Classic Shell: Forum

I am running Classic Start Menu 4.3.1 on Windows 10 x64 1903. When I go to Start > Programs, I see several folders installed by the system: Accessibility, Accessories, Administrative Tools, and System Tools. But when I use the option to view the official Windows Start Menu, the only such folder I see is Windows Accessories, and it doesn't have the same icons as any of these others.

I thought maybe the explanation was that the contents of those folders, such as the Speech Recognition app in the Accessibility folder, were just distributed across the top level of the official Start Menu. But I don't see that app listed in that menu. Likewise for the Task Manager icon in the System Tools folder.

So my first question is, how do the folders in the Classic Start Menu relate to folders and items in the official menu?

I mostly care about that because my real mission is to take the useful icons from those system folders (e.g., the Paint icon from the Accessories folder) and put them into my own preferred folders, and then get rid of those unwanted system folders (i.e., Accessories and the several others just listed).

I have been scrambling, editing, and deleting icons and folders from the Start Menu for years. I've been doing that in Windows 10 for the past year or two. Suddenly I'm told this could explain some system instability that I'm experiencing. Any ideas why I would be getting instability now when I wasn't getting instability a month or two ago?

For me, both menus have the same folders, but the Metro apps show up separately in the "Apps" folder in CSM.

My Win 10 is made from continuous updates (not clean install) starting from Win 8.
There is one thing about icons, in that they will look different depending on what size/color bit they are displayed. See picture

Sorry, I don't know how CSM relates the folders and items from Win 10 start menu other than the
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu and C:\Users\name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu

When you say taking icons, I guess you mean making/ deleting icon shortcuts because getting access to the original icons in the .dll files is not happening.
Resource Hacker used to be able to open Win 10 Taskmgr.exe,shell32.dll files to see/change the icons inside but not anymore!


About instability
I just have to live with an unstable evolving operating Win 10 system.
I don't do any modifying/deleting of any system files/folders. Most problems in the system show up and then go away with later updates.
Example: For about a month or so whenever Microsoft Edge explorer was closed, all icons on the desktop would flash refresh, then do it again one second later.
Then eventually an update must have fixed it from refreshing for I did not alter any files/settings.


When I upgraded to Windows 1903, the glass color on CSM start menu did not work anymore, then a Windows update fixed it.
The same thing with auto sleep not working anymore, then another update fixed that.
So, Microsoft is always breaking something/ fixing it later.

There is one issue that happens a lot for me on Windows 10, though I don't know if Classic Shell has anything to do with it.
When I have some folders and lots of programs open, Windows Explorer decides to refresh and close the open folders.
I then have to open all those folders again.
Happens zero to a few times a day. Nothing is lost, just have the annoyance opening all the locations of folders again.

Very occasionally Windows Explorer closes everything, restarts itself with a clean slate, losing any work I had.
The system has hardly ever done a full crash-restart, so I'm happy about that.

If you add a custom item, you can combine folders by using a semicolon in the LINK field. See here how to combine folders: https://winaero.com/blog/classic-shell- ... f-changes/

Also you can apply the Hidden attribute to any folder to not show in the Classic Start Menu without deleting it.

You can always create a Library for Accessory folder shortcuts and link to that *.Library-ms file from Classic Shell's Start Menu

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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.