Thursday, December 31, 2009

Classic Shell Brings the XP Start Menu to Windows 7


The changes to the Windows start menu in Windows Vista and Windows 7 make it much easier to use, and keep you from having to dig through folders to open applications or find utilities that you want to run, but for some people it's an annoyance, and for some people the simple fact that it's changed makes it difficult to use.
For those people, there's Classic Shell - an app that re-skins the Windows start menu to look and behave the way it did in Windows XP, complete with nested folders.
Windows 7 may be old news to the tech-savvy crowd, but Windows XP is still the dominant operating system, and many businesses that skipped Windows Vista entirely are just now beginning to dabble with Windows 7 to see if they want to adopt it. For the users in those organizations and for people with netbooks who are more familiar with the way Windows XP operates, switching to Windows 7 can be a major shift. If you've recently upgraded to Windows 7 and miss the old Windows XP start menu, Classic Shell can bring it back.
Classic Shell is a tiny little shell extension, and as long as it's running, your start menu looks like the one from Windows XP. It has all of those old features as well, so you can create nested folders, organize application folders by dragging and dropping, or pin items to the top of the start menu that you use frequently. The app also allows you to bring back the Explorer toolbar, which allows you to add the File, Edit, View, and Tools menus back to your Explorer windows, and lets you add buttons for copy, paste, and delete as well.

Classic Shell - Explorer Toolbar
Most users who have moved on from Windows XP probably think that it's crazy to go back, but having worked in IT support in a past life, I can tell you that there is likely more demand for an app like Classic Shell than you might think. The app supports both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 and Windows Vista, and is completely free.

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