Classic Shell is a computer program for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

that provides

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine fro ...

elements intended to restore familiar features from past versions of Windows. It focuses on the Start menu,

File Explorer File Explorer, previously known as Windows Explorer, is a file manager application and default desktop environment that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user i ...

and

Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated as IE or MSIE) is a deprecation, retired series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft that were u ...

– three major components of the

Windows shell The Windows shell is the graphical user interface for the Microsoft Windows operating system. Its readily identifiable elements consist of the desktop, the taskbar, the Start menu, the task switcher and the AutoPlay feature. On some versions of ...

although it also does some minor tweaks for the Windows

Taskbar The taskbar is a graphical user interface element that has been part of Microsoft Windows since Windows 95, displaying and facilitating switching between running computer program, programs. The taskbar and the associated Start menu, Start Menu were ...

. In particular, it can serve as a Start menu replacement for

Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012, made available for download via Microsoft ...

and

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...

systems. Developed by Ivo Beltchev, it was first released in 2009, and has been downloaded nearly 40 million times by the end of 2024. Development by Beltchev has ceased, and the project's

source code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...

has been released. Development has been picked up by volunteers on GitHub under the name Open-Shell."Welcome to Open-Shell – Classic Shell Reborn"

GitHub GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...

Features and architecture

Classic Shell is packaged as a suite of three components, all optional and independent of each other: * Classic Start Menu – A re-implementation of the Start Menu, replicating features from several different generations of Windows * Classic Explorer – An add-on to File/Windows Explorer, restoring and extending features present in various Windows releases * Classic IE – An add-on for Internet Explorer 9 and later, it restores the web page title to the window title bar, and various details to the status bar Classic Shell is programmed in C++. Although it modifies Windows behaviors, it does not do so by modifying or tweaking Windows registry settings or replacing or patching system files – all modifications are done using Windows APIs. It is localized into more than 30 languages, including right-to-left support for Arabic and Hebrew.

Classic Start Menu

Classic Start Menu is a replacement for the Windows Start Menu. Features include: * Customize appearance of the Start button and Start Menu, and menu and submenu items * Show recently, or most frequently used, apps * Show recently opened documents, with sorting, jumplists, and pinning * Highlight newly installed programs * Separate traditional desktop apps from

Universal Windows Platform apps Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps (formerly named Windows Store apps, Metro-style apps and Modern apps) are applications that can be used across all compatible Microsoft Windows devices. They are primarily purchased and downloaded via the ...

* Sort menus alphabetically, by date, or custom order with drag-and-drop *

Windows Search Windows Search (formerly MSN Desktop Search, Windows Desktop Search, and the Windows Search Engine) is a content index and desktop search platform by Microsoft introduced in Windows Vista as a replacement for the previous Indexing Service of Wind ...

integration * Customize settings such as menu opening delay, tooltip timing, sub-menu column style, menu width, icon size, animation, scroll speed, font smoothing, etc. *

Skinning Skinning is the act of skin removal. The process is done by humans to animals, mainly as a means to prepare the meat beneath for cooking and consumption, or to harvest the skin for making fur clothing or tanning it to make leather. The sk ...

to more completely customize the appearance * Scales icons and menu background to higher resolutions and/or

pixel density Pixels per inch (ppi) and pixels per centimetre (ppcm or pixels/cm) are measurements of the pixel density of an electronic image device, such as a computer monitor or television display, or image digitizing device such as a camera or image scan ...

(PPI) Besides restoring past behavior, there are several new features. These include showing the menu next to the taskbar when it is vertical, multi-monitor support, launching multiple programs at once, custom shutdown-related actions, Universal app launching, expanding any file folder as cascading menus, and additional keyboard shortcuts. The search box can search the system path, can show partial matches, and can show all results inside the menu. Classic Start Menu can also modify Windows 8's new UI features, such as hot corners only on the desktop without disabling them inside Universal apps.

