Solved Open-shell question: Upgrading from Win 10 Home to Win 11 Home

Windows 10 22H2

I've been thinking of upgrading to Windows 11. I've been putting it off for a while, and I still might, as Windows 10 is working perfectly at the moment (I am off work this week so have some spare time).

When upgrading, do I have to do anything to Open-shell before I start the upgrade?

I read the best way to upgrade is via ISO. If this is the case, I'll have to look into how to go about it.
I've also read about installing it a certain way that stops all the bloat but that might be getting a bit too complicated for me.

Is there anything else to think about before going ahead?

Your thoughts will be appreciated.

Thanks

Hi, welcome to the ElevenForums

Have a run through this:


After that, if you’re still unclear, ask

Autobahn said:

When upgrading, do I have to do anything to Open-shell before I start the upgrade?

Click to expand...

I would uninstall it before and reinstall it after the upgrade.

Open Shell will configure itself to run on a new OS after a major upgrade.

Make sure to save it's config file if you have customised it.

Upgrading Windows 10 to 11 can also be done with the Windows 11 Installation Assistant, which is what I did on my Medion laptop. If you use the Taskbar text color and/or Taskbar texture (options on the Taskbar tab of the Open-Shell settings), after the upgrade to Windows 11 you might want to download and install ExplorerPatcher so that you can use it to bring back the Windows 10 taskbar on Windows 11. Even if you don't use these options, I recommend ExplorerPatcher on Windows 11 anyway because I think the Windows 11 taskbar is a major catastrophy regardless of the fact it can be customized to some degree with tweak software like StartAllBack or Windhawk. What I find to be catastrophic about it is that the minimum taskbar height, the minimum icons size and minimum icons spacing are too big, and, in addition, the option to always show all SysTray, or notification area icons on the taskbar is MSBAR (Microsucked beyond all recognition) so it still moves icons into an icon overflow menu if the number of SysTray icons exceeds a certain limit. The ability to add a toolbar to the taskbar also is missing, although it can be restored with StartAllBack, but that still doesn't fix the other two problems. ExplorerPatcher also gives the ability to bring back the Windows 10 File Explorer (i.e. by changing the Control Interface option in the ExplorerPatcher settings to Windows 10 Ribbon). Doing this fixes various bugs that occur in File Explorer even if you don't use any tweaks to customize File Explorer, and also restores the ability to use all of Open-Shell's Classic Explorer features in such a way that... well, you got the picture.

Thanks for all the replies. Extremely helpful.

Win 11 is basically the same as Win 10.
A normal user will only notice some cosmetic changes on the GUI like having the start button on the center of the screen (that can be changed to the left corner without any tweaks )
I'm using Win 11 with Open-shell and Explorer Pacher that makes Win 11 look like Win 7 and work like Win 10

Open Shell worked for me after doing a Windows 11 ISO setup.exe save files.

PS: You can forget any transparency though. I haven't found anybody that got it truly working on 11.

The new Open Shell, is just another program, and is not dependent on the OS. It will install and run on Windows 11 as well as Windows 10 ,as well as Windows 8.1, etc.

Windows 11 has been tamed to the point that the Classic Shell is really not required any more. But for a tweak or two, I still use it.
I still use it for removing the Transparency in the Task Bar.

Generally, I can work with Windows 11/Pro/64, just the way it comes out of the box.
Try it for a while, before installing the Classic Shell. You may well find that you don't need the Shell.

steveg said:

Open Shell worked for me after doing a Windows 11 ISO setup.exe save files.

PS: You can forget any transparency though. I haven't found anybody that got it truly working on 11.

Click to expand...

Is this without uninstalling it first?

Autobahn said:

Is this without uninstalling it first?

Click to expand...

I've upgraded from Win 10 to Win 11 without uninstalling it. Once win 11 was running I've installed Explorer Pacher and did some tweaks adjustments.

Autobahn said:

Is this without uninstalling it first?

Click to expand...

Yes.

TechnoMage2021 said:

Generally, I can work with Windows 11/Pro/64, just the way it comes out of the box.
Try it for a while, before installing the Classic Shell. You may well find that you don't need the Shell.

Click to expand...

Very true. For me some of the tweaks are still nice. I'll add I will never go to tiles for my desktop, I do not want my computer to look like my phones or tablets. I'll die with my old school desktop.

One thing that has not been mentioned, is that you can at any time STOP the Classic Shell.
Just right click the Start Button in the Shell, and then click "Exit". The Shell will turn OFF!
So when you don't want the Shell, for whatever reason, you can just turn it OFF.

Lets just Keep It Simple! Eh?

TM

When you don't click on the Start button and the Start menu isn't open, the Open-Shell Menu process that keeps running in the background uses up 0% CPU power and 1.7MB RAM. Posting nonsense on the internet about the process uses more CPU power and RAM.

I've been so busy the last few weeks I've not had time to upgrade yet.

I have some time off work in a few weeks time, so hopefully (if nothing else crops up) I will have time to do the upgrade.

One more question: I'm running version 4.4.162 of Open-shell. Is it best to update to the latest version 4.4.191 before upgrading to W11?

Autobahn said:

I've been so busy the last few weeks I've not had time to upgrade yet.

I have some time off work in a few weeks time, so hopefully (if nothing else crops up) I will have time to do the upgrade.

One more question: I'm running version 4.4.162 of Open-shell. Is it best to update to the latest version 4.4.191 before upgrading to W11?

Click to expand...

Yes, do the update

Since you upgrade Windows is a good idea to also update some applications, such as Open Shell, WinRAR, VLC etc. Updating the applications before upgrading to Windows 11 increases compatibility.

Autobahn said:

I'm running version 4.4.162 of Open-shell

Click to expand...

That is a very old release, made for Windows 10.
It does not function at all in Windows 11 or at least has all kinds of troubles.
My version of Open Shell indeed is 4.4.191 and is dated August 23, 2023.
Which is somewhat old as well (almost a year ago since last update) but it is functioning perfectly in Windows 11 23H2 22631.3737.
What it will do in 24H2 is not to predict, we'll see!