Classic Shell: Forum

Hi,

I have been using "Classic Shell" on a Windows 7 64bit machine for about two years already.

Until now I was using versions 4.0.5, 4.0.6, 4.1.0 and 4.2.0 Beta and I never had a problem with them.

All for sudden - without changing anything on my computer (no updates or anything else!) - the following problem occurred on each restart of my computer: usually it took about 1 minute to boot Win7 computer and I always could access the startup-menu as well as the quick launch bar (on the right side of the start button) immediately.

But suddenly -without any obvious reason- it doesn't work anymore. The following is happening: my computer is booted, but as soon as I press the start button or try to open the quick launch bar, there appears a white frame all around the task bar, which never was before. When I then touch the taskbar with my mouse, an hourglas appears and none of the menus is opening. My computer stays in this condition for about 3 minutes!!! Only after this time, the two menus are working in the proper way and without problems and this strange white frame around the task bar disappears. From time to time I get an error message while the hourglass is running: "Windows explorer.exe doesn't work any more". It shows me two possibilities: I can either close the explorer.exe or wait until it is working properly again, which again takes around 3 bloody long minutes.

There was no change of this problem after de-installing and re-installing "Classic Shell" few times.

Subsequently I tried few older versions of "Classic Shell" and figured out, that this problem is only occuring in all versions "after" 3.6.8. This problem doesn't appear in version 3.6.8 and all former versions.

But actually I would like to use the latest version (4.2.1) or at least another 4.x.x version because of some new features, which the older versions didn't have.

What could be the reason why suddenly all 4.x.x versions make such an alarm after working perfectly before for 1-2 years?? Does anyone have an idea?

Thx in advance for your effort.

Greetz Suzzii

So the Start Menu might be hanging as soon as it launches at startup. Try this:

1. When Windows starts, wait for 3 minutes until it becomes responsive and starts working normally. Then right click the Start button -> Settings. Check "Show all settings" checkbox and go to General Behavior tab. Uncheck "Start automatically for this user" and click OK.

2. Right click the Start button again and click Exit.

3. Now follow the instructions here to create a dump for Explorer slowdowns: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6 Open the folder path C:\Program Files\Classic Shell in Explorer and as soon as you enter:
procdump -n 10 -s 1 explorer.exe

at the command prompt, double click/open ClassicStartMenu.exe in C:\Program Files\Classic Shell. Now your Explorer.exe might get unresponsive again for few minutes but it will capture several dumps in quick succession while the slowdown happens. Archive the dumps to a ZIP file and attach them here or upload them as instructed in the How to capture crash dumps article.

_________________
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.

Thanks for your fast answer and your instructions. When I followed your instruction word by word, the Classic Shell program did not crash. So I created the attached dump files directly after restarting my computer.

The slowdown is during extraction of the icon for some programs, for example for BackspinBilliards.exe.
This is not normal. The start menu uses a faster way to get the icon, and only uses the slower method if all else fails. Maybe you have installed some software that messes with the normal operation of icons.

If you can't identify what changed on your end recently, you can uncheck the setting "Pre-cache icons" in the General Behavior tab, which should disable the initial preloading of all icons.

Hi Ivo,

thanks a lot for your answer. There is one thing, I do not understand. You said it is supposed to be a mistake in the extraction of an icon for some program. But: why doesn't this mistake appear in any former versions up to 3.6.8 ?

Older versions use different algorithms for getting the icons. Version 4 changed the code significantly to improve compatibility and icon quality.

I was also trying your second advice to uncheck the setting "Pre-cache icons". It is then working in the proper way after restarting my computer, but it takes a long time until the icons are built up.


Thanks again for your answer. For testing your advice, I deleted all entries in the start menu except shut down, run, settings, help and support. I did the same with the quick launch bar. So almost all icons were gone. Then I restartet my computer and the problem was still there

You can restore the start menu items to default by going to Customize Start Menu tab and right clicking on the items in the left pane and clicking "Reset Start Menu". Or you can set the entire Start Menu settings using the Backup button in the Settings dialog.

_________________
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.

Again hello, I tried your advise an deleted all programs in the quick launch bar as well as in the startup menu (except for "shut down"), then restartet my computer, but the problem was still there

Hi,

I think we are talking past each other.

The problem does not only exist when ALL icons have been preloaded during the startup. It also remains, when only ONE icon has been preloaded during the startup because I deleted all the others from the startup menu (just for testing of course!).

Have a look on the screenshots, maybe you'll understand the problem better then >>>


Classic Shell Menu directly after booting windows with ALL menu entries (Programs, Documents, Search, Run, Shut Down, Settings, Help and Support, Windows Update, Windows & Manager etc.). The mistake remains!!! For almost 3 minutes I cannot access to the startup menu because it is frozen.


Classic Shell Menu directly after booting windows with "only ONE" menu entry "Shut Down" (there are no further entrys which means as well no further icons). The mistake also remains in this case!!! For almost 3 minutes I cannot access to the startup menu because it is frozen.

The start menu always preloads the contents of the Programs folders, even if you don't have the Programs item currently in the menu. That's because showing programs is its primary purpose. It is not optimized for the edge case where you delete the Programs item.

Ok, now I start to understand the problem in the proper way.

In my opinion not the icons are the basic problem, but the different algorithms of the latest Classic Shell versions. Because those problems do not appear with the algorithms of the older versions.

Isn't it possible to change back to the old algorithms in the next version? Because they were working perfectly! That would be great!

Working perfectly for some, doesn't mean working perfectly for most, there are millions of people who use classic shell, and I'm sure Ivo had a reason for changing the way it works. That said there's still a happy medium, and I hope its discovered

Hi,

I am still working on getting to run one of the 4.x.x versions without any mistake on my computer.

Classic Shell 4.0.5, 4.0.6 were both working perfectly until March 30th. From this day on, the already mentioned problem with hanging up appeared for the first time.

I already figured out by this date, that between 1st of March an 30th of March 2015, I only installes FormatFactory and Opera on my computer. And I had one automatical update for the Nvidia driver. Nothing else has been installed during this period. So I deinstalled FormatFactory and Opera completely as well as the Nvidia driver (which I replaced by a standard driver for testing). But the problem with Classic Shell still remains

Isn't there any chance to figure out which program icon "exactely" causes this 3 minutes stopping/hanging up from ClassicShell, maybe by some monitoring- or recording-tool?