Classic Shell: Forum

Hello, I just installed the latest version of this great program onto one of my computers that runs Windows 10 and will server as a computer available to the public patrons in a public library, and am having a problem customizing the items residing within the "Programs" folder in the main section of the Start Menu of Classic Menu 4.3.0. It seems I cannot delete or remove unneeded folders and shortcuts within this folder. Also, I cannot rearrange the program shortcuts on the main menu either (i.e. the shortcuts above the part of the menu where the Program folder resides), and drag and drop does not work for putting more shortcuts in this section too.

I have made the local user account an administrator temporarily to accommodate these changes and avoid the locally assigned group policies and allowed Drag and Drop in the Classic Menu configuration settings temporarily. Also, I have reviewed the local users programs under their Roaming and Local profiles in the Windows Startup folder, and have noticed there are many more folder and shortcuts within the "Programs" section of the Classic Menu than in the profiles which is probably a combing of several local profiles. Just the same, though, isn't there an easier way or some way to remove these unwanted menu items?

I've used an older version of Classic Explorer and could make these same changes in Windows 7.

Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.

Is this PC joined to a domain? In that case, any GPO settings set on the domain controller will be enforced for your account even if you have an administrator account.

To customize the Programs folder, right click on any item inside it and choose "Delete" or Rename. Is this not shown? Alternatively, you can right click the "Programs" folder itself and choose "Open" and "Open All Users". It will open the Programs folder in Explorer. There you can delete or rename items as required. The Start Menu combines these two folders.

If deleting does not work, you can right click on an unneeded item, click Properties and set the Hidden attribute from the General tab. Then that item will be hidden from the Start menu.

The area in the main menu above the "Programs" item is the Most Frequently used/Recently used area. Above it are pinned items. The items in the recent list cannot be freely sorted. They are sorted by frequency of use or how recently they were launched. You can sort them by name from the Start Menu Settings -> Main Menu tab -> check "Sort by name" under "Show recent or frequent programs".

The pinned area is freely sortable by drag and drop. Maybe "Auto Arrange" is on for it? Right click any of the pinned items and uncheck "Auto arrange". (It might be inside an "Organize Start Menu" submenu).

In the Start Menu configuration settings, if you have checked "Show recent programs on top" on the Main Menu tab, your pinned items might be showing below and the Recent/Frequent list above.

As of Classic Shell 4.3.0, there is no indication of what the top list in the main menu above the separator is and what the bottom list is (pinned or recent/frequent). So you will have to first figure out, what your Start menu is showing.

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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.

Hello, Thank you for the quick response from yesterday. In answering your first concern about being in an Active Directory domain: No, these computers are all in a Workgroup only.

I reviewed your instructions and realized that the first problem occurring was that the Right click function does not work in Classic Menu. Right click functions do work in all Windows functions, however.

Also, the pinned area is NOT sortable by drag and drop, and after checking the configurations as suggested I still could not re-arrange the programs as i want them (i.e. not neccessarily in alphabetic order, I want to group them by function instead) - these are normally pined items. I don't use recently used.

Sorry for being vague on the first email.

Any help you can give is, again, very appreciated.

Daveparv

Check your Start Menu settings -> Context Menu tab. "Enable right click menu" should be on.

Once right click works, you will be able to turn off auto arrange and then sort pinned items.

_________________
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.