Classic Start Menu is a clone of the original
start menu, which you can find in all versions of Windows from 95 to
Vista. 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
Supports jumplists for easy access to recent documents and common tasks
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 (Windows 7 and 8)
Can show, search and launch Windows Store apps (Windows 8)
And last but not least – it's FREE!
If you have used the start menu in older versions of Windows you’ll
feel right at home:
Pick from 8 default skins, download more from the Internet, or make
your own! Check out the Skinning
Tutorial.
On Windows 8 you can customize the Start button:
Classic Explorer
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
Toolbar in Windows Explorer
Windows Explorer in Vista doesn’t have a toolbar like the one in
Windows XP. If you want to go to the parent folder you have to use the
breadcrumbs bar. If you want to copy or delete a file with the mouse
you have to right-click and look for the Delete command. The
right-click menu gets bigger and bigger the more shell extensions you
have installed, and finding the right command can take a while.
To solve the problem, the Classic Explorer plugin adds a new toolbar:
Hold the Control key when clicking the Up button to
open the parent
folder in a new Explorer window.
Hold the Shift key when clicking the Delete button to
permanently delete a file.
Additional Up Button
Some people have asked if I can make a small
Up button and put it next to the Back/Forward buttons in the title bar
of Explorer. If Up is the only button you need from the toolbar, this
will save you screen space:
Right-click on the button to bring up the Classic Explorer settings.
New copy UI
In Vista when you copy files and there is a conflict you are
presented with this:
What’s wrong with it?
Well, for starters it is half a screen full of text that you have to
read. Also it is not immediately clear what parts of it are clickable.
You have to move the mouse around to discover the UI like in a Lucas Arts
adventure game. And finally the keyboard usability is awful. To
tell it “yes, I know what I’m doing, I want to overwrite all
files” you have to press Alt+D, up, up, up, Space!
It is
harder than performing the Akuma
Kara Demon move in Street Fighter 3. There is a time and a place
for that stuff and copying files is not it.
The Classic Explorer plugin brings back the simpler dialog box from
Windows XP:
It is immediately clear what is clickable (clue – the buttons
at the
bottom), there is easy keyboard navigation (press Y
for “Yes”, A to copy all files) and you can still see
which file is newer and which is larger. And of course just like in
Windows XP, holding down Shift while clicking on the
No button means "No to All" (or just press Shift+N).
If you click on More…
you will get the original dialog from Windows. From there you will see
all the details and you’ll get an extra option to “Copy, but keep both
files”.
Important Note: Only the UI
is replaced. The underlying system that does the actual copying is not
affected.
Alt+Enter in the navigation pane
Alt+Enter is universal shortcut across Windows to bring up the
properties of the selection. But in Vista and Windows 7 it doesn’t
work in the left pane that shows the folders. It works fine on the
right where the files are. This is broken compared to Windows XP where
Alt+Enter works in both places.
To solve the problem, the Classic Explorer plugin detects when you
press Alt+Enter and shows the properties for the currently selected
folder.
Status bar
In Windows 7 the status bar in Explorer doesn't show the free disk
space and the size of the selected files. Classic Explorer fixes that:
When no files are selected the total size of all files in the folder is
shown.
Classic IE9
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
Copyright 2010-2012, Ivo Beltchev. All right reserved.
