lassic Shell is back and is now open source Classic Start ...
I'm a long time Classic Shell user. In late January 2013 I upgraded my oldest Win 7 desktop (originally purchased with Vista and a free upgrade to Win 7) to 32-bit Windows 8 Pro and Media Center to take advantage of Microsoft's $39.99 upgrade which was available till January 31, 2013. I immediately replaced the Win 8 touch oriented Metro style UI with the free Classic Shell start menu from IvoSoft. I also loaded Classic Shell on my 64-bit Win 7 desktop and subsequently on my 64-bit Win 10 desktop purchased in late 2015 and I described it here | Message 30725720 .
Ivo Beltchev, the original developerof Classic Shell ceased development and support for the product last December but the good news is ...
betanews.com
When Microsoft scrapped the Start menu in Windows 8, users were up in arms. Most refused to upgrade to the new OS, which ultimately led to its failure and demise, and of those who did switch, large numbers sought out third-party Start menus.
The best of these options was unquestionably Classic Shell. A great free tool it offered users a choice of three different menu styles -- Classic, Two Columns and Windows 7 -- as well as other options for customizing various elements of the OS, including Explorer.
Sadly, the creator of Classic Shell, Ivo Beltchev, pulled the plug on his famous creation in December 2017, stating:
>> After months of deliberation, I have decided to stop the development of Classic Shell.
t was a great adventure for me that lasted 8 fun and exciting years. It started back in 2009 as a simple weekend project and over time grew to be a hugely popular software brand with many millions of downloads. It was in large part due to all of you, the active Classic Shell community, that reported issues, suggested features, provided translations, developed new skins and participated in forum discussions. My thanks go to you for your continued support and encouragement.
There were few factors that led to my decision:
1) Lack of free time. I have other hobbies that demand my time, some related to software and some not. It requires a lot of effort to add new major features to Classic Shell and keep it relevant. Even keeping it running on newer version of Windows is a lot of work. That leads me to point #2
2) Windows 10 is being updated way too frequently (twice a year) and each new version changes something that breaks Classic Shell. And
3) Each new version of Windows moves further away from the classic Win32 programming model, which allowed room for a lot of tinkering. The new ways things are done make it very difficult to achieve the same customizations <<
Before he killed Classic Shell, however, Ivo made it open source and added it to SourceForge, in the hope that someone would fork the project and continue where he left off.
And the great news is someone did exactly that. Classic Shell is dead, say hello to Classic Start
The new version is really just Classic Shell with a new name at the moment and gives you all the options you had previously. Quite where the project will go in the future remains to be seen, but it’s great to have it back.
Classic Start runs on Windows 10 and previous versions of Windows and is available to download from GitHub here | ClassicStart Setup_4_4_109.exe . github.com
[Note: Norton Security removed and quarantined the executable because it was so new but I restored it. I won't load it yet because it is essentially the same as the Classic Start menu I'm running (v4.3.1) which runs perfectly fine on all 3 of my current systems including Win10 1804. It is nice it know it has been adopted and will be developed going forward as new updates are released.]
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Related Links
• Classic Shell website | classicshell.net
• Wikipedia Classic Shell | en.wikipedia.org
• Miss Classic Shell? Classic Start comes to the rescue | ghacks.net
• Classic Shell by IvoSoft - Should I Remove It? | shouldiremoveit.com
• Windows 10 Start menus: Start10 vs. Classic Shell (Woody Leonhard) | infoworld.com
- Eric L. - |
