open-shell / open-shell-menu

Classic Shell Reborn.

Open-Shell

A collection of utilities bringing back classic features to Windows.

Originally Classic Shell by Ivo Beltchev

          

Open-Shell Homepage

Features

• Classic style Start menu for Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10, and 11
• Toolbar for Windows Explorer
• Explorer status bar with file size and disk space
• Classic copy UI (Windows 7 only)
• Title bar and status bar for Internet Explorer

Download

You can find the latest stable version here:

Temporary Translation/Language Solution

1. Download language DLL
2. Place it either in the Open-Shell's install folder or in the %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\OpenShell\Languages folder

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For archival reasons, we have a mirror of www.classicshell.net here.

How To Skin a Start Menu
Classic Shell: Custom Start Buttons
Questions? Ask on the Discussions section or on Discord
Submit a bug report/feature request

open-shell-menu's Issues

"Show recent Metro apps" delays menu opening

Enabling this option, causes a small (about 1 second) but noticeable delay when opening the main menu. Does not seem to occur on the Classic 1-column style (or becomes unnoticeable), confirmed on the other two styles.

http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=4688&p=19679#p20677

Store symbols along with AppVeyor builds

We should store symbols along with AppVeyor builds.
They would be helpful when analyzing crash dumps.

[Request] Convert localization *.dll files into simple text.

Modern PC Settings not searched?

According to the previous forum the search function also search the modern PC settings. Currently it's not showing up

Can I design Xfce or MATE-like menu, and how?

Which files should I edit?

just asking - seeking advice

i am not a programmer but i have used classic shell for years. forgive me if i am posting in the wrong place but i would like to contribute somehow weather testing stable betas (as i use my machine for business) or even some limited donations. if this is the wrong place to ask, please post a link or point me in the right direction. i would like to know how to get the latest updates or versions...
much thanks

Outdated description and tags

I've noticed the description and tags are out of date since the rebrand.

See here:

Directing users to this project

I wanted to post in the Classic Shell forum to help users post the issues they are experiencing in here so that we can actually fix them, however...

Can someone post in http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=8147 ?

Better Windows Integration

Greetings,

two little things that annoy me about Classic Shell/Start that I would like to get fixed in a future release:

1. When I open the menu, the Windows button is not highlighted. I do not know if that is true for every Windows version but for Windows 10 it certainly is.
2. When you open the menu while in fullscreen by pressing the Windows key and then close it by pressing the key again, the taskbar is still there, which is, at least to me, quite annoying.

I am using Classic Shell 4.3.1 on Windows 10 Build 1803.

The back button (that appears after pressing on the "all programs" button) should be a back button instead of a list icon

AVG flags generated .exe files as infected with Win32:MalOb-CA [Cryp]

I cloned the master branch in Visual Studio 2017 and attempted to build the project. AVG flagged the files listed below as infected with Win32:MalOb-CA [Cryp] and quarantined them. I sent feedback to AVG saying this is a false positive. I'm still filing a PR for the sake of due diligence.

ClassicExplorerSettings.exe
ClassicIE_32.exe
StartMenu.exe

Please advise.

Acrylic blur for metro theme for start menu

Basically just make the blur intensity of the metro theme higher

New Feature: Adjust Window Size

Thank you Passionate Coder and all team members for taking on this invaluable program.

May I suggest a new feature for Classic Start/Shell?

It happens all too often that a non-maximized window appears to be maximized.
One pixel wide space remains between the edge of desktop and the windows border.

For me this happens when the screen changes resolution on detaching of external monitor from my notebook. At the external 4k monitor the window was maximized, but when detached, the resolution goes down to the notebook's native resolution and the window is losing its maximized state, leaving one pixel wide gap to the desktop edge.

Not sure why and how this behavior was coded. But it leads to a big annoyance.

Normally, when the window is maximized it is enough to click with the mouse in the right upper corner, without paying attention where the click lands. Using the upper right corner is a great time saver for closing windows. But if there is a gap, the window below the current window is being closed unintentionally.

It would be great to have a program to monitor for such gaps and prevent these.
This can be done by adjusting the window size or position to either close the gap (by widening the window) or widen the gap to 10-20 pixels (by shrinking window size), so the gap is obvious.

I believe Classic Shell would be the right tool to host such functionality.

Regards

Thank you

@XenHat
This isn't an 'issue' per se, but I just wanted to thank you for taking this project over. I look forward to good things happening in future.

I didn't know how else to express my sentiment since GitHub disabled PM's.

