Freeware Spotlight — Open-Shell

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BEST UTILITIES By Deanna McElveen December 3, 2017 — a sad day. That was when ace developer Ivo Beltchev announced the end of future development on Cl
[See the full post at: Freeware Spotlight — Open-Shell]

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Rob, JohnHob, woody

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It’s not free but for $5 for a perpetual license, StarDock’s Start10 fills this void quite nicely.   It is not “encumbered with some sort of bundleware”.   It does what it claims to do without any muss or fuss.

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Do you need to uninstall classic shell before installing open-shell, or does the installation take care of that?

Rob

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You can install Open Shell over Classic Shell and it will retain you settings.

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Rob wrote:

Do you need to uninstall classic shell before installing open-shell, or does the installation take care of that?

I don’t know but the safer way is remove and replace.

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Rob

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[BobT]

Even on W7 it’s great! I’m still using the last version of ClassicShell.
I use it for a single column pop-out programs menu, all organised how I want it, like I used to have in XP. As well as customising the other items on the Start Menu. (Documents, Settings, Search, Run, and a multi-option shutdown menu etc).

This really helps my productivity, I know where all my programs are, and know exactly what I have installed and what type it is with just a glance, rather than having to remember what it’s called and search. Even then, I can do that too, by just middle-clicking and using the default menu. Great!

I LOVE how customisable it is. It gives you all the options you need while still feeling lightweight and not going overboard.

Just really irks me that if these guys can do it, why can’t Microsoft?
Answer is, they can, they just don’t want to. Microsoft would rather just force you to use whatever fancy new UI feature they’ve come up with, so they can clamour how great a success it is, despite how many people hate it (like Ribbons). Really surprised they turned around with the Start menu on 8.1.

Btw I even used it on my work’s W10 machine to replace my Start button graphic with the W7 version. Much easier on the eyes than the “Flat” look. Love it!

I hope the new “Open Shell” version is as good.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by BobT.

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I have used Classic Shell for quite a few years now (so much for old dogs learning new tricks….I like the “older” interface).

I like the idea that you can install Open Shell over Classic Shell and retain settings

Has anyone actually done that and have any experiences or oddities to share?

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I have done that quite a few times (ten of my own Win8.1/Win10) and never had any problems.

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Never have I had any problems with classic start, classic shell or open shell on Windows 10 versions 1507 to 1909. I saved the xml somewhere safe from within the utility once set up on classic start and it still works flawlessly transferred to various devices.

I believe its mostly PEBKAC should anything go south.

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If Deana mentioned that you can install the new program over Classic Shell, I missed it. Otherwise, I really appreciate the timely update.

David A. Gray

Designing for the Ages, One Challenge at a Time

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I don’t think she did but others have posted that they have done it successfully. I would have thought that was the case as they took the code base from Classic Shell and produced Open Shell from that.

I’m happy that over installing it keeps existing settings…I sure don’t want to have to do that all over again!

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I will confess I didn’t even realize Classic Shell had been retired. Been using it happily since Windows 8 days. While I’m glad to learn that Open Shell has come along to succeed it and that settings can apparently be carried over, I’m wondering what the advantage is to switching. Classic Shell seems to be working just fine for me (on Win10 1909), and if it ain’t broke…?

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WSila wrote:

Classic Shell seems to be working just fine for me (on Win10 1909), and if it ain’t broke…?

So you can get to Touchpad Settings directly there? Because that’s one thing that was broken for a number of people.

(According to the detailed issue tracking, this depends on exactly which versions of Windows your system and user account has been upgraded through, as discussed in https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu/issues/57#issuecomment-590693141 and others…)

Another feature that got added is ability to not have to have an Administrator log in after a feature update, https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu/wiki/OS-upgrade-without-user-interaction … see also http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8082#p34821 … this is a pretty big one for all cases where most users don’t have admin rights.

Then there have been things like localization updates, but people who only use this thing in English aren’t likely to notice those.

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Problems were encountered from classic shell with W10 v1809 as described here?
Both PKCano and I did, and ClassicStart v4.4.109 fixed it.

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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That was in an Insider Preview, I think. But once I switched from the original Ivo Beltchev Classic Shell to the GitHub version(s) I never had any more problems. I’m using v4.4.152 now on Win8.1/10/Insider

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Microfix

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I still run Classic Shell (i.e., Classic Explorer 4.2.5) on my two Win 7 Pro (64 bit) computers. I am so glad to see that an open source version is available whenever I decide I have to upgrade to Win 10.

But I have one question for those who are already using it on Win 10. My choices of Navigation pane style are: Windows XP Classic (which I use) Windows XP Simple, and Windows Vista. This screenshots in this article only list Windows 7 styles. Are these the same as the older XP styles, or are they different?

 

Harry

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Below are the choices available to Win8.1 on Open-shell 4.4.152 (current)

Is there a difference in W10?

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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Quick question – can Open Shell be downloaded onto a thumb drive on one computer, and then be installed onto a different computer?

Thanks!

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Yes. What you download is the installer. Version 4.4.152 is the latest.

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LHiggins

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