Classic Shell: Forum

I installed Classic Shell on a new Win 8.1 machine. While playing around, I was on a window (i.e. control panel) and selected the "veiw" menu. I de-selected Classic Shell" and the whole 'file, view, etc' bar went away and I can not figure out hoe to turn it back on. Right clicking does not bring up any options. I uninstalled and reinstalled and got them back, but is there an easier way.

I think what you are looking for is the options button on the view tab, you can un-check/re-check any toolbars (classic shell toolbar included) from there (left click the little triangle below the word 'options')

The problem is the whole menu bar disappeared after I disabled Classic Shell from that option list, and thus could not even get to the options button again to turn it back on.

Try it in a different folder, like my computer. sometimes the ribbon doesn't show for me in control panel either?

I did, but the bar disappeared for all windows. After uninstalling and reinstalling it was back, but I thought there might be a setting on the main settings screen for it, but I could not find a setting for it there.

That's weird. I am not aware of any way to turn off the ribbon, unless you are in a special folder like Control Panel.
The closest I can get is to minimize the ribbon, but even then you see the File, View, etc, they are just minimized.
If you manage to do it again, I'd like to see a screenshot.

There are plenty of ways to disable it;
http://www.askvg.com/the-best-way-to-ge ... er-ribbon/
for example

There was also a ribbon dis-abler program that would enable/disable it in a less buggy fashion but a quick search yielded no results (I think it may have only worked on windows 8.0

Well, sure, by hacking the system
I meant a way that an end user can - like the OP.

I think I was in the control panel and right clicked on the menu bar (File Edit View Tools Help). I unchecked Classic Explore bar and the menu bar totally went away. Since there was no menu bar anymore, there was nothing to right click on to get it back.

Ah. I see. If the toolbar is hidden, then the menu bar may also hide for locations such as the Control Panel (this is the same behavior as in Windows 7). You can always summon the menu bar by pressing Alt.
Also you can navigate to another normal location like a folder, which will display the ribbon. From the ribbon's View tab you can re-show the toolbar.

Ahh.... I forgot about the Alt key. But I am pretty sure it had gone away on the other windows too. But I really did not root around to much before just uninstalling and starting over. Thanks.

F10 is another key besides Alt for the Explorer menu bar.

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