ANN: Classic Shell - start menu and other features

Ivo · Nov 29, 2009

Hello, everybody

For the past month I've been working in my spare time on this Classic Shell project. It has:

full-featured start menu (keyboard and mouse support, drag and drop, recent documents list, localized in 35 languages)
Up button for Explorer
and other features

Check out the screenshots.

It is free and open source. I just added it to Source Forge: http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/
and Code Project: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/shell/classicshell.aspx

The project is still in beta, so glitches and compatibility problems are expected.

Please, give it a try. If you find a problem you can report it here or on the Source Forge help forum.

Regards
Ivo Beltchev

Lee · Nov 29, 2009

Ivo, Welcome to the Seven Forum.

That looks good. Not into the old looks, however, there are quite a few on the forum that are always looking for the style format.

Still will give it a shot just to see how it is working.

Lee · Nov 29, 2009

Downloaded your little classic shell and put it to a couple of test (Screen, running programs, and using it while other programs were running), and thus far no problems. It seems strange seeing a Win 2000 Start Menu on Win 7. Sure you will have quite a few testing and trying it out. Good Luck.

Ivo · Nov 29, 2009

Thanks for giving it a test. As for the looks, I'm a big fan of "form follows function". I'm trying to nail down the functionality first, and then I will make the pretty

.

chakubanga · Nov 30, 2009

Help with Standard Toolbar Buttons. like this one

I want the: File Edit View Favorite Tools And Help. Please help.

Ivo · Nov 30, 2009

Go to Tools (Alt+T), Folder Options, the View tab, and make sure “Always show menus” is checked. You'll get File, Edit, View, Tools and Help.
I don't think there is a Favorites menu in Windows Explorer on Vista or Win7. Sorry.

chakubanga · Dec 1, 2009

Ivo. You are an angel. I got this running before the 1st crash, then I couldnt map my route to how I got it the 1st time... Then came YOU..Thank you

Barman58 · Dec 1, 2009

Also in the default view - the menu may be displayed by holding down the ALT key - without having to set the default to always show

Ivo · Dec 6, 2009

New version 0.9.5

Hello again

There is a new version of Classic Shell on Source Forge - version 0.9.5. It fixes some bugs and addresses some of the requests from the early users:
-There are more buttons in the Windows Explorer toolbar - Copy, Cut, Paste, Delete. There is also an option to show bigger buttons
- The Documents folder in the start menu can be hidden
- The Search command can be customized to start a 3rd party search utility
- The start menu uses a few Aero theme elements

You can get the latest version from Source Forge: http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/

tuxplorer · Dec 7, 2009

Your effort on this project is very very highly appreciated by me. Bravo. Please visit:
1. List of features removed in Windows Vista - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2. List of features removed in Windows 7 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
3. DumbWin
Consider these feature requests from me.

Btw, the Classic Start menu needs some fixes:
. Ability to launch multiple apps without the Start menu disappearing when Shift is held down
- A Confirmation for "Log off" like XP or bring the usual Shutdown screen with Log off selected.
- For non-Active Directory connected computers, the ability to hide "Search -> For Printers" and "For Computers".
- Ability to hide Help & Support.
- Ability to invoke both Start menus such as Classic by Win key but new by button or vice versa (Classic by button but new by Win key)

Standard toolbar in Explorer needs Properties button, buttons to toggle Navigation/folders/left pane, details pane, Preview pane (Preview pane for Vista only).

Ivo · Dec 7, 2009

tuxplorer said:
Consider these feature requests from me.

Btw, the Classic Start menu needs some fixes:
. Ability to launch multiple apps without the Start menu disappearing when Shift is held down
- A Confirmation for "Log off" like XP or bring the usual Shutdown screen with Log off selected.
- For non-Active Directory connected computers, the ability to hide "Search -> For Printers" and "For Computers".
- Ability to hide Help & Support.
- Ability to invoke both Start menus such as Classic by Win key but new by button or vice versa (Classic by button but new by Win key)

Standard toolbar in Explorer needs Properties button, buttons to toggle Navigation/folders/left pane, details pane, Preview pane (Preview pane for Vista only).

Can you elaborate on the Shift feature? I'm not sure I understand.