Rename "PC Settings" link to "Settings"

I foolishly left some issues in the old one. I know you can do this by double clicking on the icon in the settings but it should be "Settings" by default

Icons don't change color in fixed start menu

If I change the color of windows the icons do not update the color the icons set in the start menu. This happens only in the icons that are fixed in the start menu.
My windows is blue color now, look these icons:

Windows 1803.

Binary/Installer branding

There is some branding left to do in the installer/binaries:

• Ivosoft installer "company"

• "ClassicShellSetup" installer name

• "ClassicShell" Solution and project names

• Links and references to classicshell.net should be changed to ????

• Translations need to be updated to reflect the new branding

• Add credit to IvoSoft / Ivo Beltchev where possible and relevant

• Change "Email for details" to something else

• Update documentation in Localization/English (+ translations)

Thankfully we use git and it can handle such renames.

Two things, Ivo said wontfix, hoping you will

I submitted two issues on the Classic Shell forum a few years ago. Ivo rejected them, so I’ll give them another shot here.

1. The Log Off [User] menu text from StartMenuL10N.ini is:
   Menu.Logoff = &Log Off %s... (in various languages).
   I say that the “...” is wrong, because that logs you off without a dialog box.

2. A feature request: the Start Button settings, Classic button look, currently allow you to change the button icon, icon size, and text; but the font and font size are hard-coded. I would appreciate a setting to change the font and font size.

Thanks!

Upgrade question?

I just want to be sure of something. I have an old Classic Start Menu setup that has been so customised, an upgrade to Open shell is out of the question unless either it will import the old program's settings or I can import them manually.
Is it possible to do either at the moment?
I am over the moon that this excellent utility is again under active development. If possible, I would contact the original programmer to see if he will put an announcement on his site to that effect to increase uptake.
Cheers
DrT

Full screen video causes CS to crash

I've always used a custom start button with Classic Shell & never had this issue, but now see Classic Start crashing & closing when playing full screen videos in either the Movies & TV App OR my regular usage of JRiver Media Center + see the custom Start Button attempting to show on top of the video before the program crashes & stops. No real big deal to me, since it launches just fine with a manual start afterwards, but thought it notable to report, since this is a new occurrence with the new Classic Start.
TY very much for continuing this project BTW!

Move Settings link above Control Panel

You get why at this point. And again, this is totally possible manually but it should be like this by default because Windows 10 has many settings in the settings app.

How to add custom quick menu entry: e.g. Resource Monitor?

Hi,

When I want to add windows' "Resource Monitor" to the right side of the menu with the command %windir%\system32\perfmon.exe /res
it does nothing.

Any ideas?

Don't update search result while trying to click it

May I suggest one improvement.

When I start a search the result (for example a document) may be shown already. Often it happens that I want to click the result but at the same time the search result is updated again (with even more results) and then I click a different result (document). This is annoying.
I suggest to not update the search result when there is already a result and the mouse is over the search result.

Lag/delay when searching for UWP related things

stuff like UWP settings and Spotify (from the Store) take a while to appear when I search for them. Longer than their win32 counterparts. I have an SSD btw

What is The Official Name

You people have taken a great program and confused everyone that is trying to use it. What is The Latest Stable Name? Can CS 4.3.1 still be installed on Windows 10 build 1803. The update program does not work. and neither did saving everything to an XML file. I am so fed up with this that I may just go back and use the WINDOWS 10 Funkt GUI!

Unable to register Orginal Forums / Add Steps to _MakeFinal.bat

(while the bit about being unable to register on the original forums is offtopic i hope there'll be a community forum or such to keep in contact about any development of this branch since the orginal dev has ceased work on ClassicShell itself, )

i would suggest either adding steps to the compiling .bat to check for HTML Help workshop & WiX in the PATH variable if missing Add OR update the BUILDME to tell the user to Check for this themselves and to add it if missing. (i was failing to compile even after having everything installed to find out the installers for both didnt add to Path so while things were there it just couldn't be found. )

Split original "Classic Shell" bundle into separate development teams

@jdunn0
@ibuprophen1

coddec#19

Classic Shell currently consists of a few separate components that are developed and released with one installer that can install one or all of them.

The different components however do different things and I think it would be better for development to make each component, a new software project with it's own name, installer, GitHub issues section and separate releases.