Classic Explorer

Classic Explorer is an add-on to Windows File Explorer, implemented as various shell extensions. It does not replace . Features include: * A toolbar that can include built-in commands, custom commands, or dropdown menus for arbitrary folders. * Customize the behavior and appearance of the left folder navigation pane, including whether folders expand with a single click or double click, connecting lines, subfolder indicators, horizontal scrollbar, tree item spacing, and keyboard shortcuts * The breadcrumb bar can be replaced with a traditional

address bar In a web browser, the address bar (also location bar or URL bar) is the element that shows the current URL. The user can type a URL into it to navigate to a chosen website. In most modern browsers, non-URLs are automatically sent to a search eng ...

, and the associated dropdown modified to show the hierarchical path instead of recent folder history * Sort headers in all views * Overlay icon for network shares * Status bar can show disk free space, total size of current folder * Tooltip of selected item * "Up" button for navigating to the parent folder * Show the current folder in the title bar caption * Copy progress dialog can be automatically expanded to show more details * Replace the copy conflict dialog with one like Windows XP

History

Classic Shell began as a tool for personal use, and saw its first public release in 2009. Over time, the Start Menu component evolved to be a customizable launcher that also integrated a search box and other features of the Windows 7 Start Menu. The Explorer and IE components appeared later. While earlier versions were compatible with

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, released five years earlier, which was then the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft W ...

and later, versions since 3.9.0 no longer support Windows Vista/Server 2008. because Vista, like XP, came with the ability to revert to a classic start menu. Classic Shell is released as

free and open-source Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a Software license, license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term ...

under the

MIT License The MIT License is a permissive software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1980s. As a permissive license, it puts very few restrictions on reuse and therefore has high license compatibility. Unl ...

. Founder Ivo Beltchev announced the end of development in December 2017.Classic Shell no longer in development. Source code released
/ref>

Open-Shell

Since 2018, Classic Shell has been developed as an open source program under the name Open-Shell. Open-Shell has remained functionally similar to Classic Shell, but it has added some small features and addressed several bugs, many caused by new versions of Windows. Some of the changes in Open-Shell include: * Options for changing Start menu position and alignment * Support for jump lists on UWP apps * Partial support for Windows 11 * New skins and updated logo and artwork Like Classic Shell, Open-Shell is released under the

. The latest stable version, 4.4.195, dates from 2 January 2025.

Reception

Classic Shell was a fairly popular interface enhancement in the Windows 7 life cycle but became much more widely used after the release and negative reception of

(with its lack of a Start menu). It has seen coverage in such publications as

Lifehacker ''Lifehacker'' is a weblog about life hacks and software that launched on 31 January 2005. The site was originally launched by Gawker Media and is owned by Ziff Davis. The blog posts cover a wide range of topics including Microsoft Windows, M ...

Neowin Neowin is a technology news website. Editorial focus is predominantly on Microsoft-related news, but the site also offers analysis and reporting on mobile news, tech trends, gadgets and new technological developments, as well as in-depth produc ...

Ghacks ''Ghacks Technology News'' is a technology blog created by Martin Brinkmann in October 2005. Its primary focus is on web browser and Windows tips, software, guides and reviews. Coverage The editor-in-chief and founder is Martin Brinkmann. All ...

, ZDNet, ''

PC World ''PC World'' (stylized as PCWorld) is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. Since 2013, it has been an online-only publication. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal tec ...

'',

TechRepublic TechRepublic is an online trade publication and social community for IT professionals, providing advice on best practices and tools for the needs of IT decision-makers. It was founded in 1997 in Louisville, Kentucky, by Tom Cottingham and Kim S ...

, MakeUseOf, and Betanews.

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.classicshell.net/ (deprecated)
"Open-Shell"

Free software programmed in C++ Windows-only free software Application launchers Discontinued software Formerly proprietary software 2009 software Software using the MIT license