Recommended Posts

Before people start asking "why the #@%& would you want to do that?!" or "metro is better!!!!", let me just say these words:

Choice is a good thing.

Sort of like how you don't just walk up to some guy and say "your wife's fat! why in the world would you marry her?!".

Some people love women who have a bit of meat attached to those bones!

  • Like 6

Before people start asking "why the #@%& would you want to do that?!" or "metro is better!!!!", let me just say these words:

Choice is a good thing.

Sort of like how you don't just walk up to some guy and say "your wife's fat! why in the world would you marry her?!".

Some people love women who have a bit of meat attached to those bones!

I loves me some meat! I want ham and steak!

If you want a Windows 7/Windows Vista style Start Menu with a search box which is selected by default when you open the menu, go to the Search Box tab in settings and check "Selected by default" and select the "Access normally" radio button. All the settings in Classic Shell are self-explanatory but if you still need help, just hover over any setting and tooltip help will be displayed. You can use any skin with two columns to make it work and look exactly like the Windows 7/Vista Start Menu, except for file search which is broken anyways in Windows 7/Vista for non-indexed files. :)

Ivo and I started Classic Shell back in Nov. 2009 out of desperation and MS refusing to fix any issues in Windows after release. I give the ideas, test stuff and how it should work (overall User Experience) and he programs them. It reached a million downloads this month. :woot:

The trick is to customize, customize, customize as the defaults in all three components are simple and bare minimum. You can save and restore all your settings in all three components. Classic Explorer and Classic IE9 also add many missing features back to Windows and make your transition easier.

The reviews from most users have been extremely positive.

  • Like 2

If you want a Windows 7/Windows Vista style Start Menu with a search box which is selected by default when you open the menu, go to the Search Box tab in settings and check "Selected by default" and select the "Access normally" radio button. All the settings in Classic Shell are self-explanatory but if you still need help, just hover over any setting and tooltip help will be displayed. You can use any skin with two columns to make it work and look exactly like the Windows 7/Vista Start Menu, except for file search which is broken anyways in Windows 7/Vista for non-indexed files. :)

Ivo and I started Classic Shell back in Nov. 2009 out of desperation and MS refusing to fix any issues in Windows after release. I give the ideas, test stuff and how it should work (overall User Experience) and he programs them. It reached a million downloads this month. :woot:

The trick is to customize, customize, customize as the defaults in all three components are simple and bare minimum. You can save and restore all your settings in all three components. Classic Explorer and Classic IE9 also add many missing features back to Windows and make your transition easier.

The reviews from most users have been extremely positive.

You guys are brilliant, period.

FYI I also posted about it in PCBeta, AFAIK yours is the only one providing multi-language UI. :)

http://bbs.pcbeta.com/viewthread-1014915-1-2.html

Thanks FaiKee. :) There are still some usability issues we couldn't fix like the forced auto sorting and auto arrange monstrosity. Auto arrange at least has a registry hack but auto sorting is just unbearable.

tbh it looks rather horrible and missplaced if u ask me

Really? It looks like it's right where the Start Menu has always been, if you ask me. Although I admit that if it were me I would change the shell logo...I guess Microsoft would have issues with that though?

Here's how the Classic Start Menu can be customized and skinned. So either you hate the Windows 7 Start Menu too or you are a troll deliberately if you call it "ugly" or "horrible". :D

js5Rt.png

If it has the option to use Windows 7's Start Menu then I'd consider it. Otherwise, using the

classic menu would be even worse than using the Start Screen.

The original classic 9x/2K style Start Menu is the default, but it can easily be changed to the two columned menu

from Windows Vista and 7 which first debuted as the default option in XP, if that's what you're more used to.

Or if Microsoft go back to the Start Menu, which is more than likely not going to happen.

That's exactly my point. Microsoft is going to stick to their guns with Windows 9. A few (yet, highly vocal) power users aren't going to change their minds.

Good luck to the people who want to use it but that looks horrible to me. There's a reason why MS junked the expanding Programs menu on the Start Menu - it was a usability nightmare.

