• 01 November, 2020
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Open Shell Brings Back The Glory Days Of The Windows Start Menu

Open Shell, originally known as Classic Shell, is open-source software that allows you to replace the standard Start Menu on Windows 10 and Windows 8. Open Shell originally came out as Classic Shell in 2009 and it has been around for a while.

With Open Shell, you can change the appearance of the Start Menu and replace with the likes of Windows 7.

On Windows 8, Open Shell has been configured to bypass full-screen Start Menu and boot directly to the desktop.

On Windows 10, Microsoft already allows users to access the Start Menu directly from the desktop, but you can use this open-source tool to recreate classic Windows 7 experience.

Key features of Open Shell:

• Works on Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10
• Allows you to enable toolbar for Windows Explorer
• Enable Classic copy UI (Windows 7 only).
• Show file size in Explorer status bar.
• Title bar and status bar for Internet Explorer.

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How to enable Windows 7-like Start Menu on Windows 10

A really nice feature is that for those who do not wish to use Windows 10’s tile-based Start Menu, Open Shell allows you to recreate the Windows 7-like Start Menu.

To replace Windows 10 Start Menu with Windows 7 Start Menu, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Github and download the Open Shell program.
2. Launch the installer.
3. Click on the Next button.
4. Click the Install button on the following screen.
5. If you want only the Start Menu, make sure that you remove the Classic Explorer and Classic IE so that they will not be installed. When you have done this for both options, click next.
6. The setup program will now start the installation process.
7. Click on ‘Next’.
8. Windows will display a User Account Control prompt asking for administrator permission. Click on ‘Yes’ if you would like the program to install on your computer.
9. Click on the Finish button

Once done, click on the Start button to access the configuration page where you have to select the Start Menu style.

The appearance of Open Shell menus

Open Shell offers three versions of Start Menu:

• Classic Shell – This version of Start Menu will only show your recently used apps and all apps list.
• Classic Shell with two columns. This version of the Start Menu will show your recently used and settings.
• Windows 7 Style: This version of Start Menu recreates the Start Menu UI from Windows 7-era.

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You can also open the ‘Basic settings’ menu of the Open shell to access the advanced settings, as shown in the screenshot below.

The above screen allows you to configure basic options, including the action when you left-click the start button.