be toggled from the Skin tab when the Metro skin is selected

● You can right-click on a highlighted program and select "Remove highlight"

● Multiple minor improvements and bugfixes

 

Download at source: http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4803

Edited July 27, 2015 by xpclient

[NoelC]

...And it nicely fixes the taskbar blur issue with Win 10.  Nice job!

 

-Noel

[xpclient]

Ivo has released Classic Shell 4.2.4 with official Windows 10 "RTM" (Build 10240) support.

[xpclient]

Classic Shell 4.2.6 Beta is out:

Here is the detailed change log for Classic Shell 4.2.6:

Major new features:
*********************
● Classic Start Menu supports fade, slide and random animations also in Windows 7 style
● New feature to select the text color for the taskbar on Windows 7, 8, 10
● New feature to set a texture for the Taskbar and Start Menu for Windows 7, 8, 10!
● Settings to set taskbar color and transparency for Windows 7, 8, 10
● Metro Settings in search results have a "Pin to Start Menu" right-click command
● New Explorer toolbar commands to toggle hidden files, system files, file extensions, open Folder Options and create a ZIP file
● New setting for the font of the Explorer status bar (Windows 8 and up)
● Many new skin features
o Skins can use PNG and JPEG resources
o Textures are supported in Start Menu skins, up to 4 with tiling pattern and a mask
o Skins support logos/emblems drawn on top of the menu background, up to 10 emblems, first 4 can have a mask
o Menu shadow can be disabled as a skin setting
o All Programs tree in Windows 7 style can be completely transparent and use the background from the main menu
o Skin options are completely rewritten and now support colors, bitmaps, and more
o New "Metallic" skin that showcases the new skin features

Minor new features and changes:
****************************
● Compatibility with Windows 10 Redstone 1
● New setting to set hover sound for the Start button
● If a menu item's Label field has a user-defined accelerator key using an amperstand (&) character, it will be executed when you press the key, ignoring other items that begin with that letter
● You can hide All Programs item in Windows 7 style menu from Settings UI (previously only as a Group Policy)
● Some Start Menu commands are now available from cmd line. e.g. ClassicStartMenu.exe -cmd restart. Other commands include confirm_logoff, advanced_boot, update_restart, update_shutdown, hybrid_shutdown
● New setting to select the last item in the shutdown menu instead of the first
● The Shutdown menu has separate items for shutdown/restart without installing updates
● The Invert Metro Icons setting now works without a restart of the menu
● Metro icons correctly update their color when the system color changes (Windows 10)
● The search thread runs at normal priority instead of "idle" so even if the CPU is busy at startup or doing long-running tasks like video encoding, the search will be fast
● Corrupted/damaged Metro Apps are hidden from the Apps menu

Bug fixes and minor changes:
*******************************
● Recent documents will not show redundant items with full path
● Fixed a bug where you can select two radio buttons in the skin settings

Download at the official website. For technical support related to Classic Shell, kindly ask in the official forum.

Btw if the location of this topic is not appropriate in the Windows 8 forum (as Classic Shell supports Windows 7, 8 and 10), some moderator is welcome to move this topic to the "Software Hangout" forum.

Edited May 22, 2016 by xpclient

[Dave-H]

What a fantastic program Classic Shell is (and no, I don't work for them!) 
It's one of those pieces of software that's so good you really can't believe that it's free.
One of the (many) things I didn't like about Windows 10 when I tried it was the horrible and unchangeable white window title bars.
If the latest Classic Shell can change that easily, it's got to be worth having for that alone IMO (I'm still not going back to Windows 10 though!)


 

Edited May 22, 2016 by Dave-H

[xpclient]

White window title bars are fixed in a later update to Windows 10 (November 2015 Update) but personally I think Windows 10 is a pile of garbage that's not worth using. Windows 7 and Windows 8 are better IMHO. The loss of control over essential settings like updates ruins it completely.

Edited May 23, 2016 by xpclient

[NoelC]

Y'know one of the things I like best about Classic Shell?

That it has enabled me to have both a consistent and superior method for organizing my start menu items across several major Windows releases and a decade of time!

As we all know, sometimes newer just isn't better.

And it never, ever gives me trouble.

Thanks for letting us know a new beta version is out, Gaurav.  I'll throw 4.2.7 on some virtual machines and see how it runs.

Edit: 

• Windows Vista x64 Ultimate test VM:  For grins, I tried to see if it would install.  It refused (as expected).
• Windows 7 x64 Ultimate test VM:  The installer had a little trouble shutting down and restarting Explorer, but it ultimately installed okay, retained settings as expected, and on a quick test works fine.
• Windows 8.1 x64 Enterprise test VM:  Installed easily, retained settings, works fine.
• Win 10 build 10586 test VM that's running my preferred setup:  Installed easily, retained settings, works fine.
• Win 10 build 14342 RS1 test VM that's been "privatized" with my re-tweaker script:  Installed easily, retained settings, works fine.

So far it looks good!

-Noel

Edited May 23, 2016 by NoelC

[Dave-H]

2 hours ago, NoelC said:

Y'know one of the things I like best about Classic Shell?

That it has enabled me to have both a consistent and superior method for organizing my start menu items across several major Windows releases and a decade of time!

Funny you should say that Noel, I'm exactly the same.

I have Windows 98, Windows XP, and Windows 8.1 on my machine, and the start menus on all three look as identical as they possibly can do, thanks to Classic Shell.
It was actually the only thing that made certainly the original Windows 8 usable IMO.

[Dave-H]

5 hours ago, xpclient said:

White window title bars are fixed in a later update to Windows 10 (November 2015 Update) but personally I think Windows 10 is a pile of garbage that's not worth using. Windows 7 and Windows 8 are better IMHO. The loss of control over essential settings like updates ruins it completely.

IIRC correctly when I last looked at Windows 10, you could now at least add colour to the windows' title bars, but it had to be the same colour than you chose for the taskbar, which is not really a substitute for being able to set all those things independently of each other as you could in the past.

[xpclient]

Ah well with Classic Shell you can set a different color for the taskbar now  which is not necessarily the one used by the title bar. But Classic Shell on Microsoft Bob 8.1 or Windows 7 is a much better experience really. Bob 10 will screw you some day even if you've "tackled" it for now.

[NoelC]

3 hours ago, xpclient said:

Bob 10 will screw you some day even if you've "tackled" it for now.

Yes.  You clearly can see it as I can, along with some others.  I wish I could say that list is growing, but it doesn't really matter.  The possibility to screw you out of your money hard and often in the future has got to be the reason Microsoft is so adamant to push their "free" upgrade on everyone today.  And even with all the recent history, their escalating tactics are still working. 

Microsoft is working to make itself irrelevant solely for the possibility of short term gains while the world catches up and creates another good, serious operating system.  The most irritating thing to realize is that those in charge of this debacle are getting paid obscenely.

-Noel