Can you explain how the expanding Programs menu is a usability nightmare? It better utilizes screen estate in fact instead of cramping it into a tiny area with a scrollbar. The Start screen is also trying to make it go "full screen" for this reason. The one problem with flyout menus in Windows 9x was that if the mouse moved a little bit outside the menu it would close. But our menu being customizable, you can simply set the "Menu Delay" setting to a larger value like 10000 and it will never close with the mouse just moving, it will only open folders and close with a mouse click.

That's exactly my point. Microsoft is going to stick to their guns with Windows 9. A few (yet, highly vocal) power users aren't going to change their minds.

...And I was agreeing with you ("which is more than likely not going to happen") while also stating that thanks to applications like this one the end user doesn't have to "delay the inevitable," they can be happy while the people that prefer Metro can be happy.

Really? It looks like it's right where the Start Menu has always been, if you ask me. Although I admit that if it were me I would change the shell logo...I guess Microsoft would have issues with that though?

but it doesnt look like it belongs, you know hence why its not actually in the cp, i barely use the startmenu in windows 7 as it is so kinda seeing it gone doesnt really faze me and modifying windows 8 just to have one u may aswell jsut stay at windows 7

but it doesnt look like it belongs, you know hence why its not actually in the cp, i barely use the startmenu in windows 7 as it is so kinda seeing it gone doesnt really faze me and modifying windows 8 just to have one u may aswell jsut stay at windows 7

