Classic Shell: Turn Windows 8 Into Windows 7/XP

Do you have Windows 8? Are you frustrated with the new interface and how they moved and changed pretty much everything?  In early testing, Microsoft allowed (via a registry hack) users to re-enable the start menu, but removed this feature before the release of Windows 8. Thankfully, some very creative people over at Classic Shell have released a freeware utility which can give you back the Start Menu everyone loved.

Let’s take a look at what Classic Shell does and some of its features,

Classic Start Menu is a clone of the start menu from Windows 2000, XP and Vista. Sadly, it is missing in Windows 7.  Classic Start Menu 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. Make your own!
• 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 )

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 and an option to not fade the expand buttons
• Can show the free disk space and the total size of the selected files 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 plug-in for Internet Explorer 9 and 10 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

My experience with Classic Shell has been nothing but superior, especially the drag and drop functionality in the start menu. I highly recommend downloading it and giving it a try. You can read more information about Classic Shell and download it by clicking here.

-Tim