Classic Shell: Forum

I have just installed 4.1.0 on top of 3.1.0 (IIRC) and there were a couple of issues:

1. During installation, I let the installer kill explorer.exe but it still couldn't continue because explorer.exe wasn't killed. I started the task manager and killed manually and restarted explorer.exe after installation was complete.

2. The All Programs Menu is white regardless of the setting in the All Programs Skin tab. I tried to reboot but that did not help.

Just to be more exact: None of the settings in the All Programs Skin has any effect on the start menu.

I have tried to reset the settings and reapply what I want, but the all programs menu remains white.

I am on Windows 7 and the Start menu itself is in Aero, so some configuration does work.

The "All Programs Skin" settings only appear on Windows 7. They control the skin for the All Programs cascading menu in the native Windows 7 start menu. Meaning they have no effect on the Classic Shell Start Menu. Also, you need to check "Cascading All Programs menu" on the Windows Start Menu tab.
Even then, only the sub-menu portion of the skin is used. Most skins don't have fancy sub-menus. You have to select a more special skin to see any effect, like Full Glass or Smoked Glass.
So to recap:
1) Use a special skin, for example Smoked Glass
2) Turn on "Cascading All Programs menu" on the tab called "Windows Start Menu".
3) Open the built-in Windows 7 menu (for example Shift+click on the start button or Shift+Win key)
4) Click on All Programs
5) You should see a cascading menu for the programs using the selected skin

I see. I did as you said and yes, the native windows 7 all programs menu is replaced with cascading menu that looks great. But I don't want to use the native windows 7 start menu.

Why can't I make Classic Shell Start Menu All Programs Menu look like that? I don't remember that the classic shell start menu and the classic shell all programs menu were linked like they are now. Am I remembering it wrong?

Perhaps I have to make my own skin if I want the style of the start menu and the all programs menu to be separate choices?

I could perhaps settle for the native windows 7 start menu and just modify the all programs menu. After all, the small native all programs menu is my main issue. :-/

Yes, if you want to use different look for the main menu and the sub-menus you will have to crate a new skin that combines the two. Keep in mind that all sub-menus will be the same, you can't have All Programs look differently from let's say Control Panel or Recent Items.

@galmok, to eliminate any confusion let me clarify a few things.

1. Classic Shell has various main menu styles. If you are using the style called "Windows 7 style", then too, you get two options for All Programs. They are either shown inside a compact tree view inside the main menu. The treeview style is always white. Or, if you go to the tab called "Main Menu" and select the radio button option "Cascading sub-menu", then they get transformed into the flyout style menu. The colors of this submenu can be customized from the "Skins" tab. They can be grey or white depending on the "White sub-menus" option state. Or you can edit the skin yourself to modify all submenu colors.

2. The above settings are applicable only if you are using Windows 7 style. Version 3 did not have this "Windows 7 style" which was newly introduce in version 4 of Classic Shell. If you are using Classic style or Classic with two columns style (which were both there in version 3 as well), more skin choices are available to you. You can choose any of the special skins such as Full Glass, Smoked Glass which have non-white All Programs. You must set these from the "Skins" tab.

3. The tab called "All Programs Skin" appears only on Windows 7 and is applicable only to the built-in Windows 7 Start Menu. The settings there have no effect on the Classic Shell Start Menu. They only when the option "Cascading All Programs menu" is checked on the "Windows Start Menu" tab.

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Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.