Classic Shell: Forum

So, I have Windows 8.1 and I have been using the "Classic Shell" which I love but as part of this install it also loads the "Classic Explorer Bar" which I don't mind even though I don't use it but it's there none the less.

My question is simply this. Does the "Classic Explorer Bar" do anything but allow the ability to have these Classic features in the Windows 8.x environment? I ask because Avast and some Adware apps while not showing the Classic Explorer Bar as a virus / addon, does flag it as "Poor Reputation" but it doesn't explain any further about why it has such a reputation. This is exactly where my question lies. I am looking to find out why (other than possibly that is has no known great value and can be uninstalled without really hurting anything) it has such a poor reputation or does it do anything other than give you the classic experience? Such as like redirecting searches or maybe log keystrokes etc?

I am hoping for an impartial answer since I know that you guys won't incriminate yourselves if you were doing something funny, but I figured I would give you guys the benefit of the doubt and ask here

Thanks!

The "Classic Explorer Bar" addon is just to implement the toolbar in Explorer. No more, no less. No extra hidden functionality. It has exactly the buttons you place in it.
However it shares the same DLL as the other Classic Explorer features, namely the status bar, the navigation pane styles, and more, so it can't be uninstalled by itself.

If you don't use the toolbar you can hide it or even disable it from the Internet Explorer setting. If you don't need any of the Classic Explorer features, then by all means, uninstall the entire component. Run the installer again, then click on Change, then uncheck "Classic Explorer".

I don't know how Avast determines the reputation rating. Maybe "poor reputation" is just other way of saying "not enough reputation". Can you please attach a screenshot of the screen that complains about the reputation?

Hi Ivo,

You have basically answered the question and that is what I wanted. I was not by any means complaining about the Classic Explorer Bar and I have no need to uninstall it. The reputation I was questioning only because I know that some apps have a poor reputation because they do in fact do thing like hijacking the browser. Classic Explorer has never shown to me to be anything but honesty and I don't want you to feel that I feel any different.

I am pretty sure that Avast's reputation of 2 stars is nothing more than what I suggested and what what you have said. It basically means that there is no reputation. I could certainly send you a screenshot if you like, but you have pretty much not only confirmed my theory but answer every part of my question and I greatly appreciate that.

If you still would like the screenshot even though you have more than answered my question, I would be more than happy to send it to you.

Just to be clear, I never really doubted that you app was doing anything it shouldn't I just wanted to be clear that it wasn't doing something extra like possible redirecting an ad. or passing along some sort of demographics for ads as many other apps do and you confirmed that it sure isn't and that's perfect!!

Thank you very much!!!

I have the same problem with Avast. It has not been corrected even in the latest Avast program and definitions update. I will try to attach screenshots, if I can manage to click the right things to upload the pictures.

According to Avast forums, there is no way for Avast users to vote on this "reputation" thing (apparently Avast gets its "reputation" info from some vague unspecified mysterious place) so I'm not sure where Avast gets off with the claim that Classic Explorer has "a bad reputation among avast users" because we Avast users aren't allowed any input on the matter.

Other than this ridiculous glitch, Avast is well-behaved but I sure don't like it when security software scares me (or my non-tech-savvy relatives) with false-positives about unimportant non-security issues. I don't even use the Internet Explorer portion of Classic Shell - I use a different browser. But I'm not going to mess with disabling or uninstalling stuff for no apparent reason.

WORKAROUND: For what it's worth, Avast has a checkbox that can be de-selected to stop the whole browser-addon scan thing - I unchecked the checkbox and so far it's staying unchecked, so that's good, although other Avast customers claim that it turns itself back on again (so far, mine hasn't done that). I will try to also attach a pic that shows how to turn off that browser-addon-scan feature. I don't know if it's a good idea to completely disable such security features, but I did it anyway just to stop the presumably false-positive Avast pop-ups complaining about Classic Explorer - after all, it's a new feature that Avast slipped in (unannounced and unasked-for) with a quasi-recent Avast program update anyway :annoyed: and I got along just fine without that particular feature before that. Avast has been great up until this silliness, maybe I just expect too much since they were always near-perfect before. Anyway, maybe that will help someone else too.

Classic Explorer has two features that affect software outside of Windows Explorer. One is showing the "shared folder" overlay in the shell, and the other is a replacement for the copy files dialog. The second feature is only for Windows 7.
If you don't need those two then you can certainly uninstall that component. Your selection will be remembered for the next time you update Classic Shell to a new version.

Actually, after reading this post here: https://blog.avast.com/2014/03/20/how-t ... r-toolbars I think they specifically target Internet Explorer toolbars. They have a bad reputation to hijack your search results or browsing habits.

However the Classic Explorer Bar is a toolbar for Windows Explorer, not Internet Explorer. It doesn't collect any information about how you browser your files, and nobody cares about that anyway

The problem is that both WE and IE share the same list of toolbars and there is no easy way for AV software to distinguish one from the other.

