Classic Shell: Forum

When I hover on the Classic Start Menu button, the start menu opens, and then:

• if I click on a menu item, the selected program opens
• if within a second or so I decide not to open a new program, and instead click on another window, the window that I clicked becomes active and the start menu closes.

So far, so good. However if, instead of either of the above, I delay doing anything for a second or two and then decide not to open a new program and instead click on another window, the window that I clicked becomes active but the start menu does not close. To close the start menu, I then have to click on the Classic Start Menu button, and then move away again.

Is there a setting that controls this behaviour - that would cause the start menu to close when I moved away from it, no matter how long I had hovered over it?

In Windows, the allowed way for a program to get focus is with a mouse click or a key press. Windows does not allow arbitrary programs to steal focus without being clicked and tries very hard to prevent it. Classic Shell's menu tries hard to steal the focus when you just hover, but it is not 100% reliable and as you've seen it has side effects.

In some cases, the Start Menu may not be able to steal the focus even after hover. If it fails to get focus, clicking away won't close the menu because the menu can only close when it loses focus. But it never got it to begin with in the rare case you mention.

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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.

Many thanks for the very helpful explanation. I've now set the "Hover opens" option to "Nothing", and it appears to have resolved the issue for me.

Thank you, again.