Classic Shell: Forum

I purchased a new Dell computer with Win 8.1 installed. Subsequently, for the following week, I installed all my programs and customized the computer. Next, I installed Classic Shell 4.0.4, and it worked perfectly. I customized Classic Shell and then shutdown for the day. The next morning, my PC would not boot. I got messages that it was repairing and it kept shutting down and restarting with the same message. There was a critical error notification as well, "critical_process_died". I waited forever for it to boot up, but it never happened. Lastly, I did a repair and recovery and everything was lost: all my files, programs, etc., just like it came from the factory. My only option was to start, again, from scratch. I really like Classic Shell, so, if I do a new install, how do I prevent this problem from reoccurring?

This has been reported in the past by few people, but the cause of the problem is yet unknown. It may be an incompatibility with some software. See if installing Classic Shell first will work and then install your other software to see if the problem will happen again. If it does, try uninstalling Classic Shell as described here: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2305#p11432

I am running Office 2010 and was wondering if that could be causing the problem? Before it started the repairing process in booting up, I saw a Word file open with gibberish, bypassing my Windows password prompt; then it closed and began the endless repairing and restarting cycle without ever actually booting up the system.

Are you saying that a Word document showed up before you typed your password? That's bizarre. No part of Classic Shell should run before Explorer.exe, which should only start after you type the password.