Classic Shell: Forum

Hello,

At the suggestion of the developer of 7+ Taskbar Tweaker, I am posting to ask whether Classic Shell involves the "topmost" flag of the taskbar. I use the "disable_topmost" feature of 7+ Taskbar Tweaker, but it does not work consistently, and Classic Shell is the only other program that I use to tweak the Windows 8.1 (32-bit) taskbar. If you would please let me know the answer to this inquiry, then I'll forward it to RaMMicHael at 7+ Taskbar Tweaker.

Thanks!

Shelly

Classic Start Menu only draws a Start button on top of the Taskbar. Both Ivo (the developer) and me use 7+ Taskbar Tweaker ourselves. We haven't come across any conflict.

Does your taskbar problem happen if you exit Classic Shell's Start Menu by right clicking the Start button -> Exit?

_________________
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.

GauravK, thanks for that suggestion. My computer was just restarted, and the "disable_topmost" feature of 7+ Taskbar Tweaker was not working. I then exited Classic Shell's Start Menu by right clicking the Start button -> Exit, and it made no difference to the "disable_topmost" feature of 7+ Taskbar Tweaker -- i.e., that feature is still not working after exiting Classic Shell's Start Menu. So that should rule out the possibility of a conflict between those two programs. I'll share this information with RaMMichHael.

Hi guys,

I'm not familiar with the Classic Shell codebase, but quickly searching for HWND_TOPMOST yielded at least one result which seems to involve the taskbar window:
http://i.imgur.com/GlrjrbE.png

That's exactly the kind of code that could conflict with the "disable_topmost" option of 7+ Taskbar Tweaker.

RaMMicHaeL,

That's good sleuthing!

Why does the Classic Shell codebase include HWND_TOPMOST? I ask because Classic Shell does not offer a "topmost" or "disable_topmost" feature for the taskbar.

Shelly

Right, but as you can see earlier in the code, bTopMost is set only if the taskbar already has a WS_EX_TOPMOST style. However the check is not done per taskbar. It always checks the main one.

I am super busy with work at the moment, but hopefully in the next few weeks I can install the latest 7TT and run some tests.

If you are up for it, I can share the PDBs and some of the source code with you so you can debug what is going on. If you are interested, send me a PM.

One more unexplainable compatibility issue with 7+ Taskbar Tweaker (also mentioned here).
"Hide Start Button" option of 7TT disables opening Classic Start Menu by mouse clicking Start button area with Classic Shell 4.2.5, but not with Classic Shell 4.1.0 (I tested only these two versions).
When Classic Shell is turned off (or uninstalled) and "Hide Start Button" option is enabled in 7TT, Start button appears on hovering mouse over lower left corner.
Tested on Windows 8.1 x64.

I am not familiar with the "Hide Start Button" feature. If it hides the start button, how do you expect to open the start menu?

"Hide Start Button" feature hides start button, but leaves some space without Start Button icon. Pressing left mouse button on this space opens start menu (it works, at least, in Classic Shell 4.1.0).

You can do a very similar effect by using a custom button that has a small fully transparent image. The width of the image will determine the amount of space.

That's a good workaround, but not the solution of compatibility.

I may look into it, however when you have two programs trying to mess with the same part of the OS, usually incompatibilities are to be expected.

Actually, the hiding feature belongs to 7+ Taskbar Tweaker, it is the tool that is hiding a control so it should deal with this problem.

_________________
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.