Windows 10: The next chapter

Classic Shell freeware http://www.classicshell.net/downloads/ would be mandatory under Windows 10 to address your valid concerns. There's no going back and not using Classic Shell until Microsoft does the right thing and lets us customize the Start Menu, removing that #1 new OS adoption barrier people will continue to have.


Classic Shell may be the opposite of 'poorly coded' if I may say, it's been around for a very long time, I remember it making Windows 7 usable for me by giving me the option of Windows XP style explorer buttons when browsing folders under Windows 7, just as it gave everyone else Windows 7 Start Menu options under Windows 8.

Over the many years now, Classic Shell author immediately addressed anything that was ever brought up - remarkable for a 100% free program. It makes the Start Menu fully customizable and it makes it whatever you want it to be. Windows 95? Done. Windows 7? Done. There are even identical Windows XP and Windows 95 and Windows 7 Start Buttons out there to address your concerns completely. The only problem is if your work won't let you install Classic Shell, then I guess Windows 10 Start Menu is better than nothing under Windows 8.

I'm on a Surface Pro 3 and I use classic shell. Metro just does not cut it for me, even on a touch system.

I don't know why everyone has to use classic shell anyway. Since I installed W8, I've seen the start screen a total of like 15 times.

I'll tell you one thing I do like about the W8 UI though: the Charms menu. I find it's search option very intuitive, and it gives you easy access to the PC settings screen (which controls a lot of the options that are new to W8, the ones you don't have in Control Panel).

The only times I've had to go into the Start menu are when I installed something and forgot to have it put an icon on my desktop. However, I rarely used the start menu in any Windows OS since 95 either. I find it easier to put icons on the desktop (in folders usually), where they are easier to get to. So in short, Windows 8 really didn't change how I use my computer. I should actually say Windows 8.1 didn't change the way I use my computer, because I didn't use 8.

People are different and there is no "right" or "wrong" when it comes to personal choice of OS interface. The value of Classic Shell is that it gives us the options to choose what we want. It doesn't take away metro or anything, just gives us a choice to enable/disable what we want. That's the "right" way - choice of options.
Most people using Classic Shell wouldn't argue that Metro should be taken away from people who like it, they only push for choice to choose what we want.

Start Menu is back in Windows 10 because the majority of people in the world dislike metro... let me ask you Beta testers: Is there choice in Windows 10 to disable Start Menu and have Metro only interface like it was under Windows 8.0 default?


As a proponent of Classic Shell, I would not want either taken away from people. When Windows 8 first came out and when people started returning Windows 8 machines to stores just to exchange them for Windows 7 over the Start Menu issue, I always thought one day Microsoft would come to their senses and put the Start Menu back. I thought maybe then Classic Shell would be used to get Metro back for people who like it

Dlaw said:

I don't know why everyone has to use classic shell anyway. Since I installed W8, I've seen the start screen a total of like 15 times.

I'll tell you one thing I do like about the W8 UI though: the Charms menu. I find it's search option very intuitive, and it gives you easy access to the PC settings screen (which controls a lot of the options that are new to W8, the ones you don't have in Control Panel).

The only times I've had to go into the Start menu are when I installed something and forgot to have it put an icon on my desktop. However, I rarely used the start menu in any Windows OS since 95 either. I find it easier to put icons on the desktop (in folders usually), where they are easier to get to. So in short, Windows 8 really didn't change how I use my computer. I should actually say Windows 8.1 didn't change the way I use my computer, because I didn't use 8.

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I personally use the start menu constantly, as I open many network drives (windows key -> \\<server>\share) and open almost all of my applications via quick-typing in the name 'active direc...' and click on users and computers, for example.

Because of that I use classic shell to avoid needing a window covering up all of my other windows in the background for no reason.

I simply chose Classic instead of the Metro upon installation of 8.1. I get the classic screen an find myself opening the Metro as needed; which I find myself doing fairly regularly.

I don't recall if I saw this on this thread or not; either way, about 5 minutes of video, Win10 and pretty cool.

Scout said:

You know thoes 1366 setups are calling you name !

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Well... I answered Got a SuperMicro duallie on its way

wagex said:

i see someone who has never played with linux before, its very handy if you do much multi tasking

as for too metro... it has a normal start menu..............................................

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Mmmm linux.
Great OS that I have no use for

"Normal"? Nu-uh. I hate with a passion the stupid square look of the tiles and crap. No. If I'm to ever upgrade to Win10 it has to look like Win9x or Win 7.

I'm unsure if classic shell can get rid of the stupid modern square tile look of Windows. If it can, sure I'll consider running Win 10.
But the truth is, Win 10 offers nothing new and useful to me that Windows 7 can't do.

I don't multitask like that tbh. F@H running, Chrome open, explorer open lookin' at files, and Minecraft running all on the same desktop. IMHO it would be a major inconvenience for me to switch between "desktops" to play a game or use Chrome (if they were on separate desktops) I prefer the one desktop approach.

That's just me, and how i like Windows. If Windows 95, hell 3.1 could run my modern day games and programs hell yeah I'd be running it!

If classic shell was native to Windows 8 and people could just simply choose between custom Start Menu or no Start menu, millions of angry posts about Windows 8 would not exist on the internet, not many people would be installing Windows 7 and it's clear as day that this would not be the headline today, they're saying Windows 8 is just at 14.5 % total, this long after its initial release, it was a completely predictable failure.
You can just look back at who said what about metro to measure how (dis)connected from the real world they are when it comes to real-world computer users.

