Classic theme on Windows 8

[Anixx]

Does anybody know how to uninstall this completely? After uninstallation I have corrupted taskbar.

[Powerplayer]

Hi thanks for this lovely program can you make an update to this classicshell where Search IE looking bar in open explorer windows can be turned off and that Organize toolbar introduced in windows 7 add an option to disable them?

Would be great for my NT4 theme

[Anixx]

I have a problem with this program. Every time I reboot the Explorer does not start the taskbar and desktop, only displays one window. I have to re-login so to have the taskbar. Anyone else experience the same problem?

[windows.nt.win32]

"Hi thanks for this lovely program can you make an update to this classicshell where Search IE looking bar in open explorer windows can be turned off and that Organize toolbar introduced in windows 7 add an option to disable them?

Would be great for my NT4 theme

Gotta love those retro Windows themes.
Anyway, the 'Organize toolbar' is called the command bar. Here are instructions on how to remove it: Link
What are you referring to when you say 'Search IE looking bar'? Do you mean the address bar? If so, I'd recommend this: Link

Does anybody know how to uninstall this completely? After uninstallation I have corrupted taskbar.

Check to see if there's a file called dwmapi.dll in C:\Windows\. If there is, just delete it.

I have a problem with this program. Every time I reboot the Explorer does not start the taskbar and desktop, only displays one window. I have to re-login so to have the taskbar. Anyone else experience the same problem?

I've had this. This is a result of the program replacing itself as the shell. I have mine implemented as a service (see my previous post) and it will replace itself as the shell on startup, meaning that I have to implement another service to restore Explorer.exe as the shell.

[Powerplayer]

"Hi thanks for this lovely program can you make an update to this classicshell where Search IE looking bar in open explorer windows can be turned off and that Organize toolbar introduced in windows 7 add an option to disable them?

Would be great for my NT4 theme

Gotta love those retro Windows themes.
Anyway, the 'Organize toolbar' is called the command bar. Here are instructions on how to remove it: Link
What are you referring to when you say 'Search IE looking bar'? Do you mean the address bar? If so, I'd recommend this: Link

Yea man your theme is great system colors FTW my eyes don't hurt anymore from all those horrible bitmaps that they like to force on us so my idea was to remove command bar and adress bar then add the win95/nt icons for fun i also fixed the taskmanager bug by using old windows 7 manager inside system32 folder so now i get the windows 7 one , thanks for the command bar from windows 7 but that old guide don't help for win 8.1 otherwise your program along with classicshell is the only thing making win8 usable
Thanks for the tip for making firefox work these 2 windows files did wonders .

Edit: Classicshell is great it starts on latest win10 but wont last long but that it starts on a completely different OS is respect!!!
For us with laptops maybe some pe-network code could be used to make the wifi bar as it was in win7 maybe even better

[Anixx]

windows.nt.win32, do you know how to fix the startup issue, that is to boot with taskbar working? You said one should start it as a service? Can you provide more details?

Powerplayer, here is my desktop:
http://storage3.static.itmages.ru/i/15/ ... 2ed5ae.png

[Anixx]

Well it seems the latest version of W8Classic is flawed: it jerks all windows periodically, which is very annoying and a source of bugs.

I returned to the previous version which thanks God I kept on a backup drive!

The latest version of Classic Shell is also very bugged and together latest W8Classic+Classic Shell 4.2.1 make the usage of computer impossible: the Quick Launch and the Taskbar move to the right every 10 seconds by about 2 centimeters!

http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewt ... =12&t=4555

I rolled back both W8Classic and Classic Shell!

[Powerplayer]

Well it seems the latest version of W8Classic is flawed: it jerks all windows periodically, which is very annoying and a source of bugs.

I returned to the previous version which thanks God I kept on a backup drive!

The latest version of Classic Shell is also very bugged and together latest W8Classic+Classic Shell 4.2.1 make the usage of computer impossible: the Quick Launch and the Taskbar move to the right every 10 seconds by about 2 centimeters!

http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewt ... =12&t=4555

I rolled back both W8Classic and Classic Shell!

Uninstall taskbar tweaker its not needed otherwize classic shell + classic theme still works nice on win8 fires even up on win10 but crash every 2 minutes because its a different os and incomplete

[Anixx]

Uninstall taskbar tweaker its not needed

May be it is not needed for you, but it is needed for me.

classic shell + classic theme still works nice on win8

Do you have the latest version of Classic Shell?

[maur0]

hello evrybody dwm.exe is possible to use windows 7 version into windows 8.1? or not work? to using classic theme native windows 7 into 8.1



my dwm.exe windows 7 x64 for test users (if raplace dwm.exe win 8.1 x64 for this windows 7 work?)
http://www53.zippyshare.com/v/Gp4Uc7Nl/file.html

[Anixx]

hello evrybody dwm.exe is possible to use windows 7 version into windows 8.1? or not work? to using classic theme native windows 7 into 8.1



my dwm.exe windows 7 x64 for test users (if raplace dwm.exe win 8.1 x64 for this windows 7 work?)
http://www53.zippyshare.com/v/Gp4Uc7Nl/file.html

Why? There are ways to dosable DWM: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=383450

[Powerplayer]

I don't plan on migrating to Windows 8, so I will not continue the tests, except if someone is interested.

