Classic Shell Windows Start Menu App Officially Discontinued

[Deletedmessiah]

Classic Shell, one of the most popular third-party Windows Start menu apps, is being retired, with the source code released online for the developer community to fork the app and keep the project alive.

The developer of the program said in an announcement that giving up on Classic Shell is a decision mostly forced by three factors, including lack of free time, frequent Windows 10 updates that break the previous version of the app, and changes that Microsoft makes to the operating system.

“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,” the Classic Shell developer explains.

While the original app won’t receive any new updates, Classic Shell can live on with help from the developer community, as the source code has been released to SourceForge for anyone who wants to fork it and release new updates based on the original version.

The Classic Shell download links will stay up for 6 more months, while the website will be closed in late 2018.

Classic Shell making Windows 8 more familiar
While the story of Classic Shell goes back to 2009, a major boom in downloads was recorded in 2012 when Microsoft made the controversial decision of launching Windows 8 without a Start button (at first) and a Start menu. Many users turned to third-party alternatives to bring the Start menu back, and Classic Shell was one of the most popular versions given its familiar look and rich set of features.

Classic Shell thus became one of the first programs companies and home users alike installed after deploying Windows on a new computer, as it brought back the familiar UI that users lost following the upgrade to Windows 8.

In the meantime, Microsoft has brought back the Start menu in Windows 10, but users who still want a third-party alternative can stick with Classic Shell a little bit longer. It remains to be seen for how long though, as a future Windows version can completely break down the app.



Sad news Really loved this software.

 

[Danielx64]

Thank you for the head up. While one place where I work uses Windows 10 2016 Enterprise LTSB, this will mean that I need to find a replacement that will work for us.

 

[Deleted member 178]

I could understand for Win8 but on Win8.1/10, a bit of customization and you almost have Classic start menu.

 

[Deleted member 65228]

Each new version of Windows moves further away from the classic Win32 programming model,

I disagree heavily. Windows Store development is being pushed by Microsoft because they make money from it when people use it for developing their software (e.g. upload to their store -> more attention from downloads as well for Microsoft), but Win32 is still the most prevalent. I've known many software engineers over the years and one thing I've never ever heard in my life is, "Hello mate! I'm working on a new app now, it's going to be on the Windows Store!".

Windows evolves around Win32, and without Win32, Windows Store applications won't exist. They all rely on Win32 to even exist. The GUI components for them rely on Win32 at the very bottom. Win32 will never die because it is the heart of software for Windows, and the Native API is the heart of Win32 API.

This is why all Windows Store applications have Win32 modules like ntdll.dll, kernel32.dll, kernelbase.dll, etc. loading in the address space of their process. I am sure this can also be abused to execute native Win32/NTAPI code even when the system is configured to only allow Windows Store applications, from within a Windows Store application.

 

[Danielx64]

Interesting question for anyone here, anyone going to pick this up? If I was to pick this up I would remove everything but the core code needed for the start menu and that's it.

 

[jetman]

I don't particularly like the look of Windows 10 after a fresh install.

However, with a bit a tweaking with the settings, it is possible to get a much simpler look.
It can be made to appear fairly close to Windows 7 really (not exactly the same, but something I can certainly live with.)

 

[Deleted member 65228]

The thing about additional software to alter the User Interface is that they can't really expect Microsoft not to make changes which can break their software. I don't understand how you could expect this, because it'd be really inconvenient for Microsoft as well. Microsoft make regular changes for all patch updates, some of the patch updates are very extensive with how many things are changed in one-go. They can test with the beta releases and fix before the official releases.

Microsoft should make a documented method to alter the User Interface, make themes more extensive. For example, a pack which can be installed to access Aero themes and change the view-style to one similar to Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1. Instead of people modding the OS UI components which will cause breakages, that's sort of obvious to happen down the line.

When you mess with things not officially supported/pushed by Microsoft themselves and/or not documented, you go down a path of trouble if you cannot maintain it. Ask Kaspersky, they'll know from experience from when they couldn't support many features in their security solutions for major OS updates for many months, simply because they were forced to go down the route of undocumented/non-MS supported techniques to provide functionality for various things. In the end they had to do more reverse engineering and research to add support for the OS version that features were broken for. It's natural when you do things like this.

 

[Deletedmessiah]

I could understand for Win8 but on Win8.1/10, a bit of customization and you almost have Classic start menu.

Don't know about 10 but Win 8.1 menu isn't as convinient.

 

[Cortex]

I have used Classic Shell, but have always preferred Stardock Start 10 - I don't like the Windows 10 Start Menu at all & still prefer the Windows 7 & previous system - I hope Start 10 keeps going as It's something I would really miss, though if you have lots of programs the old system is much better IMO than the cluttered Win 10 system, though my daughter loves it.

 

[Deleted member 178]

I don't particularly like the look of Windows 10 after a fresh install.

However, with a bit a tweaking with the settings, it is possible to get a much simpler look.
It can be made to appear fairly close to Windows 7 really (not exactly the same, but something I can certainly live with.)

View attachment 175113

Exactly what i was talking about.

 

[dJim]

im only using classic shell for real transparent taskbar. actually the win 10 start menu is great much better than win 7.

 

[ForgottenSeer 58943]

I cannot stand Windows 10 Start Menu. One of the first things I do on any PC is put Start 10 and Fences on it. Fences cleans up the desktop and makes it easy and appealing to look at. Start10 fixes that abysmal Win10 start menu putting everything I use back to where I want it.

Classic Shell does a lot of other stuff that is useless. Like explorer changes, IE Changes, etc. I suspect a new developer will go back to the core task of improving the default start menu and keeping it simple. Like Start 10.. Simple, effective.

 

[StriderHunterX]

Thanks for the tip.

I will certainly download a fresh install.While their numbers are dwindling, I still come across Win8 PC's...(The ones that need it the most,IMHO)

 

[Rengar]

I was always using this:IObit Start Menu 8 for Windows 8 Free download, Bring Windows 8 Start Menu back - IObit

 

[Danielx64]

I'm using StartIsBack: real start menu for Windows 8 and Windows 10 at home and may need to buy work a bunch of licenses so that they have something that is supported.