Classic Shell: Forum

Updated my wife's Win11 system today to V21H2 (22000.739) and OpenShell stopped working (I have seen the shell icon disappear from the lower left of the task before but could restore it by running StartMenu.exe.

Tried to run the shell program from the Program_Files folder today and after the Win11 update and got the error message of "This app can't run on your PC. Check with the software producer".


Is there a version update to fix this?

Update 6/16/2022
Not sure why this fixed this issue, but I downloaded the latest version from GitHub and re-installed it. Now, OpenShell is back in the lower left of the taskbar. BTW, I did also try a regedit change to add an element called "Show_Start_ClassicMode" (think I remember that correctly) but it didn't work, so I backed that change out BEFORE I did the re-install.

Hope this helps someone else.

K

reinstall is almost always step 1 when something is wonky (just be sure to backup your settings)
that said if i had to guess open-shell had to reinitialize something, or they updated it to fix what was broke with the latest windows 11 build, maybe it wasnt auto-updating like it should?

I didn't do a reinstall. Just ran the OpenShell -> StartMenu.exe as per my post.

This has happened several times since the initial loss of the "Shell" icon at the bottom left of the screen and my post. It "seems" that it could be related to some games that my wife plays but that is just my suspicion (the other two Win10 systems are NOT used to play games). It never happens on those other two Win10 systems here, so could be down to things that MS does in Win11.


I have the OpenShell configured to make "Sleep" the default action to the right of the search bar when clicking the "Shell"...so when she doesn't see the "Shell" she has no idea of how to sleep the PC. I keep telling her that if she leaves games running that refresh the screen then the PC will NOT sleep when she walks away from it (I have her PC set to automatically sleep in 15 minutes of no activity).


I always update OpenShell manually, so keep all 3 PCs running the same version.

Oh yea some games do tend to move the start button. the general 'fix' is to change the game from 'fullscreen' to 'fullscreen(window)' if possible Or just restart classic shell when it happens.
I think its mostly on games whos resolution dont match that of the current desktop (windows DPI setting may have something to do with it too so setting that to 100% is something I would recommend if the game in question does use the same resolution as classic shell.
This bug has been part of classic shell for ages, and at this point I'm not banking on it ever getting fixed

Interesting. It never happened under her old PC running Win10 though. She could be using a different game, I suppose.

thats the likely case, Or a different screen resolution/dpi setting that no-longer matches what the game used originally.
though it could still be a new bug entirely... a few more troubleshooting ideas if you want:
1. check to see if pressing the windows key still works while the start button is gone? Howabout shift+windows(or whatever shortcut you have set to open the OLD start menu)?
Lastly as stated try setting the game resolution to match, or as 'fullscreen(window)' if possible.

Thanks. I'll check the troubleshooting tips you provided.

Getting my wife, however, to look at screen resotuion is a lost cause. She will never do it!