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Lead Developer of Popular Windows Application Classic Shell Is Quitting
WheezyJoe writes: Classic Shell is a free Windows application that for years has replaced Microsoft's Start Screen or Start Menu with a highly configurable, more familiar non-tile Start menu. Yesterday, the lead developer released what he said would be the last version of Classic Shell. Citing other interests and the frequency at which Microsoft releases updates to Windows 10, as well as lagging support for the Win32 programming model, the developer says that he won't work on the program anymore. The application's source code is available on SourceForge, so there is a chance others may come and fork the code to continue development. There are several alternatives available, some pay and some free (like Start10 and Start Is Back++), but Classic Shell has an exceptionally broad range of tweaks and customizability.
Only way I'll have Win10, is for classic shell putting it back to look like Windows 7
The source has been updated to the latest version which supports Windows 10 Creator's Update.
It's still not a good reason to use a pile of shit like Windows 10.
You are welcome, very welcome at OS2World. We need open source OS/2 developers !!! :)
On Windows 10, can't you just run a proper shell? Too bad, you can only run win64 processes from it, not win32. Running some desktop environment this way could be interesting.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
That any mention of a Windoze (TM, R, C) would be met by derision. How times have changed.
Do not get me wrong, Windows10's start button/menu/shell leave a lot to be desired, but are functional enough to do the job.
This is a fair statement.
And the flipside of it is that Windows 7's start menu is itself a dogs breakfast of poor usability and poor design choices.
Given a choice between windows 7 and windows 10, I'll take 10. Neither is perfect, but 10 is better than 7. I've removed all the tiles on mine so its basically just a menu. Hit windows and start typing works well, and there is lots of useful stuff on the right click menu.
Win8 was an abortion with its hot corners, and full screen nonsense... and well like you said, Windows 10 is passable. But windows 7 was not the pinnacle of all that was good. It was clunky and awkward and about the only reason people want it is 'familiarity'. Familiarity is valuable, but it should get in the way of progress. Win10's menu is flawed, but it is progress.
Need a more solid base of developing community. windows 8-10 still has trojan "telemetry" data collectors (header data from files accessed will certainly identify you folks sooner or later), but for those who have trouble getting Windows 7 (available from http://nerdsforless.com/softwa... ) for some reason, this was a god send for many. I recommended it to many people who hated the "tile" theme (which most people I know do, not a fun interface). Developers out there, let's take up the mantle. This was a quality tool. Sorry to hear that he's leaving us, but he certainly did his bit. Now it's time for the rest of us to do ours.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
Yeah, I haven't got any machines running 10, but I've got some VMs running it. And it's honestly pretty passable even without Classic Shell. Unlike Windows 8 and 8.1, both of which were highly irritating until you installed it.
I think if you write something like Classic Shell to bodge Windows 8 you must know that if Microsoft come to their senses in later releases, your product is going to be obsolete.
Also you have to wonder the economics of something like Classic Shell. It's got a lot of users but how many of them donate? Probably when people were pissed at Windows 8 and Classic Shell was being recommended all over the internet the huge number of users made the fact that <0.1% paid not matter so much. But Windows 10 hasn't attracted the same notoriety for pushing Metro onto people, so fewer people will install it. And then that low rate of payment will start to bite. Especially if you've got other stuff you could be working on.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
I fully understand the guy's frustration.
Every time M$ releases a new iteration of Win 10 - even a relatively minor one - it breaks Classic Shell. That has forced him to play a continuous game of whack-a-bug, to the detriment of adding and refining features.
And practically no one (including me) has donated even small amounts of money to him for his effort.
If I wasn't dependent on so many Line6 and Digitech patch editors - none of which run properly under Wine - I'd kick Redmond to the curb without a second thought ...
Check out my novel.
It's only passable if you remove the animated tiles.
Replacing windows shell with another is not that hard. You could make notepad your shell (I'm not saying that useful--just noting you can) as its a matter of registry setting. The hard part of making a shell is writing and maintaining all of the functionality you get/want from a shell. And that's why I gave up on it.
I've always said English was my second language. Had Romeo and Juliet been written in C, I might have understood it.