Sure its great for a limited percentage of us [15%? maybe even 20%?] but the vast majority of the public was never going to accept it, maybe more would have if Metro was optional instead of mandatory?

Keynote Highlights & DirectX 12 in action from the stage @ build 2015

I tried Windows 10 on an older first gen i5 era laptop (6GB, SSD). Couldn't even figure out how to change the screen brightness. No controls seem to exist even when I searched Windows for it.

Could be that it just doesn't like laptop hardware that is a few years old or needs specific drivers, etc. Just a first minor annoyance.

Regardless, my overall interest at the moment is slim to none.

Is the laptop compatible with Windows 8?

You likely just need to install the drivers for the laptop to have that available.

Laptops present more issues like that than desktops and it seems their manufacturers are not particularly interested in continuing to develop drivers for OS's that come out subsequent to the manufacture.

Silver_Pharaoh said:

Mmmm linux.
Great OS that I have no use for

"Normal"? Nu-uh. I hate with a passion the stupid square look of the tiles and crap. No. If I'm to ever upgrade to Win10 it has to look like Win9x or Win 7.

I'm unsure if classic shell can get rid of the stupid modern square tile look of Windows. If it can, sure I'll consider running Win 10.
But the truth is, Win 10 offers nothing new and useful to me that Windows 7 can't do.

I don't multitask like that tbh. F@H running, Chrome open, explorer open lookin' at files, and Minecraft running all on the same desktop. IMHO it would be a major inconvenience for me to switch between "desktops" to play a game or use Chrome (if they were on separate desktops) I prefer the one desktop approach.

That's just me, and how i like Windows. If Windows 95, hell 3.1 could run my modern day games and programs hell yeah I'd be running it!

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for people like me who constantly have probably 20 programs running at work it would be glorious i use ie and excel and firefox while doing permits at work, i use two programs while doing drivers logs, then any development im doing plus random web browsing i could have a desktop configured for each task im working on and just switch between instead of non stop minimizing stuff and moving it between my two monitors.
it is also completely optional so you can just use one desktop and likely not even have it enabled.

if its anything like windows 7 start menu you can probably right click it and uncheck a box to disable the tiles on it... kind of like you can configure the windows 7 start menu to show "computer" "recent documents" ect. no sure though as i havent used it yet.

as for linux not having any use, you are probably right on that not alot of people use it but most of us nerds on this forum use it often either to play around with or for developmental purposes. theres alot of software on linux that just does not have an equal on windows as well.



as for win95 and 3.1... i hope thats a joke lol both are terrible operating systems compared to today's offerings, as someone who grew up on them.. trust me. lol

btw unlike so many people in general im not afraid of change gave windows 8 a chance since working with server 2012, i prefer it honestly i love windows 8.1 without classicshell. i will definitelybe switching to 10 when its available on every machine i own because its shaping up to be an excellent OS.

I think when people seriously reference older operating systems, they are talking about parts of their user interfaces that have been taken out of modern Windows, especially Windows 8.

Almost none of them would complain if there was an easily implementable interchangeable native user interface in Windows 8/10. Percentage of people using modern OS would skyrocket.


By the end of this year we will hear people talking about how Windows 10 is great because of this or that feature, but it is the Start Menu, rather than anything else that will bring the masses over imho.

It seems the older I get, the more I understand how much Change frightens people. It challenges parts of their Self that the owner believes should be immutable.

That's right!
But that belongs in some sort of a psychological discussion. As a verifiable fact, when it comes to business mindset, that doesn't matter.

If Microsoft Developers kept Metro in - and simply gave people a *choice* to switch to use Windows 7 User Interface by default instead of Metro by default - that would have been the end of Windows 7.

c627627 said:

I think when people seriously reference older operating systems, they are talking about parts of their user interfaces that have been taken out of modern Windows, especially Windows 8.

Almost none of them would complain if there was an easily implementable interchangeable native user interface in Windows 8/10. Percentage of people using modern OS would skyrocket.


By the end of this year we will hear people talking about how Windows 10 is great because of this or that feature, but it is the Start Menu, rather than anything else that will bring the masses over imho.

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no, what is going to win the masses over is it being free. lol.

Silver_Pharaoh said:

Mmmm linux.
Great OS that I have no use for

"Normal"? Nu-uh. I hate with a passion the stupid square look of the tiles and crap. No. If I'm to ever upgrade to Win10 it has to look like Win9x or Win 7.

I'm unsure if classic shell can get rid of the stupid modern square tile look of Windows. If it can, sure I'll consider running Win 10.
But the truth is, Win 10 offers nothing new and useful to me that Windows 7 can't do.

Classic Shell does get rid of the square tiles and gives you a Windows 7 look a like, work a like desktop. That's the whole point of Classic Shell.

I don't multitask like that tbh. F@H running, Chrome open, explorer open lookin' at files, and Minecraft running all on the same desktop. IMHO it would be a major inconvenience for me to switch between "desktops" to play a game or use Chrome (if they were on separate desktops) I prefer the one desktop approach.

That's just me, and how i like Windows. If Windows 95, hell 3.1 could run my modern day games and programs hell yeah I'd be running it!

Click to expand...

The only real complaint I have about Windows 8.1 is that you have to dig a little deeper under the hood for some functions like Safe Mode or forcing the install of unsigned device driver. That and they gutted the backup utility.