I don't remember having to confirm Log off on XP. At least on Vista (which is currently the basis of my start menu) there is no confirmation. Can you post a screenshot of the confirmation?

About active directory - I was looking for API to detect if it is present but couldn't find any. Do you know how to check if it is available?

Hiding help - there is a group policy for that, and it is on my list to check for policies that affect the start menu.

I can look into adding a separate hotkey for the classic menu. It can't be Win+something though - those are reserved by the system and every new version of Windows uses more of them. For now use Shift+click to bring the new menu.

bamajon1974 · Dec 7, 2009

Hi Ivo, I have another request regarding ClassicShell. In a future build, is it possible to include tabs in Windows Explorer? A lot of people that used QTTabBar in the past but are now frustrated at the lack of updates and opening the source code would be very interested.

Ivo · Dec 7, 2009

bamajon1974 said:
Hi Ivo, I have another request regarding ClassicShell. In a future build, is it possible to include tabs in Windows Explorer? A lot of people that used QTTabBar in the past but are now frustrated at the lack of updates and opening the source code would be very interested.

No, adding tabs to Explorer is not on my list for the foreseeable future. It sounds like a huge task that requires a lot of knowledge about the shell's internals. I'm struggling even with the simple stuff like how to update the window to show "ghosted" files after a Cut operation

What you're asking looks more of a full-scale Explorer replacement. Have you tried this: xplorer² tour: introduction to empowered file browsing? The screenshots look promising - it has tabs, toolbars, all the nice stuff you want.

arielphf · Dec 7, 2009

Ivo - this is GREAT! Exactly what I was looking for! Consider this a big smooch from me!

Thank you!

Ariel

bamajon1974 · Dec 8, 2009

Ivo. Gotcha about the tab. I figured that feature wouldn't be trivial to add. I like the program so far. It makes Vista and 7 explorer a little more like XP explorer.

chip · Dec 8, 2009

The Classic Explorer is godsend. You are a hero for that.

The Classic Start Menu use to be what I was looking for, but I realized the importance and usefulness of 7's search box, although I still cannot deal with the scrolling of programs.

My biggest request would be to see 7's search box in your start menu. Would this be possible? You don't necessarily have to integrate it by default, but to have an "option" to show/hide it would prove extremely useful. The best of both worlds.

You should also add the "option" to show/hide Documents and Help and Support.

Ivo · Dec 8, 2009

chip said:
The Classic Explorer is godsend. You are a hero for that.

The Classic Start Menu use to be what I was looking for, but I realized the importance and usefulness of 7's search box, although I still cannot deal with the scrolling of programs.

My biggest request would be to see 7's search box in your start menu. Would this be possible? You don't necessarily have to integrate it by default, but to have an "option" to show/hide it would prove extremely useful. The best of both worlds.

You should also add the "option" to show/hide Documents and Help and Support.

Implementing a search box is difficult. It relies on the indexing service and I'm not sure if I can access it from my code. Also the start menu has some knowledge of the recently used programs, and that is also not documented and difficult to access. That's why I have both - click to access the classic start menu, and shift+click for the searchable menu for the rare cases when I need it.

There IS an option for hiding Documents and Favorites. Right-click on the orb and pick Settings. A future version will check the group policy setting for Help and Support.

johnhoh · Dec 8, 2009

thanks to Ivo for this latest release' ability to replace windows search with Everything Search.

Konst · Dec 9, 2009

"Classic Start Menu" is perfect - haven't found any error. Good job.

But: Is it possible to integrate a switch so that "Classic Start Menu" don't substitute the start orb but stays as separate icon in the taskbar?

Because: I also like the Windows 7 default menu with "recent open programs", jump lists, search bar, right pane links, etc. And I don't want always need to use "Shift" key to switch between the two menu views. I want to place "Classic Start Menu" direct next the start orb - perhaps with the similar icon.

Ivo · Dec 9, 2009

The next version will have a customizable hotkey. When it's set the Win key will no longer be overriden. So you can have the classic menu on Ctrl+Alt+C (for example), and the new menu on the Win key. Is that a good alternative to what you are asking?

ANN: Classic Shell - start menu and other features

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