I don't really see any reason to keep all the components under one GitHub repository when they do different things.
One component is a Start Menu, one adds a toolbar to File Explorer (The Windows 8+ name for the Windows Explorer File Browser) and one restores the IE6 look to IE7+,

Each component having their own name would also help with the things talked about in issue #13 as each component could have their own, more accurate name instead of just being a component of Classic Shell.

It also benefit the users that only use one component of Classic Shell as it could be installed on it's own.

The "Classic Shell Update" tool wouldn't really work anymore but it could be replaced by a new software project that handles automatic installation of new versions of each the different programs.
The replacement software could be a build of Google's Omaha project which can handle the automatic checking for updates and update installation for multiple software projects.

Omaha is the project behind Google Updater that handles automatic update checks and automatic update installation of all Google software.

Omaha is a little bit complex but when setup, it can work quite well.
Here is how Omaha works:

1. Each program has their individual installers that automatically install Omaha when they are installed if it isn't already installed by another program.
2. The installer registers the program with Omaha via registry entry.
3. Omaha runs in the background at various times via the Task Scheduler function of Windows to check for new updates.
4. If an update is available then the programs new version installer is downloaded and installed slightly in the background when the program is not running.
5. Omaha will be uninstalled when the last program to register with it is uninstalled.

The fork could be called "[New Organization] Updater" where "[New Organization]" is the name of the new organization in GitHub as discussed in issue #13.

All the newly split out components could be repositories under this GitHub Organization too.

Save settings to folder (instead of registry)?

Is it possible to save Start Menu and Explorer settings to a folder, which I can symlink to a cloud drive to sync between computers?

Right now XML export/import is supported, but it must be manually triggered.

Norton Security Alert Downloading ClassicStartSetup_4.4.109

When I download Classic Start 4.4.109 I'm getting Norton Security alerts about some malware coming along with it. See attached images. However, ClassicStartSetup_4_4_109.exe is downloaded and saved on my computer. Subsequent scans with Norton Security and Malwarebytes show no problem with the downloaded file. However, whatever else is coming along with the file is tagged, deleted from the computer and is apparently the source of the issue.

Combine Control Panel and PC Settings search results

As time goes on, more and more Control Panel settings are moving to the settings app. It would be great to not have to move up/down as much to get to a setting by combing them

Assorted issues + Resize profile icon feature

First of all, SINCERE thank you for picking this up. Hoping (assuming) it'll be in ship-shape for RS5?
I was about to start attempting/feeling out a move to Start10 when my insider build pc's start menus all broke lol. Fortunately thats how i found out you decided to carry the torch.

Anyhow, that aside - the "add" menu affords an option for the shell:games folder. It now just shows up as a non functioning blank icon due to microsoft finally pulling it completely from windows.

You may already be aware, but in case your not, probably a good idea to remove it as an option for the sake of "polish" we'll call it :)

And a feature request to be able to resize/reshape the user picture icon would be tremendous (sorry couldnt help myself)

I use the metro skin and apart from it being round (ugh!) its very small relative to everything else. Im sure this is all low priority and you have a full plate but I didnt know where else to put it to paper.

thanks again!!

Edit: (Xenhat)

• Add Profile Icon size option
• Dead entry for now defunct Games folder in "Add" menu
• Broken menu in Insiders Preview (Duplicate of #11, #33)

Smooth scrolling/ PTP support/ Direct manipulation

FYI PTP stands for precision touchpad

Even if you select Japanese, it will not be reflected

言語設定から日本語を選択しても反映されません
改善よろしくおねがいします

Cleanup of the accessibility COM objects patch

@ge0rdi @XenHat

Email from Ivo Beltchev:

Hi,

Ivo Beltchev here, the developer of Classic Shell. Recently I was made aware of an issue with Classic Shell, related to the cleanup of the accessibility COM objects. It may cause Explorer to crash after Classic Shell is uninstalled.
The fix is to use a IContextCallback object to create the IAccessible interface, and then clean up the context after the window is destroyed. This will disconnect the COM objects and allow for clean shutdown.

Unfortunately I am not familiar with github, and I don’t have the time to figure it out and submit a patch.
Can you please apply the patch to the repository? The main changes are in the OnCreate, CreateAccessible and ReleaseAccessible functions.
I hope people who have downloaded the code so far will also get the patch.

Regards
Ivo
Classic Shell

Fix from Ivo:
MenuContainer.cpp MenuContainer.h.zip

Remove "Game" folder entry from start menu

The Game folder was removed from Windows due to a recent update.
The Game folder now appeared as [No Text] on the start menu.

