Classic Shell: Forum

Because I write my first posting here: Thanks a lot to the developers for this great tool. It is a pleasure, thanks for your exzellent work!

My OS is Win 10 64bit. I use the latest version of classic shell.

I have some questions/suggestions:

1
Is it possible to move the menu "Apps" inside the menu "Programs"?

2
I like to choose an entry of the start menu with typing the appropriate character on my keyboard.
All my own entries get an own name for that purpose.
Example:
"T Thunderbird"
"2 Libreoffice Calc"
etc.
Since a long time a wish to have possibility to rename the system entries in the start menu like "Programs", "Settings", "Standby" e.g. to "P Programs" and "S Settings" and "X Standby".

Is there any way to realize that? If not: what do you think about that suggesion?

3
I would prefer it, when the search field is not visible.
But of course I would like to use it, when I need it.
Is it possible to temporarily show the search field after pressing a Hotkey e.g. like WIN+F?

4
When you search (in the search box) e.g. for "Defender" after that action the entry "1 Defender" appears on the top of the start menu.
How can you disable that please?

5
I like to disable the vertical bar at the left of the startmenu. I'm sure that option existed in older versions of classic shell.
Please can you give me a hint.

Thank you

1. Go to the Customize Start Menu page in the settings and drag the Apps item inside Programs.

2. Double-click on each item in the Customize Start Menu page to edit the label. If the text contains &, then the character right after it will be used to activate it. For example &Programs.

3. It is not possible to show the search box only sometimes. However
* if you don't want to see the search at all, set the "Show search box" setting to "No search box"
* if you don't want the search box to be active initially, switch it to "Access with Tab". Then you have to press Tab first before you can type in it
* if you want to access menu items even when the search box is active, hold down Alt. For example Alt+P will activate Programs
* you can move the search box in a sub-menu. Then it will be out of the way until you open that sub-menu

4. If you don't want to see recently used programs at all, set "Show recent or frequent programs" to "Don't show" in the Main Menu page. If you only want to disable the leading digits, look at "Shortcuts for the recent programs" setting in the same page

5. To turn off the vertical stripe, uncheck "Caption" in the Skin page. Or you can change the text from the "Menu caption" setting in the Menu Look page.

It sound like you know what you want from the start menu. I would recommend you look at all the settings. There are more than a hundred of them and I'm sure you'll find others that you like.

Also if your on windows 10; there is a cortana button, that can be used for searches, right next to the start menu (so you can just disable it from the menu entirely)

Shame on me. I tried that before I posted that questions. Now it works fine. I seems that I did something wrong or not carefully before enough.
Sorry for that please.

Works fine as well.

But I don't understand the behaviour of "&".
Example:
In my start menu there is an unchanged entry "Herunterfahren". The character "r" is underlined.
After a doublclick the label is shown as "$Menu.ShutdownBox". Which means: no "&".

What do you think about my idea to getting access to the windows search by the shortcut WIN+F instead of "WIN, Tab"


Indeed. I enjoy to explore the rich features of that great tool.

Thanks a lot for your helpful answer.

For most items the text comes from the ClassicStartMenu.L10N file. It contains the actual text for all languages. The token "$Menu.ShutdownBox" is replaced with the corresponding item form the file depending on the current language. Probably in your case the text is "He&runterfahren".
If & is present, then the character after it is used. Otherwise the first character is used.

Win+F can't be used because it is a system shortcut. All shortcuts with the Win key are reserved by the system.

Hhmmm. Before I posted here I tried to help myself with the task "Rename" a standard entry.
In the context menu "Rename" was grayed.
And when I doubleclicked the entry I see that "token" in the field label, which is very different from the real entry.
Therefor I thought it is impossible to rename the entries.

May be you like to think about offering a rename function for the standard entries in the context menu - that seems to be the place where the most peoble will look first.
Just as an idea.

About WIN+F:
Ok, there's no way to customize the system shortcuts. I miss a powerful global shortcut management in my windows system since more than 10 years.

Thanks again for your help.

I'm very happy with my puristic start menu now

A context menu "Rename" function for menu items which are on Customize Start Menu tab is a good idea. The "Rename" could directly edit the Label.

_________________
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.

Hello developers of Classic Shell.

I have a request for a feature that doesn't exist yet in Classic Shell nor
Windows (or at least not to my knowledge).

When you launch a program from the "start menu" the selected program
opens and the menu closes.

I'd like to use something like "CTRL+LEFT-MOUSE-CLICK" to launch the
program, but keep the menu open & focussed so I can also quickly launch
another program too.

I suggest "CTRL+LEFT-MOUSE-CLICK" because, like CTRL-clicking on a link
in a browser, the link opens in the background (another tab) but keeps the
current view intact so you can CTRL-click some other links too.

This already happens if you hold down Shift.

Hello Admin, Thank you for your response.

For some programs it works! So thats great!
But my browsers (and some other programs) want to open in "safe mode" when i launch them with SHIFT pressed.

As far as I know, only Firefox (and its forks) have the feature to start in Safe Mode when Shift is held down. Which other programs have it? As a workaround, you can start Firefox as the last item from Classic Start Menu, that is, launch everything else you need before it.

_________________
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.