Classic Shell Returns For Windows 11 (with and/or without) ExplorerPatcher installed

Bart · Jan 18, 2023

cereberus said:
Whilst I preferred the W10 menu, in the end the W11 menu is not really that different (more so since live tiles got ditched).

People seem to get so worked up over a menu. A menu is just a list of items you run. The icons part are your favourites, and the rest you select from the a-z list.

People seem to forget the menu is a means to an end, not the end itself.

So, I would not recommend any 3rd party menu to a person transitioning to W11 as its menu works ok.

Some people also seem to underrate the psychological and subconscious effects of intrusive changes to a known UI. If the new menu works fine for you, that's great. Other people have serious difficulties with such changes. IMHO, your point of view here seems reasonable, but actually it isn't. Sorry.

hdmi · Jan 18, 2023

Bart said:
Some people also seem to underrate the psychological and subconscious effects of intrusive changes to a known UI. If the new menu works fine for you, that's great. Other people have serious difficulties with such changes. IMHO, your point of view here seems reasonable, but actually it isn't. Sorry.

Some people actually even also seem to underrate the physical and conscious effects of such changes. The Windows 7 style choice for the Start Menu of Open-Shell adds multiple features that can, and do have a measurable impact on the amount of physical work effort a user has to go through to accomplish certain tasks in various many situations depending on worflow. A lot of people are very conscious of the fact that a persistent lack of these features is what physically impairs productivity, not just because the user had grown accustomed to features having been crippled or gone missing altogether, but simply because the user has to depend on a highy repetitiveness character of some certain UI actions. The repetitiveness factor amplifies those kinds of effects in many different ways.

Personally, I, am consciously aware that I have muscle memory. Those who are not consciously aware that they have it too should try to use a menu that shuffles two dozens of menu items around after every two minutes. Beacuse, THEN, we will be able to measure how many minutes it takes for these people to become consciously aware of what this is. Similar to the reason why logical concepts like macros and automation were invented, the features are useful, and are useful merely for the known fact that they speed up certain types of workflow. This is just ergonomics 101. There will always be someone who confounds "a means to an end" with "an end to a means". Such is the nature of trolls on the internet.

TechnoMage2021 · Jan 18, 2023

Anyone who thinks that the Classic Shell, any version, is just a menu program is totally missing the boat.
Yes it can supply a START button and a familiar menu system but OH so much more. It's loaded with literally dozens of tweaks and fixes for Windows. I use it to customize my Task Bar, and much more.
I will not install any version of Windows since 8.1, without also installing the Classic Shell. It would run under Win-7 but was not necessary.

Viva la difference!

PS: I just now downloaded the latest (Beta) version of Open Shell. It installed over the older version, with no Ill Effects, and I don't see any glaring differences.

hdmi · Jan 18, 2023

TechnoMage2021 said:
It would run under Win-7 but was not necessary.

I started using Classic Shell when it was still an early beta release. On Windows 7 x64 Ultimate. Back in the day, tons of people were ready to wage war against Microsoft because Windows Explorer (nowadays called File Explorer) had breadcrumbs instead of the up arrow button (the one that let you navigate up a level in your folder tree structure on Windows XP). Microsoft later decided to bring back the up arrow button. So, Classic Shell was very much necessary on Windows 7. More than you know.

james73 · Jan 19, 2023

I use Open Shell (along with ExplorerPatcher) in Win11 and one thing is eating away at my OCD.

How do I change this (screenshot is Open Shell in Win11) :

There must be a way to hack this??

Try3 · Jan 19, 2023

What? The separator? Don't OpenShell options allow you to choose to omit that?

Denis

james73 · Jan 19, 2023

Try3 said:
What? The separator? Don't OpenShell options allow you to choose to omit that?

Denis

Eh, no Denis...

See the bit down the left-hand side (at 90° to your left) where it says 'Windows 10 Pro' ?

Yeah, that bit.

spapakons · Jan 19, 2023

Open Registry Editor (aka regedit) and search for "Windows 10 Pro" to find the text. Backup the respective key (export) before you modify it and then try to change the text to "Windows 11 Pro". Maybe you have to restart to take effect.

james73 · Jan 19, 2023

spapakons said:
Open Registry Editor (aka regedit) and search for "Windows 10 Pro" to find the text. Backup the respective key (export) before you modify it and then try to change the text to "Windows 11 Pro". Maybe you have to restart to take effect.

Genius.

It's in:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProductName

No restart needed.

spapakons · Jan 20, 2023

I would change it to Windows 11 Pro Special Edition and let friends wonder...

james73 · Jan 20, 2023

After restarting the PC this morning, it's back to Windows 10 Pro.

Bah.

wiganken · Jan 20, 2023

Could it be that it because you have both Win 10 Pro + Win 11 Pro installed and the first OS is being picked up by Open Shell? Your 'My Computer' specification shows you have both OSs installed and Open Shell can only choose one of them. Just guessing.

Try3 · Jan 20, 2023

james73 said:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProductName

James,

The fact that Windows 11 calls itself Windows 10 still in that Registry entry has been happening ever since Windows 11 was released.
There is no sign of MS correcting this anomaly.

Your OpenShell is merely reading & repeating what it finds in that entry so I think it likely that you would have to alter the value yourself after every reboot.

Denis

james73 · Jan 20, 2023

wiganken said:
Could it be that it because you have both Win 10 Pro + Win 11 Pro installed and the first OS is being picked up by Open Shell? Your 'My Computer' specification shows you have both OSs installed and Open Shell can only choose one of them. Just guessing.

No, they're on separate partitions so there's no way Open Shell could see the registry entry in the other operating system.

And anyway Windows 11 was installed first.

hdmi · Jan 20, 2023

Try3 said:
James,

The fact that Windows 11 calls itself Windows 10

You can't blame Windows 11 for being a truthful OS.

The-Hive · Jan 20, 2023

FWIW I use ExplorerPatcher and a very old version of OpenShell when it was called Classic Shell, it works just fine and always has done with any version of Windows

pietcorus2 · Jan 20, 2023

Yes , here also ........its the best startmenu I ever used !
From Win7 , 8, 10 and on 11............. :wink:

The-Hive · Jan 20, 2023

When it first changed from ClassicShell to OpenShell, I found that creating 2 shortcuts caused the icons not to change to custom ones it never happened in ClassicShell so I went back, it works so well I haven't ever bothered to upgrade to the latest version of OpenShell, I am still on version 4.3.1

neves · Jan 20, 2023

Despite of all the praising some people had/have for Windows 10 - the start menu was buggy and slow - pure cringe without Open Shell (or Classic Shell). Fortunately, they fixed & improved that about Windows 11 - so i don't feel the need to use Open Shell anymore.

pietcorus2 · Jan 20, 2023

neves said:
Despite of all the praising some people had/have for Windows 10 - the start menu was buggy and slow - pure cringe without Open Shell (or Classic Shell). Fortunately, they fixed & improved that about Windows 11 - so i don't feel the need to use Open Shell anymore.

You can use them both still............ :wink: