Classic Shell: Forum

The font in the Classic Start Button option in Classic shell doesn't change with the theme the way the Windows 7 classic start button does. Is the next version of Classic Shell going to do that? And when I use Windows' Classic Button so that the text will change, the button doesn't have an active state. Is that a glitch? And the Windows Classic Start Button is locked to the top of the taskbar, where Classic Shell's is locked to center. I understand it has to be that way for aero themes, since the aero button is locked to the middle, but does it have to be that way for classic themes?

I don't understand what you mean about changing the font with the theme. Windows 7 has only one Classic theme, therefore only one Classic button. There are no variations in the font.
The Classic button doesn't have a hot state, only normal and pressed, because classic buttons only have two states.
As for the centering, I chose to have a consistent behavior so people can freely mix and match themes with buttons.

If you want customized font (and customized centering), you need to create your own custom button. Add blank space around it to control how it is aligned to the taskbar.

He probably means that when the Classic theme is set, and if you go to Advanced Appearance settings where you can edit window metrics and colors etc, if you change the "Active Title Bar" font, the font on the Taskbar (and the Windows Classic Start button's font) changes as well. This doesn't happen in case of Classic Shell's Classic button.

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Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

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

"The Classic button doesn't have a hot state, only normal and pressed, because classic buttons only have two states." Yeah, but when I use Classic Shell with the classic theme applied, the Windows Classic Button doesn't have the pressed state. "When the Classic theme is set, and if you go to Advanced Appearance settings where you can edit window metrics and colors etc, if you change the "Active Title Bar" font, the font on the Taskbar (and the Windows Classic Start button's font) changes as well. This doesn't happen in case of Classic Shell's Classic button." Bingo. Any plans to fix this?

Ah, right. You are talking about the Windows 7's own start button: http://www.classicshell.net/faq/#menu_button
There are no plans to make the button change states. If you want custom behavior you need to create a custom button.

"Ah, right. You are talking about the Windows 7's own start button: http://www.classicshell.net/faq/#menu_button
There are no plans to make the button change states. If you want custom behavior you need to create a custom button."
So since Windows 7's start button doesn't have the active state, all the more reason to make the Classic Shell equivalent behave more like it. Is there any way at all to make the font on the Classic Shell classic button change with the active title bar font? Or if not, can you make the font changeable from within Classic Shell? And if you were to do that, could you make Classic Shell be able to switch .xml configs based on the theme?

Sorry, No on pretty much all counts. These are such rare and niche features (particularly if you consider that the majority of users are running Windows 8+, and the ones on Windows 7 usually don't switch themes daily) and not easy to implement.
Your only practical option is to make a custom button.

I just found out there's a way to automatically change themes in task scheduler with command line. Is there a way to tell Classic Shell to change xmls through command line, or some other way that would work with task scheduler so that it would change them both at once?

You can change the settings in the registry, then exit the start menu (run ClassicStartMenu.exe -exit), then wait for a few seconds for it to finish closing, then run ClassicStartMenu.exe to get the menu back.

Change what settings in the registry? I'm not seeing where in the registry Classic Shell stores what XML it's using. To be clear, I want to be able to switch Classic Start Menu Configuration XMLs entirely through command line, so I can use task scheduler to change the Windows Theme and the Classic Shell XML both at once. Exactly what command would I use?

The settings are kept in the HKCU\Software\IvoSoft\ClassicStartMenu\Settings registry key.
The value you need to set the start button is "StartButtonPath".