Classic Shell: Forum

Hi, I installed classic shell (4.1.0) so I could 'Add icon overlay for shared folders'. However no icon overlay appears.
I've logged off/on multiple times, rebooted. Have all windows (7) patches applied.

Any idea why this is not working and/or how to fix it?

Try following the steps here: http://www.classicshell.net/faq/#explorer_toolbar to make sure all Classic Shell addons are enabled in IE Options.

Also, Windows has a 15-icon limit on the number of overlay icons that it can show. If you have other software like OneDrive, Google Drive, DropBox, Office Groove/SharePoint Workspace/OneDrive Pro, tortoiseSVN etc installed which adds its own overlay icons, then the Share overlay may not be showing because of the 15-icon limit. In Registry Editor, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers and see if there are more than 15 of them.

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I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

Thanks for the suggestions.
The addons (under IE Options) were shown in the status column as 'new' and I changed them to enabled.
In the registry section 'ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers', I have 13 entries (just under the limit ). 1-9 of these are tortoise SVN overlays.

I've rebooted since enabling the addons in IE options. Shared Folder overlay still doesn't work.

(Just to be sure, I am looking at a folder on a drive that is not under SVN control; however could SVN be conflicting somehow anyway?)

@time_lord, can you please try if Classic Shell 4.0.4 works for you to show the share overlay icon? There was a change in version 4.0.5 and later in the way the share overlay icon was shown and that might be causing it to not show.

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SVN is just being greedy. Using 9 out of 15 icons for its own purposes? That's more than half of a very limited system resource.

I suspect the system reserves a few icons for its own system needs - like for the shortcut arrow. I am not sure how many those are and if they are the same for all versions of Windows.

Try uninstalling the SVN shell integration and see if the share icon shows up.

@GauravK reverting to 4.0.4 didn't fix the problem so you'll be pleased there is no breakage in Classic Shell

@Ivo You are correct... I uninstalled Tortoise SVN and the shared icon overlay now appears. Great, but unfortunately I really need Tortoise SVN
I guess there is nothing much I can do (unless I con configure their system from being less greedy)... darn.

Update: Having just reinstalled Tortoise SVN (and Classic Shell 4.1.0 was still on my system), the shared folder icon still works. Cool.

I guess now it is in the registry settings (?), or somewhere, with a higher priority. Whatever the reason it's all good now!

Most likely some of the SVN icons won't work anymore. It may depend on the order of installation, depend on which icon was needed first as you looked at files, or some other criteria. It is possible after you restart the priorities will change.

I think the actual logic is intentionally undocumented so they can change it at any time. The only thing that is guaranteed is that if you don't exceed the limit then all will be visible.

This will be my first contribution to the forum. I landed here because I had reformatted two computers, one running Vista x86 with Classic Shell v3.6.8 installed & another running Windows 7 x86 with CS v4.0.6. I configured both computers almost identically, but wondered why my Win 7 wasn't showing the shared icon overlay

This will be a long-winded play-by-play of what I did so please bear with me. I feel it's important to provide such detail because it might provide insight into how Windows behaves in a particular way that we didn't already know or notice.

After reading all the posts & experimenting with regedit, uninstalling v4.0.6, installing v4.1.0, then replacing that with v3.6.8 all without success. I even deleted "IvoSoft" from the registry when I noticed that installing different versions was leaving behind artifacts in hopes of making a clean install.

In the meantime I had an Aha! moment when I noticed that the share icon overlay was showing on the C:\Users folder of BOTH computers but not when CS was uninstalled. So the next thing I did was manually create the HKLM\SOFTWARE\......\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers\ShareOverlay key in regedit with the string {594D4122-1F87-41E2-96C7-825FB4796516}. Logoff/logon (the fast way is Task Manager > kill "explorer.exe" then run "explorer"). NOTHING happened! Then I installed CS v4.1.0 and voila! But why only there I wondered.

The next thing I did was check out the Network folder to see what was being shared. Vista's "Shared by Me" shortcut was perfect, but M$ screwed Win 7 users over by removing this feature, but that's another story for another forum. Basically what I learned was that Windows has different types of sharing that used to be treated identically by Vista when Classic Shell is installed, i.e., the share icon overlay displays no matter if you are using 1) Simple file sharing, 2) Advanced Sharing, or 3) NTFS permissions for that folder or file.

With Classic Shell & Windows 7, the share icon overlay appears only when using Advanced Sharing, i.e., sharing over a network, even though the icon appears in the Navigation pane for all types of sharing. This, as we know, is a pain (pun intended) because what if you share a folder on your desktop like I have? Wouldn't you want the share icon on the desktop to show you that it's being shared?

Though this arrangement sucks, Classic Shell at least makes it a little better. Come to think of it, I kind of like that the icon overlay displays ONLY on Network shares because then I can distinguish them from local shares. One compromise I had to implement is to add the "Sharing status" & "Shared with" headers/columns of Explorer. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2291175 for more info, but no need to download the Hotfix because your computer should already have these headers if your Windows Updates are current.

Edit: I removed some content that was incorrect.

The Classic Shell share icon feature is specifically intended for network sharing. It uses the http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb525387(v=vs.85).aspx API to enumerate all networks shares.
I'm not sure what you mean by "local sharing". Are you talking about "share" as in "give other users of the same machine access to see the files"? This is something completely different. I think the padlock icon overlay has something to do with it but I'm not sure.

It's because Microsoft made such changes to Windows that causes this confusion. As Ivo said, the share overlay icon feature of Classic Shell is intended only for network sharing.

