How to Enable the “New” Start Screen in Windows 10 Build 9879

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Exterminator

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http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-...-Screen-in-Windows-10-Build-9879-464953.shtml

As you might know if you've already installed Windows 10 Technical Preview, Microsoft focuses on the desktop more than on everything else in these releases, trying to show users that it's really trying to fix things that went wrong in Windows 8.

This is why we finally get the Start menu back, along with other options such as multiple desktops and a notification center that keeps us up to date with everything happening on our devices.

But since the Start menu returned, the Start screen has been pretty much nowhere to be seen and this more or less makes sense for some users. Think about it a little bit: you wanted the Start menu back, so Microsoft brought it back in modern clothes, but without offering any easy way to go back to the Start screen.

If you want to do that, you can always access taskbar properties and switch from the Start menu to the Start screen, but you'll need to reboot or sign out, and in the end, you'll get the same old design as in Windows 8.1.
How to enable the new Start screen
It's a well-known fact that Microsoft also wants to improve the Modern UI in Windows 10, and thanks to this fact, the company is working on what it calls “Continuum Mode,” which will enable 2-in-1 users to switch from the desktop to Metro instantly.

It appears that Technical Preview build 9879 also has an early implementation of this feature, and thanks to a small trick, you can actually give it a shot.

First and foremost, open Registry Editor by typing regedit in the Start menu and navigate to the following path:

<>code
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell\Launcher

Once you're there, right-click on the right side of the screen, click on “New,” and create a new DWORD entry. Set its value to “1” and reboot your computer.

Alternatively, you can also sign out of the computer or simply kill the Explorer process by pressing Shift+Control and right-clicking the taskbar. Then launch the Task Manager, type Explorer, and hit Enter.

Keep in mind that this is a very early implementation of the new Start screen mode, so it's really buggy and can't be used on a regular basis. But it does provide us with a quick glimpse at how the upcoming feature will look.

If you want to get back to the Start menu, just follow the steps above and switch the new key's value to “0.”
 

Petrovic

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Classic Shell is now unsupported in Windows 10

Windows 8 was the first modern Windows version to come without a Start menu, a change which not only confused many Windows 7 users planning to upgrade, but that also affected adoption of Microsoft's new product.

What also happened was a rapid growth of the third-party software market for alternative Start menu solutions and many developers out there tried to make the most of this problem to attract more users with their apps.

The best example in this case is Classic Shell, one of the top Start menu apps out there which recorded millions of downloads in the last few years, but especially after the launch of Windows 8.

With Windows 10, however, everybody’s wondering whether Microsoft still plans to allow third-party Start menu apps on its desktop operating system or block them all, as the revamped desktop comes with new features that also include a modern Start menu.

Classic Shell no longer works on Windows 10
Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9879, which was officially released last week, no longer supports Classic Shell, which means that users have no other option than to stick to the default Start menu.

From now on, when trying to download and install Classic Shell on Windows 10, they are provided with an error telling them at “Classic Shell has compatibility issues” and it cannot be installed.

Running the installer in compatibility mode and using Microsoft's own instructions to get it work make absolutely no difference, and at this point it's impossible to use Classic Shell on a computer running Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9879. Unless you turn to a little trick, that is.
How to install it anyway
The easiest way to install Classic Shell on a Windows 10 Technical Preview 9879 is to rename the installer from “ClassicShellSetup_4_1_0” to anything you want. We used “Softpedia” instead of the original name, and as you can see in the photo gallery below, everything works smoothly.

It's also worth mentioning that in the previous builds of Windows 10, namely build 9841 and 9860, Classic Shell worked without any trick, so the change only occurs in the latest release.

This is most likely just a compatibility issue that can be resolved in the coming updates, but given the fact that Windows 10 won't receive any other pack of improvements until early 2015, the aforementioned trick is the only way to get Classic Shell to work on build 9879.

We've also reached out to Microsoft for a word on this and we’ll update the article when and if we get an answer.@GabeAul It turns out Classic Shell doesn't work on build 9879. Any changes for third-party Start menu apps? http://t.co/UrOz1CNbUT
— Bogdan Popa (@BogdanSPD) November 20, 2014
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