Classic Shell no longer in development, and now open source

I hate the Windows 10 start menu it is like using a touch screen. I can't have programs listed on the left not in stupid tile mode. I can't move them the way I want them it is like trying to play a game as they keep snapping wherever they want to.

Originally Posted by DooGie

Can someone please explain the attraction of Classic Shell, I just don't understand it. If I want the Windows 7 look I'll go back to Windows 7. If I'm using Windows 10 I want it to look like Windows 10

I've read all of the responses to the above post, and it's no surprise that most of you here want to customize things; however, I like 'em simple, and that's the way the Start Menu in Windows 10 is for me.

As one of you pointed out, it's a matter of choice; something I've advocated from day one of my beta testing experience. There are so many things that Microsoft could simplify in Windows 10, but for me, the Start Menu isn't one of them. I don't need a menu that has humpty gazillion ways of sorting things; I can confuse myself just as easily without that.

I'm glad Classic Shell is out there for those who need and want it. I'm not trying to change anyone's mind. Choice is much too good for that.

For now, my choice is to stick with what I know . . . who knows, I may get the guts to try it and wonder why I waited so long. Maybe; maybe not.

Wynona said:

I've read all of the responses to the above post, and it's no surprise that most of you here want to customize things; however, I like 'em simple, and that's the way the Start Menu in Windows 10 is for me.

...I'm glad Classic Shell is out there for those who need and want it. I'm not trying to change anyone's mind. Choice is much too good for that.

I jumped from Win7 to Win10 when it was released in 2015. At first the Start menu was 'alien' with all those tiles, but I stuck with it for a couple of weeks and got used to it. At first I concentrated on the All Apps list and learned to add my own items to it, gradually I started to customise the tiles to my liking and now there's virtually nothing left in the tiles area that MS put there.

I still have Windows 7 on one PC in regular use, so am continually swapping back and forth between them. TBH I hardly notice the difference these days - both seem convenient and comfortable to use. I find I'm using ways of working I learned in W10 when back in W7 - things that were always there but I never knew W7 worked that way. Things like just click Start and start typing to find a obscure setting or app, rather than drill down through the menus or control panel to search for them.

I adapted to the new ways and found them to be not so different from the old. But that's just a personal choice, it's good that things like Classic Shell are there for those that want it.

It's an absolute necessity (or something like it is) for anyone who inherits a deeply nested (more than 2 folders I think) start menu from (e.g.) Win 7, as Win 10's presentation of that is garbled. It omits the folders and lists their shortcuts in alpha order. A thoughtless mess, which applies to all Win 10 start menu emulations too...

Clearly MS only expected users to have a few progs installed (reflected in the early days by a limit on the number of shortcuts allowed as I recall).

Thanks for all the replies, they made for some interesting reading.

Tacit said:

Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements

The latest stable version of Classic Shell is 4.3.1

That's the last version which Ivo Beltchev released before ceasing development. It stopped working in RS5 insider releases.

Tacit said:

Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements

The latest stable version of Classic Shell is 4.3.1

kado897 said:

That's the last version which Ivo Beltchev released before ceasing development. It stopped working in RS5 insider releases.

Which means it will stop working in the new Fall release in late Sept/early Oct. 1809........