...that is the garbage known as Windows 10.0
You mean I can have the classic shell on Windows 10 and Server 2012? Really?!?
I'll have to look into that right after I upgrade to Windows XP.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Anyone with a lot of software and hardware benefited from the ability to organise program shortcuts into folders. I have dozens of camera software links associated with different cameras for example. It helps being able to keep the Cannon raw file converter separate from the Sony one and to group both sets of software in their own folders. Of course modern users only need facebook and a full frontal lobotomy so won't be needing customiseable start menus. I expect I will have to create folders of shortcuts to replace this functionality once the cretins at Microsoft break Classic Shell. It was great having a full featured graphical user interface in Windows whilst it lasted but times change and the era of the general purpose computer for the public is drawing to a close. You can fcuk off if you think I am going to use an App on a smartphone to edit video. Cretins.
Facts are history now plebs have politics for religion on social media.
And the flipside of it is that Windows 7's start menu is itself a dogs breakfast of poor usability and poor design choices.
True. But I disagree with you in that I think that Win 10's, while better than Win 8's, sucks more than Win 7's.
We understand you have to move on, Mr. Dev. Thanks for helping out untold thousands of people.
It's only passable if you remove the animated tiles.
Which you can do in a relatively simple manner, without the aid of an Application.
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
And the flipside of it is that Windows 7's start menu is itself a dogs breakfast of poor usability and poor design choices.
How exactly would you improve on a compact, low mouse travel distance UI, with user customizable organization methods, and a built-in search feature which will return applications in the organization system, as well as those which are not?
Windows 7's Start Menu is clearly an evolved design centered around practical application.
And it's honestly pretty passable even without Classic Shell.
Does your passing grade come from Microsoft telemetry? You mean they haven't told your insurance company about your shaky hand that's probably some pre-existing condition that they can use to cancel your policy?
...the classic shell...
...after I upgrade to Windows XP.
It’s not what you think. They got rid of Program Manager and File Manager. Now, what they call “classic shell” is something with some kind of Start button.
This program has been the reason Win 8 and 10 are tolerable. Underneath they're decent OSs but that Metro monstrosity and the horrible "modern UI" is just garbage. I install classic shell on every PC I touch since Win 8 came out and I'm up and running. It's been a godsend.
Thank you Ivo Beltchev for your work these many years.
I just went and donated. I wonder how many Slashdot users also use Classic Shell. Maybe we could change Ivo's mind.
All the start menus beyond Windows 7 are garbage, and Windows 10 seems FAR worse than Windows 8.x ever was.
Windows 10 kept the tile garbage, but now added Bing results that have a negative value to the default search results. I remember searching for the control panel once... The first result (which was helpfully titled "Control Panel") opened Edge (yuck), which opened the first hit from Bing (no...) which was a page that said to search for it in the menu by typing. Yeah, so fucking helpful! It seems like everything they do just removes further value with every new build...
Metro/Modern/UWP/name-of-the-week appy apps remain crippled junk made for cretins that have no use for a computer.
I hate to be the one to admit this, but the start menu just really isn't much of a thing anymore. At least not for me. I tend to put icons for my most frequently used programs on the desktop or pinned to the task bar. I really just don't use the start menu much anymore, much easier to just hit Windows-D to get my desktop and double click the program I want to launch. Or in the case of really frequent stuff, it's already pinned to the task bar.
I think Microsoft was on to something when they ditched the Start Menu in 8, but they did it wrong. Those tiles are awful. Just having icons is good enough. Microsoft's idea was just poorly executed.
As a side note, I think Microsoft's idea of tabs in all programs sounds pretty clever and useful, making the start menu even more obsolete.
From the bottom of my heart. I "upgraded" to Win10 when some other program wanted an OK, and the Win10 update msg appeared and stole my "Yes". Classic shell was the only reason I stuck with Win10. I've been using it for some 2 years now and, outside of the fucking "we've installed an update, aren't we cool?" reboots my laptop makes while I'm eating dinner, I find Win10 to be OK. Granted, get my games to run on Linux and I'm fucking out of here on a hot rocket, but, hey. Who are we kidding. If my games ran under Linux I'd be out of here so fast I'd be auditioning the the Flash TV show.
