Windows 7 Taskbar Classic Shell

[Agalia Valcin]

Someweeks ago, I encountered the Windows 10 black-screen search bug while setting up a newcomputer, just before I managed to put in the tweak that disables any sort of onlinesearch functionality. This was a silly bug that shouldn't have happened, and a day later, I would havemissed it. But it got me thinking. Maybe it's time to re-explore Classic Shell?

Classic Shell was the one tool that allowed me to useWindows 8, without having to go through the chromosomally challenged full-screen Start Screen that wassupposed to be the new rage of touchified nonsense in the desktop space. Then, I discovered thatClassic Shell had ceased development. But there's a fork available, called Open-Shell, and it's also supposed to work onWindows 10. So I started testing.

The installation is trivial. Once it finishes, the first time you activate the Windows menu, you'llsee the Open-Shell configuration menu. At this point, it runs in simple mode, with fewer optionsexposed to the end user, and it focuses on helping you choose the right layout. You can go forclassique or more modern style, and there are several skins available to help you achieve that. None ofthe layouts mimic Windows 10. Instead, the latest Windows-like layout you get is Windows 7, perhapswith the Windows 8 color palette.

I wasn't too sure about the initial look and feel. I mean, yes, not bad. You can have Metro stylewith reduced transparency, but I had no pinned slash favorite applications shown, and the menu colorwas different from the taskbar. Which means, it's time to exercise some of them advanced options.

I enabled the Show all settings option, and then went for it. The thing is, the process can berather overwhelming. In most cases, you won't need to change much. But there are some useful extras youshould consider. For example, there's the whole Search the Internet setting. Not sure what this ismeant to be.

You can also enable the options to show recent and frequent apps in the menu - this is regardless ofwhat you have configured in Windows 10. So even if you don't want the standard Windows 10 Start menu toshow any usage, Open-Shell can do this separately. You can also always manually pin apps as you seefit.

Then, menu skin color. Again, very easy to change. Just search for the string color with the Showall settings checkbox enabled. It will allow you to override the menu glass color. Best, you also havethe Taskbar color for reference, and you can actually click on the color rectangle and use the colorchart to manually select whatever hue you fancy. I decided to match the color of the two elements.

Another thing is - Open-Shell also lets you have a more classic Window Explorer, if you will. Youcan choose this component during the installation. Then, once it's installed, if you don't like it, youcan simply turn it off, and your Windows Explorer won't be touched or changed in any way.

That said, the Open-Shell toolbar is actually quite practical. Now, for some weird reason, it wasplaced on the right side for me rather than left, go figure. However, this is easy to change. Rightclick to unlock, then drag the toolbar to the left (or remove it altogether, if you're unhappy).

I then decided to explore (get it, explore) the settings, and predictably, Open-Shell has it all.First, the basics, but then, you can also toggle the Show all settings options, and then really gowild. I was able to customize the toolbar to my liking, including the position of different buttons,separators and then some. Really useful, as you can have a powerful and accessible quick-action barright there, something that Windows 10 does not have, other than a massive and rather busy ribbon, thatis. In fact, the removal of the New Folder button, the way it was in the rather cushty Windows 7, towhat's currently a small button in the window titlebar, is a big productivity hit. Yes, you can movethe quick-access bar below the ribbon, but it's still too small. You need to be far more precise withthe mouse cursor, and that bleeds away precious time. Not so with Open-Shell.

Open-Shell is an excellent menu replacement for any which Windows version you like. If you're not inthe mood for the whole online search nonsense and associated bugs, tiles and whatever, or the fact youneed to tie in so-called modern app usage with the ability to simply show recently used programs, thenOpen-Shell offers a superb alternative. You have great freedom in altering the look & feel, so youend up with a jolly handsome menu.

