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Classic Shell 3.9.1 Beta

Classic Shell is a collection of features that were available in older versions of Windows but are removed from Vista and Windows 7. It has a classic start menu for Windows 7 and Windows 8, it adds a toolbar for Windows Explorer and supports a variety of smaller features. There are 3 major components - Classic Explorer, Classic Start Menu and Classic IE9. Look here for the full list if features.

Classic Shell features:

  • Classic Start Menu for Windows 7, 8 (with skins)
  • Toolbar for Windows Explorer
  • Classic copy UI
  • Show file size in Explorer status bar

Classic Start Menu is a clone of the original start menu. It has a variety of advanced features:

  • Drag and drop to let you organize your applications
  • Options to show Favorites, expand Control Panel, etc
  • Shows recently used documents. The number of documents to display is customizable
  • Translated in 35 languages, including Right-to-left support for Arabic and Hebrew
  • Does not disable the original start menu in Windows. You can access it by Shift+Click on the start button
  • Right-click on an item in the menu to delete, rename, sort, or perform other tasks
  • The search box helps you find your programs without getting in the way of your keyboard shortcuts
  • Available for 32 and 64-bit operating systems
  • Has support for skins, including additional 3rd party skins
  • Fully customizable in both looks and functionality
  • Support for Microsoft’s Active Accessibility
  • Converts the “All Programs” button in the Windows menu into a cascading menu (Vista and Windows 7)
  • Implements a customizable start button for Windows 8
  • And last but not least – it's FREE!

Classic Explorer is a plugin for Windows Explorer that:

  • Adds a toolbar to Explorer for some common operations (Go to parent folder, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, Properties, Email). The toolbar is fully customizable
  • Replaces the copy UI in Vista and Windows 7 with the more user-friendly “classic” version similar to Windows XP
  • Handles Alt+Enter in the folder panel of Windows Explorer and shows the properties of the selected folder
  • Has options for customizing the folder panel to look more like the Windows XP version or to not fade the expand buttons
  • Can show the free disk space and the total file size in the status bar
  • Can disable the breadcrumbs in the address bar
  • Fixes a long list of features that are broken in Windows 7 – missing icon overlay for shared folders, the jumping folders in the navigation pane, missing sorting headers in list view, and more

Classic IE9 is a plugin for Internet Explorer 9 that:

  • Adds a caption to the title bar so you can see the full title of the page
  • Shows the security zone in the status bar
  • Shows the loading progress in the status bar

What's new in this version:

  • The All Programs tree can be rearranged with drag and drop
  • The start button settings are applied immediately and you can see a preview of the button image in the settings dialog
  • The start menu can use the native Windows 8.1 start button
  • The Windows 8.1 setting to skip the Metro screen can be accessed through the Classic Shell settings
  • New item in the main menu to open the start screen (Windows 8 and 8.1)
  • New setting for the Windows 7 style to control the height of the main menu
  • The installer uses better compression that reduces the download size by half
  • Many bugfixes reported for the previous beta version

Note: Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 are no longer supported.

Download: Classic Shell 3.9.1 Beta | 4.9 MB (Open Source)
View: Homepage | Screenshots

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