Classic Shell developer is Microsoft employee


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Hello,

As you know, I am a big fan of Classic Shell; I had previously included it in my list of my must-have applications for Windows. Today I went to the program's official website to learn about the team who created the application; a Google search for the main developer led me to his Facebook page, where I learned that he works (or worked) for Microsoft! Isn't it ironic that one of the most popular Start menu applications for Windows 8 was created by a Microsoft employee?

Shouldn't Microsoft promote the developer to a higher position, perhaps one where he could work on the Windows interface, or the new Start menu itself?

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Does it say which department?  If it's not Windows then it doesn't mean much cause he'd be out of the loop of any of the decisions.

 

Shouldn't Microsoft promote the developer to a higher position, perhaps one where he could work on the Windows interface, or the new Start menu itself?

 

Employees aren't free to move around departments so easily.

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I don't see what is ironic or why this may seem like a surprise. You'd be surprised at what you can find if you dive deep into TechNet, MSDN, SysInternals, Channel9, answers.microsoft.com, and many other places where Microsoft employees hand around. If an employee has done something in their spare time, regardless of whether he works for a software company that their creation directly connects to, it doesn't mean that it is going to / it has to be included in the company's official software releases.

 

Another example is a FLAC player for Windows Phone done by a Microsoft employee. I found the source code by searching MSDN. While it exists, it is not included in WP for whatever reason. Don't see anything wrong with that. Oh, and imagine the things that they develop as future features, yet are never released because market focus or something else changes.

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The thing about Classic Shell is that it's trying to retain old functionality. Nothing against the developers, but the main developer/creator has an unhealthy obsession with retaining outdated bits long removed from Windows that they see as "essential." Allowing Windows to retain all this old code isn't in the slightest a great idea. Let them play with their own code, that way mainstream Windows users don't have to put up with a kludgy OS day in and day out.

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Hello,

As you know, I am a big fan of Classic Shell; I had previously included it in my list of my must-have applications for Windows. Today I went to the program's official website to learn about the team who created the application; a Google search for the main developer led me to his Facebook page, where I learned that he works (or worked) for Microsoft! Isn't it ironic that one of the most popular Start menu applications for Windows 8 was created by a Microsoft employee?

Shouldn't Microsoft promote the developer to a higher position, perhaps one where he could work on the Windows interface, or the new Start menu itself?

It was around long before windows 8 was even thought of. I was initially to give XP the win2k look.
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Isn't it ironic that one of the most popular Start menu applications for Windows 8 was created by a Microsoft employee?

 

No it's not. Only in the same world where all the non ironies in the song ironic are considered ironic. 

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It was around long before windows 8 was even thought of. I was initially to give XP the win2k look.

You don't need a third party program for that.. just turn off the visual style service and set it to use the classic start menu, boom Win2K.  Besides, it doesn't run under XP anyway.  Even the first public version (0.9 beta) required Vista or higher.

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Hello,

As you know, I am a big fan of Classic Shell; I had previously included it in my list of my must-have applications for Windows. Today I went to the program's official website to learn about the team who created the application; a Google search for the main developer led me to his Facebook page, where I learned that he works (or worked) for Microsoft! Isn't it ironic that one of the most popular Start menu applications for Windows 8 was created by a Microsoft employee?

Shouldn't Microsoft promote the developer to a higher position, perhaps one where he could work on the Windows interface, or the new Start menu itself?

Not surprising, considering that Workplace Shell for Windows was crafted by folks from the OS/2 Shell team at IBM Austin - they were still employed by IBM when they did that project as well.

 

It's far from the first time that the employees took a failed internal project under their wing - with the approval of the company - look at no less than 3M; consider that both Scotch tape and even Post-It notes were BOTH originally failed ideas. (No, I'm not kidding - I actually encouuntered THAT tidbit in Business 101 in my early community-college days.)

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The thing about Classic Shell is that it's trying to retain old functionality. Nothing against the developers, but the main developer/creator has an unhealthy obsession with retaining outdated bits long removed from Windows that they see as "essential." Allowing Windows to retain all this old code isn't in the slightest a great idea. Let them play with their own code, that way mainstream Windows users don't have to put up with a kludgy OS day in and day out.

 

I do much the same thing except I use StartIsBack instead of classic shell. Consumes about a MB of disk space and causes no noticeable performance problems. The fact that it bothers you so much that people want to use their computers their way instead of having some corporation dictating it to them amuses me to no end.

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I do much the same thing except I use StartIsBack instead of classic shell. Consumes about a MB of disk space and causes no noticeable performance problems. The fact that it bothers you so much that people want to use their computers their way instead of having some corporation dictating it to them amuses me to no end.

It's closed source software. There's a trade-off involved in using it. They design it in line with their goals, and you can decide if you want to use it or not.

 

But technology isn't immune to time. It deprecates just like everything else around us. As features become archaic, they get removed to pave way for new features. Keeping around deprecated features just because someone, somewhere out there now living on the fringes of technological society may use it, isn't a wise idea. Having that code just rot away is asking for trouble.

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The thing about Classic Shell is that it's trying to retain old functionality. Nothing against the developers, but the main developer/creator has an unhealthy obsession with retaining outdated bits long removed from Windows that they see as "essential." Allowing Windows to retain all this old code isn't in the slightest a great idea. Let them play with their own code, that way mainstream Windows users don't have to put up with a kludgy OS day in and day out.

