Classic Shell: Forum

Does anyone know how to restore the hot corners in Windows 8 following an uninstall of Classic Shell? There seems to be a big problem here.

Earlier today I installed Classic Shell on a new Windows 8 laptop and selected the options to remove all 4 "hot corners". This it did successfully.

However, I wanted to make sure that the process was fully reversible in the event that I may, at some future stage, wish to revert to the standard Windows 8 layout, or at least part of it. I therefore uninstalled Classic Shell using its inbuilt uninstaller. This process required a restart. When Windows restarted there was a momentary flash in the top right corner of the screen to indicate that the hot corner in that area was restored, but it quickly disappeared after a few seconds. Once Windows had finished opening up fully none of the hot corners was operational.

So I was left with a somewhat cocked-up version of Windows 8 after uninstalling Classic Shell, insofar that it did not restore Windows 8 to its original state.

In order to make sure that I hadn't done anything wrong in this process of uninstalling Classic Shell, I then re-installed it l but strangely on this second occasion it did not give me any options to select which corners to remove. After re-installing, the layout looked exactly the same as it did after the first installation (I selected the Vista option). Following this second installation I then removed it again but this time using the standard facility in Windows Control Panel to remove programmes. Again, following a restart I had exactly the same problem as previously, namely none of the hot corners was operational.

I should add that I made no other changes to the operating software other than install/uninstall Classic Shell.

From a glance at some threads it would seem that other people have had similar problems that I have described above, but no effective solutions appear to have been offered.

It looks to me as if Classic Shell has a problem in that following an uninstall from Windows 8 in some caes at least it must be leaving behind some fouled up registry changes that prevents Windows 8 from being properly reinstated with all 4 hot corners working.

I'm reasonably happy with the way Classic Shell restored the operating software to what I'm more familiar with but I wish I hadn't selected the option to remove the lower right hot corner in Windows 8 regards "desktop", because I don't think that Classic Shell deals with that very well.

To be frank, I wish I hadn't bothered with Classic Shell, as I'm pretty sure it has cocked things up. I can see that I may have to do a fresh install of Windows 8 to regain its full functionality.

Before doing so, it's possible that someone else may have experienced this problem and found a solution. If so, please tell ....

It is true that some users have reported that hot corner functionality doesn't return after uninstalling Classic Shell. However I can assure you that the "hot corner" feature does not do anything with the registry. It is purely non-invasive.
This doesn't mean that some other aspect of Classic Shell doesn't mess things up, but at the moment I am at a loss what that may be.

Please run the following test:
1) Install Classic Shell
2) Look at the Windows 8 Settings tab and change "Disable active corners" to None. Log off, log back in.
3) Report if this has restored the hot corner functionality (I suspect it won't)
4) Open regedit, then export the entire registry to a file (right-click on Computer, then Export). It will be quite large, but it will zip well
5) Run a system restore and select a restore point from before you installed Classic Shell for the first time
6) Reboot and verify that the hot corner functionality is restored (If Classic Shell is the culprit, then it should work now)
7) Export the registry again
8) Upload the two versions of the registry somewhere where I can look at them - dropbox, skydrive, etc.

To enable hot corners, try these registry tweaks:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell\EdgeUI]
"DisableTLcorner"=dword:00000000
"DisableCharmsHint"=dword:00000000

Value of 1 means they are disabled. Or delete these values which will also restore the default behavior.

_________________
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.