Open Shell and 25H2

Rollback_Jockey said:

View attachment 146676

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Rollback_Jockey​

In your image in post #4, the left pane appears to be "launchable" items as I show on mine in the post below it. I am struggling to see how these screenshots are to help me, but I think with your help, they will.

For the sake of this discussion, lets focus on the Utilities icon on the left panel in post #5. Clicking on it expands to a menu with my most used utilities. Works perfect except the icon is ugly.

If I create a shortcut to that Utilities folder and "Pin to Start menu (Open-Shell)", I can change the icon on that shortcut, but when I pin it in Open Shell, it opens the Explorer for that folder rather then the menu.

Looking at your screenshot of your Start menu, it looks like some of the items in the left pane are similar. If so can you help me with more detail?

Thank you!

Concentrate on the right hand pane.

Rollback_Jockey said:

Concentrate on the right hand pane.

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I'm sorry, but I am just not following. Right or Left column, I don't care, I just want my Folders (currently on the left column) with a different icon, so I created a shortcut with a nicer icon, but (so far), I can not figure out how to get that shortcut to expand out to a menu. I am OK putting these folder items on the right pane and using the settings menu that you posted above, but I still don't know how to create a custom item with my shortcut.

Sorry, but I am struggling and persisting because I think this is possible, but I need guidance.

Thanks again.

Try to right-click the start button and select Open all users. You can then add anything there and it will appear in the start menu.

spapakons said:

Try to right-click the start button and select Open all users. You can then add anything there and it will appear in the start menu.

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Great tip that I didn't know, but the latest question was how to add an item and use a different icon. Post #16 is steering me in the right direction. Now I just need to play with it a bit and organize my files/folders/settings to that I can have it ready in case of a reinstall or to use on my other computers.

A little extra work here makes for a better long term Windows experience, and I enjoy tinkering.

Thank to all that contributed here!

While you have open the start menu to add shortcuts, right-click on the shortcut and select Properties. There you can change the icon.

BUG REPORT:

Virtual machine running Windows 11 24H2 without any customization utility installed. I used the 25H2 Enablement Package to switch version to 25H2, although I think the same bug should be in a clean installation. I then installed latest Open Shell and Explorer Patcher to check them. I wanted to replace the default start button with a custom button, but as soon as I click to browse for a custom button there was no File Explorer window on screen and Open Shell Settings would be non-responsive. I had to press CTRL+F4 to close the invisible and useless File Explorer window so I would take control of Open Shell Settings again. The workaround is to manually type the path to the file in the box rather than browse for it.

PS: I found bug reports in Github that this is a known bug also in newer 24H2 builds. I just confirmed it, it also does that in my host PC running Windows 11 24H2 build 26100.6584. It seems that some of the last cumulative updates affected something in File Explorer. As said before the workaround is to manually type the path to the .png image rather than browse for it. Phew! At least this is not a 25H2 bug after all, so unless there is something else, I can upgrade. I will wait a few more days to make sure no other compatibility issues exist and then run the 25H2 Enablement Package on my main PC.

spapakons said:

As said before the workaround is to manually type the path to the .png image rather than browse for it.

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Or just hit the Windows Key at the point it freezes then continue to the next step.

What is the WIN supposed to do? I will try and see...

spapakons said:

What is the WIN supposed to do? I will try and see...

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It seems to wake up the dialog wait chain.

I am grateful to find the "WIN" button solution to the freezing
I also love Windhawk. Here's a look at my menu. I like a narrow left-side and most of those I know the program by icon anyway.

spapakons said:

Also if you use 125% or larger scaling, a custom start button might not scale. To make it appear right, manually set the size.

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HOW (??) to do this , when using latest Open-Shell , together with latest SAB , I get two visible Start-buttons !
One bigger then the other , both same icons............

Right-click on the start button. If it is the correct one you should see Open Shell Menu 4.4.xxx on top. Select Settings. Switch to Start button tab. Here you can choose an image to be your custom start button, like the good old Windows orb from Windows Vista & 7. I use 100 scaling, so I set custom size to 60 pixels (60x60). For 125 or higher try 70 or higher to see it fit the taskbar without being too small or too large. However, the upcoming version of Open Shell promises to automatically correct the size if scaling is detected.