Seriously. Close my laptop, go to bed/dinner/ vacation. Open my laptop and it's rebooted? That is serious bad mojo. Fuck you Microsoft of ever thinking rebooting my machine, without me ever clicking an "OK" button, is OK. Cuz it's not. Just fuck you and the billions of bux your executives stole due to the stock going up.
start working on IceWM window manager,
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
"Anyone with a lot of software and hardware benefited from the ability to organise program shortcuts into folders"
Ok. So your idea of the optimum way to do that was to cram everything on your computer into a popup window overloaded with tons of other unrelated functions?? Really?
Why not just create a folder hierchy with shortcuts, documents, files, and anything you want in it organized howerver you want it, and only with what you want it.
Then rightclick on the taskbar, select 'toolbars', add a toolbar, and select your little folder hierarchy, and voila.
Or divide it up and add multiple toolbars to the taskbar.
"Of course modern users only need facebook and a full frontal lobotomy so won't be needing customiseable start menus."
Windows 10 gives you as many customizable heirarchical popup menus from the taskbar as you want. You claim to be some sort of power user, yet you seem dead set against learning even the barest minimum about the operating system's power user features. Perhaps you've already received your lobotomy?
"How exactly would you improve on a compact, low mouse travel distance UI, with user customizable organization methods"
Let's see:
I wouldn't make it a popup window that has tendency to disappear on its under a variety of situations that don't involve the user wanting it to disappear.
I certainly wouldn't make it fixed size and crammed into a corner.
I wouldn't do a hierarchical tree navigation with a single vertical panel showing just one level of one branch. We have far better tree navigation GUI.
And I definitely wouldn't mix the system administration elements with the user configured application elements.
Nor would I make it so cumbersome to manage. The 'stuff I need' vs 'everything installed on the PC' all mashed together, plus control panels and turning it off.
"Windows 7's Start Menu is clearly an evolved design centered around practical application."
It evolved by throwing everything into it, like a kitchen sink, with no real plan.
Windows 10's system admin stuff on the right click is a big improvement -- I love that. Windows 10's settings and control panel situation is just miserable. The search has improved over 7 a lot. The menu is vertically resizable which is a step in the right direction. The tree navigation is still pretty weak. Manuging custom start menu folders by moving it to toolbars is actually an improvement... but on that still needs more improvement.
cortana is fine for desktop search, but its annoying that you have to tell it not to suggest shit from the web, news headlines, the stupid app store.
I quite like spotlight on OSX, and launchpad isn't bad either -- far better than windows 8, but still kind of clunky. The problem hasn't been fully solved yet. ClassicShell however wasn't a step forward, its just stuck holding onto a mediocre past.
Windows 10 gives you as many customizable heirarchical popup menus from the taskbar as you want. You claim to be some sort of power user, yet you seem dead set against learning even the barest minimum about the operating system's power user features. Perhaps you've already received your lobotomy?
I've used this and am very pleased with it myself, though I prefer that nice hierarchical popup menu to actually be my start menu, so I am using classic shell. As a developer who releases multiple versions of software to less power users (hardware engineering customers for example), we are so far forced to deal with windows 10 eliminating start menu folder depth by releasing gawd awful folder names with versions and other crap in the folder name to differentiate from previously released versions.
Classic shell doesn't just restore the old style menus, in the process it also gets rid of all the dynamic built-in advertising and links to bundled junk like candy crush, xbox live, headline news, the windows store, etc. -- cheaply and quickly gets rid of a ton of clutter in a corporate environment.
I'm sure that's the main reason that Microsoft will never restore the old style start menu on their own.
The pre-existing condition causing shaky hand is porn.
Yes. This is what I've been doing since the days of Windows 3, and nothing beats it. I never have trouble finding things because I have a very simple way to organize them, very similar to what you described. The Program folder is a place to find your programs, not to use as advertising for the company that made the software.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
The gHacks news item dated 4 December linked in this Slashdot article says: "The developer of the popular Classic Shell application for Microsoft's Windows operating system released the last version of the program yesterday." The Web site for Classic Shell says the latest version is 4.3.1, the version I installed under Windows 7 more than three months ago. Was a newer version really released this month?