Hi Angela,

I wanted to reiterate a part of my original post here that is important as well as comment on Avast which as you can tell I use myself, in fact, I have purchased the premier version multiple times.

Dardwizzle:>Does the "Classic Explorer Bar" do anything but allow the ability to have these Classic features in the Windows 8.x environment? I ask because Avast and some Adware apps while not showing the Classic Explorer Bar as a virus / addon, does flag it as "Poor Reputation" but it doesn't explain any further about why it has such a reputation.

For some reason everyone reading this thinks that I, for some reason, was inquiring about removing this feature of Classic Shell or in some way getting Avast to stop reporting on it, when in all honestly neither could be closer from the truth. I was simply asking if the Classic Explorer Bar was doing anything on the system other then what it was advertised as doing. With so many applications today saying they do one thing and then doing other things on their own agenda it is not hard to imagine that the Classic Explorer Bar could have been recording data for the developer or calling home so to speak. Acting in a way that would truly define it as Spyware, Adware, or Malwareof which not all, in fact few, developers will define it's true intentions in the programs documentation. This is why I asked the question I did since I had notice that Avast was complaining about the "reputation".

My question is more about my lack of understanding of how the reputation feature in Avast works more than indicating my wish to get rid of the Classic Explorer Bar. Now that I understand better, thanks to Ivo, a little more information regarding the Classic Explorer Bar, as well as getting a little better understanding of the reputation feature, I am less likely to really care so much about this feature. I am more concerned about true virus's, Adware, Spyware, and Malware than I am of a toolbar or other application having a poor, or possible lack of reputation, such as is probable, this case.

Also as a side note, and this may just be a type-o in you post, but I don't think that Avast is at all suggesting that "Classic Explorer", Classic Shell, or ever Exporer have a poor reputation. I believe that it is claiming that Classic Explorer Bar has a poor reputation, but more over, I am not ever sure that it is saying that it has a poor reputation but I believe with Ivo, that it's saying it has a "lack of reputation" which is being reflected, right or wrong, as a poor reputation.

This popup is not the reflection of a Virus, or Suspect object. The reputation popup is indication of a PuP - potentially unwanted programs. These are usually nuisance programs that get installed on to your PC usually with out your direct knowledge. These can often lead to additional files such as the Ad, Spy, Mal-ware apps or even a virus, and at the very least your Browser or even your PC may run slower. PuP's are mostly just annoying but can certainly be if not equal to a threat and should be looked at very closely. In this case, we have a completely harmless PuP, however, I would rather have been warned of it rather than it have been ignored. Sometimes it is much better to see an false positive than have an Anti-Virus program sleeping at the wheel.

I do thank everyone for their posts on this issue, and I thank Ivo for posting on behalf of Classic Shell.

I have posted on the Avast forums in attempt to get Classic Explorer Bar whitelisted: https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=151417.0
We'll see if it goes anywhere.

Good Luck Ivo,

If you need any help there, just let me know how we can help!

John

Thanks Ivo! It's excellent when the actual developer reads and answers questions, thanks again, it means a lot!

Dardwizzle, I understand your concern about whether or not things 'call home', but I'm under the impression that Classic Shell doesn't anything it's not supposed to in that regard. My reason for that belief, now maybe I'm a little naive or something, but there are a lot of suspicious-minded geeks out there who are a lot smarter than I am, and from what I've heard/read, they are known to sometimes diligently monitor every outgoing byte (or whatever the proper term is) transferred from their computers, just waiting for some app to screw up so they can pounce on it and alert the world, so one would think that they would have noticed if anything wrong was happening and instantly posted it on some security website somewhere for the entire world to see, but I haven't ever seen anything bad written about Classic Shell (or Classic Explorer or other components). Bear in mind I'm not an expert but this is just my observation. Also, I run several other types of security software and various scans etc in addition to Avast, and none of them have ever picked up anything wrong with any Classic Shell component, for whatever that might be worth.

Check out the privacy policy: http://www.classicshell.net/privacy/
It outlines what kind of information is being collected or sent out. Of course it is a matter of trust. I can write whatever I want in the policy and the code may be doing something completely different

Hi Angela, Ivo,

I just wanted to make sure that you all understand that I truly believe that Classic Shell is clean and not doing anything behind the scenes. Ivo made that clear to me in his first reply and that was the only proof I needed. I am definitely one of those like minded geeks and I fully trusted Ivo's word. Especially since I have been in IT for over 12 years. I only opened this thread to make sure since I was unclear as to why Avast would alert on it but now I understand fully. I hope that Avast responds to Ivo's request to whitelist it. I am not sure if there is anything we can do to help make that happen, but if there is anything we can do I will be sure to help out. Classic Shell is a must have program in my household. I admin 8 PC's here and everyone of my family members always ask me to install if when they get a new laptop. In fact my sister is lost with out it! lol

Many thanks to both of you and to reiterate Angela's post, Ivo, it is awesome to have a developer respond directly to post regarding your own apps. So many developers try and hide behind the curtains so to speak.