Classic Shell: Forum

Edit: Classic Shell 4.0 RTM is now released. Menu settings, skin settings for built-in skins and custom menu items are all migrated. Importing your saved XML to the new version is also supported.
Edit: This beta build link is now obsolete. A newer beta can be downloaded from:http://www.classicshell.net/downloads/latestbeta




The Classic Shell beta version is available for download here: http://www.classicshell.net/files/beta/ ... _3_9_0.exe

There are few breaking changes from the older version: (these apply only for the beta)

• Windows Vista is no longer supported
• The Metro start button has been removed at Microsoft's request. You can download it separately and use it as a custom button
• Some settings from older versions will not be carried over. In particular the customized menu items and the skin settings will be lost. Customized menu items and skin settings for third party skins will not be carried over. This is because there is no reliable way in case of a third party skin to detect if you were using a single or double-column menu. For built-in skins, the menu items and skin settings will be preserved when upgrading. The old .reg files which contain settings in HKCU branch will also not work for the new version and will have to be updated to reflect the new \Settings registry key. If the reg files contained settings in HKLM branch, then they will work. Saved XML settings files will also be imported correctly.
  
• The custom order of programs from previous versions will be lost. You will have to arrange the programs again

The closed beta will run till the end of the month. There will be one or two more builds till then. I will announce them here.
Please do not discuss the beta version outside of this forum. All new features are subject to change before the official release. Report here any issues or feature suggestions.

P.S. The latest version supports Windows 8.1 Preview

One question: Why is this Version called "3.9" when the Forum it's in is called "Classic Shell 4.0 beta"? Have I missed something?

I am hoping by the time the version reaches 4.0 it will be an official release and no longer beta

Bugs theme "WinAero" ,
http://s020.radikal.ru/i711/1306/ce/0aa8704d3b62.png

Which skin are you using and with what settings?
This doesn't look like one of the built-in skins.

That is because the WinAero skin is only designed for use with 2 columns. It does not have the graphical assets for single column use.

_________________
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.

OK! Ready translate and help file

Ready to translate Russian language for version 4.0: http://file.sampo.ru/zw4jzj/

A more detailed list of the new features and changes in Classic Shell 4.0 can be found here: http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=753&p=3732#p3892

_________________
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.

i know it is not a big deal for most but a few of my machines actually run Windows Vista. Was XP support removed also? Sorry to hear about Vista support being removed.

Will still be testing on other machines.

There was never support for XP. I am dropping support for Vista because some of the new features require Win7. Also with 8.1 just released, that's 4 versions of Windows to support (not even counting the server flavors). It is more than I can handle.
The upcoming version 3.6.8 will probably be the last to support Vista.

dropping support doesn't necessarily mean it wont work, it just wont be stable/work, with certain features right? , and theres always sticking to an older version

Classic Shell 3.9.0/4.0 depends on Windows 7+ features and its installer is blocked on Vista. If you still try to run it, the results may be unexpected like Explorer crashes.

_________________
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.

ah, i'm assuming the windows 7 style features are what causes this , isnt there a way to just disable that style and allow the rest of the program to work?, i know its cropping out a big portion of the program, but better than total incompatibility if its not that hard. though users can always just use an older vista compatible version (you should release the last version with vista compatibility, with all the update features removed )

Windows Vista is not supported because of the addition of:
1. Frequently used list (whose UserAssist algorithm works differently on Vista vs Windows 7/8)
2. Some Windows Search 4 APIs which are only available in Windows 7.
3. Some Windows Installer 5.0 features.


Windows Search integration and frequent list have also been added to the Classic style.

Vista users won't get an update notification for 3.9.0/4.0.

Windows 7 for the most part has most features that Vista has with some exceptions.

_________________
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.

Thanks for inviting me into the beta testing, Gaurav and Ivo.

Initial report, Windows 8 Enterprise system with Aero Glass for Win8 installed:

1. The install appeared to go fine, from what I can see. The only unexpected thing was that the installer let me know Internet Explorer was still running (I had just closed it, so I guess the process was hanging around), then it offered to close it for me. It ran the rest of the way through without any errors and popped up the Readme info just as expected. I saw this in the Windows Application Log afterward, though ClassicShell indeed did restart. Perhaps this is expected during an upgrade:
http://Noel.ProDigitalSoftware.com/ForumPosts/CS39AppLog.png


2. I reconfigured ClassicShell to use the Smoked Glass skin, and turned on the Enable Aero Glass setting. It looks and works great!

http://Noel.ProDigitalSoftware.com/ForumPosts/ClassicShell39OnWin8.png


3. The only thing that I'm not sure I like so far is the appearance of extra search items after the initial list is presented. The first time I searched from the box it added to the list and moved everything just at the moment I clicked, which caused me to start a different application than the one I was looking to run. My first impression is that I want to turn that off - the data that pops up immediately is all I want to see.

Visual example: When one types in "event", this is initially shown:



Then after a second or two, the following shows:



I looked over the options and don't see how to limit the operation to just the first (immediate) list above, which is I assume the way the old ClassicShell used to work. Can you advise?

If I didn't miss a setting, you should really think about making the menu updating behavior optional. Things that unexpectedly change out from under a mouse about to be clicked are frustrating and potentially dangerous.

-Noel

The search is now in the background, so you can see the results faster. Of course since results grow over time, so does the menu.

I am trying to minimize the shifting by not allowing the menu to shrink as you type until the search is complete. Also I try to preserve the selected item so if you use the keyboard instead of the mouse (you are currently typing, right?) this will be less of a problem.

That's the most I can do with a popup menu. The embedded search (Win7 style) is less prone to shifting because the list is a fixed size and populates top to bottom.

what if the search results grew upward, as to not knock anything out of its spot

It searches the start menu first, placing that stuff on the bottom in a category labeled ----Menu------, and then it could add everything from the windows search above that OR the windows results would not display unless the user hovered over an 'expand' button on the bottom, this will give windows slightly more time to search as well

Also It would be nice if a minimized category could hide all results within
there should be a default state (what you currently have at 5)
and then a maximized state (what you have set at 20)
and a minimized state (which currently shares 5 with the default state but i think should be 0)

Just wanted to say, nice work on this so far, it's looking really good! I haven't found any issues yet, but I'll be sure to post them in the forums if I do

_________________
Keith Lammers
Binary Fortress Software

The latest beta will try to preserve your old item settings from 3.6.x. It will try to detect if you used a single or double-column menu and will import the old settings into that style. It is a one-time upgrade the first time you run one of the beta versions.
It doesn't always work correctly, particularly if you used a custom skin, as it won't be able to guess correctly what style you had before.

Settings from earlier betas will still work (give or take any new settings that are added between versions).