Use github's releases to distribute binaries

IMHO instead having to use 3rd party servers it can be a good idea to use https://github.com/passionate-coder/Classic-Start/releases to distribute binaries.

Classic Star Menu does not start with user login in Windows 10 April Update

Since my PC updated Windows 10 to the April 2018 Update, Classic Start Menu does not appear anymore when I click on the Start button. Instead, I get the regular Windows 10 Start menu.

If I start it manually, then I have the Classic Star Menu until I log out or turn off the computer.
I have tried in the settings to uncheck "Start automatically for this user" under "General Behavior", restart the computer, check it again and restart again (Sometimes this technique works in other programs) but no way.
The only way I have found to bypass this issue is to add a link to Classic Start Menu in the Startup folder, but the option in the settings doesn't seem to work anymore.

Release list confusing, multiple sources, missing builds

So we go from one link from the forums to another link... get here and the release list is 28 days old with the original software then 2 preview builds, and a link to appveyor with many builds not here.. and then the page at appveyor says it's obsolete. Look in the commit changes here, find another link..

What is the actual main release of the software and where can we track the releases?

Is this the current and active development area? https://github.com/NeoClassic-UI/Menu

Is this the current active release build? https://ci.appveyor.com/project/passionate-coder/classic-start
Or is this? https://ci.appveyor.com/project/passionate-coder/menu

It's just all too confusing.

I wanted to see if anyone took up the reigns to update Classic Shell after problems installing the latest Java (10.0.2) breaking explorer/quicklaunch and had to run through so much stuff to figure out just where the current release of the software is.

Which version to use?

Hey i've found your project after using Classic shell and now encountering an issue where opening the classic start menu takes a very long time and freezes explorer while doing it. I am hoping that your updated version of its code resolves this, but which do I download if I am just a simple user?

Where to go for latest stable build for end user

I'm an end user - not a programmer - using "Classic Shell" which seems to work pretty well despite Windows Updates. Then I find out it's no longer being developed -- now picked up by all of you from the community. Kudos to you all!
But for the layman who just wants the updated product to use and refer to others it was not easy to follow the "paper trail" for development to find a link to what I'm surmising is the latest version of the now "Open Shell" application.
For those wanting to simply use Open Shell on their W10 machines is the latest nightly build @
https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu
the place to go and use the link that takes you to
https://ci.appveyor.com/project/passionate-coder/open-shell-menu/branch/master/artifacts
to find that latest build?
And is this link always stable? Or is there a repository for "latest stable build" that is more or less agreed upon?
Thanks much !!

Crashes explorer (Windows 8)

When I open the menu (settings panel is fine) the thing crashes. If i need to supply a log, may you tell me how?

trouble with new name - Possible name copyright issue

I have found this app, maybe they will force to change name.
http://www.classicstartmenu.com/

Gitter:
https://gitter.im/passionate-coder/Branding

Update Chocolatey package

As it stands, there is a Chocolatey package with the la(te)st version of Classic Shell. As I'm certain that the creator must be somewhere around here, I'd like to suggest to update it as well.

Get Classic Start working on Hyper-V Server

Right now, I'm running Cairo Desktop and Explorer++ on a Hyper-V Server 2016. Classic start installs, runs (according to task manager) but is nowhere to be found. Would it be posible to make it work?

Combine Metro/UWP apps and win32 apps by taking Metro/UWP apps out of the "apps" folder

A lot of the Windows 10 inbuilt apps are now UWP and getting to them is harder when only using a mouse.

Not working properly on Windows Insider build

I will attach screenshots shortly, but it works initially, but eventually it does not display the entire menu, and then a little while after that it stops responding completely.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Start Menu broke on latest fast ring release

I've been on fast ring release for a few months - no issues with classic start.

Just broke today - fails to come up, or only the bottom inch of the menu comes up. Restart does not resolve it.

Newest version as of today is Build 17692.rs_prerelease.180609-1317

Note - I'm not expecting a fix from this, as anyone running fast ring should expect stuff to break. I'm just giving you a heads up that it's going to probably break again with the next major consumer release, as the original author expected, and that you might be able to get ahead of it by looking at the most recent fast ring release.

Should i be concerned about this ?

https://borncity.com/win/2018/08/11/psa-classic-shell-is-now-open-shell-menu-and-a-warning/

mentions something about security issues when installing.

New artwork for Classic Start

thoughts?

Settings migration, import and Export

Is there a way to implement a type of Classic Shell to Classic Start Migration?