 

Get off of it already.  Believe it or not...some people do not think like you.  If it weren't for classic shell...I would have "downgraded" my Windows 8 notebook a long time ago to Windows 7.  At least with classic shell I do not have to see any of that metro stuff which I DO NOT LIKE...but still have the added performance/security/etc benefits that come with Windows 8.  Two birds for Metro.

 

Are you Nick Burns?

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It's closed source software. There's a trade-off involved in using it. They design it in line with their goals, and you can decide if you want to use it or not.

 

But technology isn't immune to time. It deprecates just like everything else around us. As features become archaic, they get removed to pave way for new features. Keeping around deprecated features just because someone, somewhere out there now living on the fringes of technological society may use it, isn't a wise idea. Having that code just rot away is asking for trouble.

 

I really don't buy it, in fact having the start menu code on disk and in Explorer probably consumes less CPU cycles and RAM than having live tiles running in the background when you don't use or need them yet you seem a lot less eager to complain about that. I really get the overriding impression that you're simply one of those "change for the sake of change" people. A feature is as useful as people find it, and the popularity of start menu apps tells me that a lot of people still find the feature useful. Making change for the sake of change does not automatically infer an improvement and I really can't see why the hell you seem to think it does.

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I really don't buy it, in fact having the start menu code on disk and in Explorer probably consumes less CPU cycles and RAM than having live tiles running in the background when you don't use or need them yet you seem a lot less eager to complain about that. I really get the overriding impression that you're simply one of those "change for the sake of change" people. A feature is as useful as people find it, and the popularity of start menu apps tells me that a lot of people still find the feature useful. Making change for the sake of change does not automatically infer an improvement and I really can't see why the hell you seem to think it does.

It's not just the Start Menu. It's everything that's ever been in Windows. Features in Windows 95, and 98, etc that these guys want back.

 

At some point you have to let go, and move on.

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Dot Matrix, on 10 Apr 2014 - 17:05, said:Dot Matrix, on 10 Apr 2014 - 17:05, said:Dot Matrix, on 10 Apr 2014 - 17:05, said:

It's not just the Start Menu. It's everything that's ever been in Windows. Features in Windows 95, and 98, etc that these guys want back.

 

At some point you have to let go, and move on.

 

Why?  Because you say so?  I'm glad you are not in charge of the Windows design team.  "First order of business...Away with choices!  My way!"

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I didn't think the dev of ClassicShell (Neowin user UXGaurav btw) is/was a MS employee... nice find!

 

He makes an excellent program, highly recommended. (Y)

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Hello,

 

Every employer whom I've worked for since entering the IT field had me sign some sort of Employee Proprietary Information + Inventions Contract when I went to work for them, identifying any IP (intellectual property) that I owned before working for them, acknowledging that any IP I created while working for them would belong to them except for what was specifically outlined or agreed to contractually in writing and so forth.  Usually there isn't much that applies to me (I don't wrangle code for a living) but there are a few things like writing projects which apply.

 

I would imagine Microsoft probably does the same....  after all, they hire a lot of programmers.  In Mr. Beltchev's case, he probably agreed not to implement any internal/unreleased features unless they became public knowledge.  That's pretty standard boilerplate for such agreements.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

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I believe those contracts have been deemed illegal for anything made on your spare time.

 

also this isn't really IP as such as much as it's a product. It'd be like a carpenter not owning the stuff he made at home for his house because he was working for a carpenting company when he did it :)

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I believe those contracts have been deemed illegal for anything made on your spare time.

 

also this isn't really IP as such as much as it's a product. It'd be like a carpenter not owning the stuff he made at home for his house because he was working for a carpenting company when he did it :)

I'm not sure that they could be deemed illegal. You have the choice to sign it or not. It's up to you if you want to work for that company.

 

From the limited research I did on the subject it looks like they've been proven in court to be unenforceable unless the invention is directly related to something that is being worked on inside the company. That is interesting, since MS killed the start menu in Windows 8, it is theoretically conceivable that an employee could have designed their own start menu using their internal knowledge of the windows source code to make a better product than say Stardock could.

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Hello,

 

Every employer whom I've worked for since entering the IT field had me sign some sort of Employee Proprietary Information + Inventions Contract when I went to work for them, identifying any IP (intellectual property) that I owned before working for them, acknowledging that any IP I created while working for them would belong to them except for what was specifically outlined or agreed to contractually in writing and so forth.  Usually there isn't much that applies to me (I don't wrangle code for a living) but there are a few things like writing projects which apply.

 

I would imagine Microsoft probably does the same....  after all, they hire a lot of programmers.  In Mr. Beltchev's case, he probably agreed not to implement any internal/unreleased features unless they became public knowledge.  That's pretty standard boilerplate for such agreements.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

I suppose that applied to the Tweak Toys that Microsoft offered for download but absolutely didn't support, those were put together by Microsoft devs outside of the main Windows branch/development.

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I'm not sure that they could be deemed illegal. You have the choice to sign it or not. It's up to you if you want to work for that company.

 

From the limited research I did on the subject it looks like they've been proven in court to be unenforceable unless the invention is directly related to something that is being worked on inside the company. That is interesting, since MS killed the start menu in Windows 8, it is theoretically conceivable that an employee could have designed their own start menu using their internal knowledge of the windows source code to make a better product than say Stardock could.

 

I believe there was one or actually several court cases that deemed them illegal. no company can own what you create in your own time. unless you use their equipment. but what's in your mind, they can't. as I recall there was a rather big case about that recently, tech related, reported on Neowin to... don't remember what it was. 

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