Classic Shell 4.2.6 beta was just released.
Download it from here:
Here’s what’s new:
- Improved support for Windows 10 Redstone
- New feature for setting the taskbar color, texture, and text color
- Menu animations for the Windows 7 menu style
- New skinning features for pattern textures, emblem textures, and more complex skin settings
- New Metallic skin
- Ability to execute some start menu commands from the command line
- Separate commands for Restart and Shutdown without installing updates
- Toolbar buttons for Windows Explorer to toggle the hidden files, system files, and file extensions. Button to create a zip archive
- Ability to change the font and size of the status bar in Explorer
- Many small fixes and improvements
Update: A crash was discovered with version 4.2.6 and 32-bit Windows 10. Use the new beta version 4.2.7. Download it from the main page www.classicshell.net
Here is the detailed change log for Classic Shell 4.2.6:
Major new features:
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● Classic Start Menu supports fade, slide and random animations also in Windows 7 style
● New feature to select the text color for the taskbar on Windows 7, 8, 10
● New feature to set a texture for the Taskbar and Start Menu for Windows 7, 8, 10!
● Settings to set taskbar color and transparency for Windows 7, 8, 10
● Metro Settings in search results have a "Pin to Start Menu" right-click command
● New Explorer toolbar commands to toggle hidden files, system files, file extensions, open Folder Options and create a ZIP file
● New setting for the font of the Explorer status bar (Windows 8 and up)
● Many new skin features
o Skins can use PNG and JPEG resources
o Textures are supported in Start Menu skins, up to 4 with tiling pattern and a mask
o Skins support logos/emblems drawn on top of the menu background, up to 10 emblems, first 4 can have a mask
o Menu shadow can be disabled as a skin setting
o All Programs tree in Windows 7 style can be completely transparent and use the background from the main menu
o Skin options are completely rewritten and now support colors, bitmaps, and more
o New "Metallic" skin that showcases the new skin features
Minor new features and changes:
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● Compatibility with Windows 10 Redstone 1
● New setting to set hover sound for the Start button
● If a menu item's Label field has a user-defined accelerator key using an amperstand (&) character, it will be executed when you press the key, ignoring other items that begin with that letter
● You can hide All Programs item in Windows 7 style menu from Settings UI (previously only as a Group Policy)
● Some Start Menu commands are now available from cmd line. e.g. ClassicStartMenu.exe -cmd restart. Other commands include confirm_logoff, advanced_boot, update_restart, update_shutdown, hybrid_shutdown
● New setting to select the last item in the shutdown menu instead of the first
● The Shutdown menu has separate items for shutdown/restart without installing updates
● The Invert Metro Icons setting now works without a restart of the menu
● Metro icons correctly update their color when the system color changes (Windows 10)
● The search thread runs at normal priority instead of "idle" so even if the CPU is busy at startup or doing long-running tasks like video encoding, the search will be fast
● Corrupted/damaged Metro Apps are hidden from the Apps menu
Bug fixes and minor changes:
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● Recent documents will not show redundant items with full path
● Fixed a bug where you can select two radio buttons in the skin settings
@Ivo: Thank you very much for this excellent program.
Just a small suggestion, it is not a good to link exe directly, especially on a forum.
Better to link the webpage instead. The webpage offers more choices anyway.
@Ivo: I have a black taskbar, but the startmenu is blue not black. Is there a fix for this?
The colors of the taskbar and the start menu are independent. If you want them to match, pick a skin to your liking, adjust its settings, then change the taskbar color to match.
Okay. Thanks
Thank you for the update. I have it running OK on a 64 bit version of Windows 10 but on two 32 bit versions, it keeps starting and stopping and making the screen flash every couple of seconds. Very strange!
Yes, this was reported earlier today. Download the new beta 4.2.7, which should work on 32-bit as well.
I really love it. It's by far the best start menu out there. And it keeps getting better.
