Newsletter Archives

• Two solid replacements for the kludgy Windows 11 Start menu

  Posted on December 13, 2021 at 02:43 CST by Lance Whitney • Comment in the Forums

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Lance Whitney

  Don’t like the Windows 11 Start menu? Both Start 11 and StartAllBack will bring the menu back to more traditional and usable style and functionality.

  In its fervor to push out Windows 11, Microsoft made some key changes to the new OS — some good and some bad. On the bad side of the fence is the new Start menu. Dispensing with the familiar list and tile layout in Windows 10, Microsoft pared down the menu into a single box that shows only your pinned and recommended apps.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.48.0 (2021-12-13).

  Windows 11 Newsletters, Start menus, Windows 11

• Freeware Spotlight — Open-Shell

  Posted on September 20, 2020 at 21:15 CDT by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums
  

  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 Classic Shell (more info), the wildly popular freeware program that made the Start menus in Win8 and Win10 look and work like the familiar and comfortable Windows 7 menu.

  Luckily for all Classic Shell users, a group of talented developers has created the Open-Shell project. They dusted off Classic Shell, rubbed in some polish, and rolled it out as Open-Shell-Menu (aka Open-Shell).

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.37.0 (2020-09-21).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Classic Shell, Start menus, Windows 7-style start menu

• Updates to the AskWoody Ultimate Utilities List

  Posted on March 9, 2020 at 01:00 CDT by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  UTILITIES

  By T B Capen

  This past October, I introduced my occasional Ultimate Utilities List to the AskWoody newsletter.

  Readers returned the favor by offering some of their favorites in the AskWoody Lounge. Here’s an assortment of apps you might want to try out.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.10.0 (2020-03-09).

  Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Backup Software, Start menus, System cleaners