In older versions of Windows such as Windows ^XP, whenever you shared a folder, only the network share permissions were set, to allow or deny other users on the network from accessing the share. An overlay icon showing a sharing hand was displayed on that folder. Whenever you stopped sharing a folder, the share was deleted.

This concept has completely changed in newer versions of Windows. The older concept of modifying only share permissions got renamed to "Advanced Sharing" and Windows introduced a new Sharing Wizard to share files. In more recent versions such as Windows 8.1/8, and Windows 7/Vista, whenever you right click a file/folder to share it using the Share With menu or click the Share button in Properties, it uses the Sharing Wizard by default.

The Sharing Wizard not only sets up network sharing permissions but it also explicitly configures local NTFS access permissions for other standard user accounts on the same PC so they either get read-only or writable access to your shared folder, or get access denied, depending on which users you choose to share with. When you stop sharing the folder, the Sharing Wizard does not always delete the share. It removes the access to the folder from other local user accounts on the same PC and network accounts. This is indicated by a padlock overlay icon in Windows 7 as Ivo said - meaning that the item is private from local user accounts too - not even local Authenticated Users group can access it.

Because using the Sharing Wizard (simple sharing) to stop sharing an item doesn't always reliably delete the share, and it only strips off permissions, I suggest that you stay away from Simple sharing completely unless you know what you are doing. Advanced sharing is the only way to safely modify network share permissions without screwing up local file permissions. When you share a folder using Advanced Sharing, it creates the share (the overlay icon will show). When you stop sharing using the Advanced Sharing UI, it deletes the share (so the share overlay icon won't show). From the command line, you can also use the net share command which is the equivalent to Advanced Sharing.

Another option is turn off the option "Use Sharing Wizard" from Folder Options -> View tab which turns off simple sharing and keeps only Advanced Sharing operational.

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Links to some general topics:

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I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

Yes, Ivo, I use the term "local sharing" to mean "give other users of the same machine access to see the files". I didn't know what else to call it since M$ changed what they call these different methods of sharing. So as I understand it...

(Edit: I made some corrections as it was pointed out to me that some of what I wrote in the original post was incorrect.)

1. Vista/7 "Share" or "Sharing Wizard" (from the menu or by right-click) (in XP, this method is available when "Simple File Sharing" is turned on)
2. Vista/7 "Advanced Sharing" (in XP, this method is available when "Simple File Sharing" is turned off)
3. And then there's the NT Access Control List (ACL), which I guess really doesn't have any direct relation to sharing.

Of note, I really don't know about Win 8/8.1 because I don't have such a computer to reference.

For clarity I'm going to refer to the above by the numbers I assigned them, which happens to be the level of complexity from low to high.

I agree that the #2 method of sharing is cleaner than method #1 for the reasons given, but it appears that M$ wants us to use #1 since the feature is right in your face unlike #2. What I didn't realize until now is that any folder or file is accessible as long as the remote user has the credentials to access them & the path is known. So my use of the term "local sharing" is technically incorrect.

Returning to the topic of concern: When Classic Shell is installed, the share overlay icon displays in...

• Vista - when granting permissions using method #1, #2, & #3
• Win 7 - when granting permissions using method #2 ONLY

If the Classic Shell share icon feature is specifically intended for network sharing, as Ivo says, then CS really isn't interacting properly with either version of Windows since the icon overlay should display in scenario #1 and #2, but not #3. On the other hand, method #1 doesn't create a network folder on "Network\\COMPUTERNAME\Shared_Folder_Name", but method #2 does. So perhaps CS does interact correctly with Win 7, but not with Vista? Oy vey

I thought this was funny because Sharing Wizard seems to be intended for people who don't know what they are doing

That said, thank you for the complete explanation. It's good to learn about the drawbacks of using the wizard because the problem it causes could go unnoticed.

No, no. XP does have "Simple File Sharing" checkbox in Folder Options but without the wizard. Unlike Vista/7 where Simple File Sharing can be used alongside Advanced Sharing, XP only allows using either Simple Sharing or Advanced Sharing. When Simple File Sharing is turned on in XP, the UI on the Sharing tab in Properties changes. To share with other local accounts on the same PC, you are supposed to copy or drag a folder to the "Shared Documents" folder. XP also has a checkbox on the Sharing tab for network sharing and another checkbox "Make this folder private" however in XP this option only works for folders inside the user profile folder. When "Simple File Sharing" is turned off, XP's UI on the Sharing tab changes to Advanced Sharing. The "Simple File Sharing" is so named because the user is alleviated from the job of setting complex sharing permissions which you must set in Advanced Sharing, that is the reason MS wants casual users to use it, that's why it is in-your-face.

As for how exactly Vista/7 share the folder, I think what the OS does differs based on the "Use Sharing Wizard" setting in Folder Options. The UI changes in these systems too when that option is toggled. But Classic Shell's behavior is 100% correct, it shows the overlay if a network share exists. And no overlay is shown if no network share exists. It doesn't care about local sharing permissions.

Btw, you can use either C:\Windows\system32\fsmgmt.msc to view network shares or simply type: \\%computername% into the Run (Win+R) dialog.

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Links to some general topics:

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I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

Oh, I didn't know that Simple & Advanced sharing in XP are two mutually exclusive options. I have an XP Pro desktop, but I haven't used it much for sharing or networking. I've taken the time to learn about sharing/networking (NTFS permissions in particular) because I have a ton of things on my Vista/7 laptops that I want to make sure are safe when I do choose to share certain things. This is where Classic Shell helps me out.

fsmgmt.msc and \\%COMPUTERNAME%\%USERPROFILE% help too.