Then, you can also add a toolbar to your Window Explorer, for extra productivity. With (large) andeasily clickable shortcuts for common actions, you can enhance your efficiency. It's so much easier toaim at the big toolbar in the middle top of the screen than tiny, narrowly spaced icons in the titlebar- to say nothing of the fact you can easily miss. All in all, you can't beat the classic desktop formula. The modern solutions, anything to do withtouch, simply fails the simple efficiency test. With that in mind, I suggest you take Open-Shell for aspin, and explore its many useful, practical and productivity-focused aspects. Take care.

We're going to show you how to use Classic Shell, a third-party program that focuses on tweaking the Start Menu, Taskbar, and File Explorer. From changing the Start icon, making the Taskbar fully transparent, to checking for Windows updates on shutdown, there's so much that Classic Shell can do.

First things first: head over to the Classic Shell website and download the program. Launch the installer and progress through the wizard. You'll be asked which elements of Classic Shell you want to install. For the purpose of this guide, select everything except Classic IE.

This will install Classic Start Menu Settings and Classic Explorer Settings, both of which you'll find doing a system search. We'll refer to them as Start Menu Settings and Explorer Settings.

By default, on both settings windows, you'll only see a small number of tabs and customization options. Tick Show all settings so that you can see all of the tabs because we'll need them for the upcoming tweaks.

If you miss the Start Menus from Windows past, Classic Shell makes it very easy to turn back the clock. Launch Start Menu Settings and go to the Start Menu Style tab. Here you can choose between Classic style, Classic with two columns and Windows 7 style.

Once selected, click Select skin... beneath and use the Skin drop-down to change between the different styles. For example, you could opt for the classic Start Menu using the XP colors.

Each skin also has its own options, customizable using the radio buttons and checkboxes below the drop-down. For example, some let you set the size of the icons, fonts, and whether to show your user picture.

First, it's time to choose the image you want. Technically you could use any image, but the best are those which have been specifically designed to show different image states in normal, hovered and pressed modes.

The Classic Shell forum has lots of different buttons to choose, ranging from Angry Birds, the Superman logo, or a retro XP look. Browse through the threads and once you find what you want, right-click the image and save it somewhere on your computer.

If you search Windows for change system sounds and select the relevant result, you can change what sound is played for various actions, like a low battery, message notification, or error. All well and good, but what if you want to add some sound to your Start Menu?

Open Start Menu Settings and go to the Sounds tab. Here you can set a different sound for when you open Start, when you close it, when an item is executed, when something is dropped, or when you hover your mouse over the icon.

Select what you want to set a sound for and click ... to browse to the audio file on your computer. It has to be in WAV format, so check out a site like WavSource for some to download.

The search on the Start Menu is good, especially with the addition of Cortana, but you can make it even better. Open Start Menu Settings and go to the Search Box tab. There's a bunch of useful settings that are worth enabling here.

Track frequency of use will see how often you open programs and place them higher in search results. Enable Auto-Complete will automatically detect full folder or file paths. Enabling both Search programs and settings and Search files is perhaps the most useful feature here and basically means that your Start Menu search becomes a one-stop-shop for finding absolutely anything on your system.

With Classic Shell, you can choose whether Windows checks for any updates when you're shutting down. To adjust this setting, open Start Menu Settings, go to the General Behavior tab and tick Check for Windows updates on shutdown.

It'll also show you whether there are updates to install by displaying an icon next to the Shutdown button. If you always need to shut down as quickly as possible, this option might not be the best, but it helps overcome Windows' forceful updates.

Windows offers limited transparency options, enabled via Settings > Personalization > Colors > Transparency effects. But that's no good if you want to have a fully transparent Taskbar.

To do this, go to Settings > Personalization > Colors, select a color and then tick Start, taskbar and action center. However, as the label suggests, this color isn't just for the Taskbar.

To get more information at the bottom of the screen, open Explorer Settings and go to the Status Bar tab. Once here, tick Show status bar and use the options beneath to customize to your liking.

All of them are useful, but particularly Show detailed info for single selection. This will display metadata about a file once you click on it without having to go to the Properties section.

3a8082e126