Ok, I can understand if you don't use the Start Menu as it is. That's completely fine. But remember that there are a lot of additions to Windows 8 in the way of features, and many people would like to use them. At the same time, one of the bigger issues for people is the removal of the start menu, replacing it with the start screen. This kind of application gives users the best of both worlds, they can still have a start menu and get the extra features that comes with Windows 8.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Poll: Grand Theft Auto VI price predictions, cast your vote by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe After years of waiting, Rockstar will be solidifying the launch date of Grand Theft Auto VI with the launch of pre-orders next week. While the studio has confirmed a date for this occasion, it is yet to attach a price to the highly anticipated game. So let's see what our readers think it will cost at launch. The Grand Theft Auto VI pre-orders will kick off on June 25 for digital and physical editions. Unless some last-minute changes happen, the release date will be November 19, 2026, across Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5. Unfortunately, there's still no information about a PC version from the developer or the publisher Take-Two. Now the question becomes, how much will Grand Theft Auto VI cost at launch? The game is predicted by some analysts to be the biggest launch of an entertainment product ever. With the amount of hype that has been built behind it and with ballooning development costs, Take-Two may price this Grand Theft Auto entry differently from other AAA titles. The current price of a AAA game is $69.99. That norm almost rose to $79.99 before calming down. But with such a massive release, Grand Theft Auto VI may be the game that pushes the boundary again. It's also possible that Take-Two keeps the price relatively low to increase the number of players that jump in early and keep them hooked on Grand Theft Auto Online to spend on microtransactions for years to come. Keep in mind that the below poll is asking for a prediction of the standard edition price, not a deluxe or any other special edition that Take-Two will introduce for additional benefits. Also, there is also the chance of the company splitting up the campaign and online portions. If you think that will happen, put your vote on what you think will be the total cost of the two. Poll Poll: How much will Grand Theft Auto VI cost? $59.99 $69.99 $79.99 $89.99 $100 or more Submit Vote If you have a very specific prediction in mind, sound off in the comments below.
    • Would you please fix your graphics. They are outdated and don't fit the article.
    • The Light of Life? We actually do glow till our Death, study finds by Sayan Sen Image by Rafael Rendon via Pexels A study by researchers at the University of Calgary has found that living organisms produce an extremely faint light known as ultraweak photon emission, and that this glow appears to drop significantly after death. The research was published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry in April 2025 and quickly drew widespread attention, leading to more than 200 news stories about the findings. Ultraweak photon emission (or UPE), sometimes called biophoton emission, refers to tiny amounts of light released by living cells as a result of normal biological activity. A photon is the basic particle of light, and researchers say every living system examined so far, including plants and animals, has been found to emit these photons. The glow is far too faint to be seen by the human eye. “I suppose it has a little to do with people being reminded of auras,” says Dr. Christoph Simon, PhD, one of the authors of the study and a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the Faculty of Science. “It is a fact that living beings glow. It’s a very weak glow, but it’s there and visible with very sensitive cameras.” According to the study, the light involved is extremely weak, ranging from 10 to 1,000 photons per square centimetre per second across a spectral range of 200 to 1,000 nanometres. For comparison, a nanometre is one-billionth of a metre and is commonly used to measure wavelengths of light. Detecting emissions at such low levels requires highly specialized equipment. To study the phenomenon, researchers used electron-multiplying charge-coupled device (EMCCD) and charge-coupled device (CCD) cameras. These imaging systems are designed to detect extremely small amounts of light, including individual photons, while minimizing background noise. The technology allowed researchers to capture signals that would otherwise be impossible to observe. The team worked with the Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) in Ottawa to examine photon emissions in mice. Researchers took two-hour exposure images of the animals before and after death and compared the results. “We saw that the level of light that they emit – this biophoton glow – is distinctly different between living and dead animals,” says Dr. Daniel Oblak, PhD, an associate professor in Physics and Astronomy and the corresponding author of the study. The images showed a clear decrease in photon emissions after death across the entire body of each mouse. According to the researchers, this provided direct evidence that living and dead tissue produce different levels of ultraweak photon emission. “It’s a very small amount and it’s, of course, very tricky to detect,” Oblak says. The study grew out of discussions between Simon, whose research interests include quantum biology, and Oblak, whose work focuses on detecting light for quantum communication experiments. Quantum biology is a field that explores whether processes described by quantum physics, which studies matter and energy at very small scales, may also play a role in living systems. “Since I work as a quantum physicist on light detection for quantum communication, I thought that experimentally we have a lot of the tools to be able to detect the light,” Oblak explains. The researchers also investigated UPE in plants and found that the light changed in response to stress. When plants were exposed to higher temperatures or physically injured, their photon emissions increased. Chemical treatments also affected the glow. Among the substances tested, the local anesthetic benzocaine produced the strongest emission response when applied to injured plant tissue. These findings suggest that ultraweak photon emission is closely linked to biochemical and metabolic activity inside living organisms. Metabolism refers to the chemical reactions that allow cells and organisms to stay alive and function. Because these reactions change when an organism experiences stress, injury or disease, researchers believe UPE may provide a way to monitor those changes. The researchers stress that the glow is a physical and biological phenomenon, not a metaphysical one. Oblak says more research is needed to understand exactly how the light is produced and what information it may reveal about the condition of living tissue. “We must understand what that is to figure out what’s happening,” he says. “If we can understand how that relates to certain influences on the body – stress, diseases – then that could be used as a diagnostic tool.” The researchers believe the technique could eventually help scientists study health and disease without invasive procedures. Because UPE can be measured without adding dyes, markers or labels, it may offer a way to monitor whether tissue is healthy, damaged or alive. In plants, it could help researchers better understand how organisms respond to injury, heat and other forms of stress. While the work is still in its early stages, the study demonstrates that ultraweak photon emission imaging can provide a non-invasive and label-free way to observe biological activity. Researchers say the approach could become a useful tool for studying vitality, stress responses and other important processes in both animals and plants. Source: University of Calgary, ACS publication This article was generated with some help from AI and reviewed by an editor. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, this material is used for the purpose of news reporting. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
    • Damn, I loved this show back in the day.  
  • Recent Achievements

    • One Year In
      hhgygy earned a badge
      One Year In
    • One Month Later
      AMV earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      AMV earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Collaborator
      ryansurfer98 went up a rank
      Collaborator
    • One Month Later
      Eurosoft10 earned a badge
      One Month Later
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      512
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      171
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      82
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      74
    5. 5
      Michael Scrip
      72
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!