I have already migrated to win8 with these small updates now and then i must confess it looks better for each update

Edit : On windows 8.0 (windows to go) i can not use that dwmapi moving trick to fix firefox how do i do it on that?

[windows.nt.win32]

windows.nt.win32, do you know how to fix the startup issue, that is to boot with taskbar working? You said one should start it as a service? Can you provide more details?

Honestly, that's still an issue for me. I have to manually edit the registry and set the shell back to Explorer.exe, and then run userinit. I don't think I even have to mention how annoying it is having to do that every time I boot up my system. I could fix this by editing the source code. Again, I'm no programmer (although I have recently started looking into learning some C++) but that would be a very simple edit. The issue here is I'm having trouble getting it to compile. I'm using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, but it doesn't want to compile from here. IBMPad, how do you compile the source code? Also, where did you get your header files? Sorry if this is a stupid question, but this is all new to me.

On a slightly unrelated note, I like your desktop, Anixx.

[Anixx]

A worse issue with the most recent version is that it jerks all windows periodically. That's why I choose to use the previous version plus the AHK taskbar fixer script. A problem is that the newest Classic Shell is incompatible with AHK, so I use the 4.1 version.

[Anixx]

Edit : On windows 8.0 (windows to go) i can not use that dwmapi moving trick to fix firefox how do i do it on that?

Scrap Firefox, use Seamonkey.

[windows.nt.win32]

I use Pale Moon (which is a build of Firefox) and I don't get the transparency issue with the use of a custom theme. I might look into that for Firefox.

Edit:
Alright, just got a fix for Firefox to work. I'll upload it soon.

[windows.nt.win32]

Alright, so here is that fix for Firefox that I mentioned earlier.
Download

To install:
1.) Open Firefox
2.) Go to the Add-ons page
3.) Right next to the 'Search all add-ons' box, there should be a button with a gear icon. Click on that and choose 'Install Add-on From File'.
4.) Open the win8-classic-fix.xpi file.
5.) Click 'Install Now'.
6.) Restart Firefox.
This should fix most (if not all) issues related to Firefox with the Windows Classic theme. Let me know if you have any problems with it.

Oh, and before anyone asks, yes it is compatible with the Classic Theme Restorer add-on.

[windows.nt.win32]

I think I've finally found a perfect solution for this program's startup method. How? By using scheduled tasks! There is an option to have a program open at logon for a specified user. But the problem here is that we want the executable to start before the shell, right? Well, I discovered that there is a trigger for scheduled tasks to execute as soon as a user session is connected (it can be specified to run per-user too). In the program's current state, it doesn't seem to enable the classic theme when set to run using scheduled tasks. However, I can confirm that it does execute, as it replaces itself as the shell before explorer.exe starts up.

So why not have the program start up like this? It would be much better than replacing the shell, and it could be used on a per-user basis. If it's configured to run on scheduled tasks (rather than the shell replacement method it uses now) then I think it could actually work! If there are any drawbacks to this, feel free to point them out, though I honestly can't think of any.

Edit:
Alright, so I'm not sure how exactly how this works, it doesn't seem to execute every time (maybe I'm doing something wrong). So maybe it would be a good idea to look into implementing this as a service if we can't get this to work well.

[Anixx]

But the problem here is that we want the executable to start before the shell, right?

Not necessary. one can kill Explorer.exe and then re-launch it.

[Anixx]

I have installed ClassicTheme the normal way, and then put the following batch file into task sheduler to be executed upon logon:

Code: Select all

taskkill /IM explorer.exe /f
start userinit.exe
exit

It boots me exactly into desktop with Classic Theme now, but the process takes about 4-5 minutes. Maybe it is because of OneDrive, I dont know.

[windows.nt.win32]

Not necessary. one can kill Explorer.exe and then re-launch it.

That is true, but I'm thinking more about startup programs that would be started with Aero enabled. I think the reason it's a good idea for this to start before the shell is because the shell is (generally) the first program to run on the user's desktop. I did think about doing it that way, but that's really the biggest issue I see with that. It would be pretty annoying to have to restart every application you have set to run on startup just to have them use the classic theme.

[Anixx]

Follow my advice above. It will bring you into desktop with Classic theme after boot.

[windows.nt.win32]

Just out of curiosity, has anyone tried this on Windows 10 yet? If so, how does this work with it?

[roytam1]

Just out of curiosity, has anyone tried this on Windows 10 yet? If so, how does this work with it?

I haven't tried to install it, but hack seems still working in Build 10130.


MOD edit: pictures are limited to 50KB only.
Please read the Forum Rules, especially Section 5.

[windows.nt.win32]

Well that's very good to hear! Hopefully it will work in the final release.

[crashnburn]

How Legit/ Good/ Bad risky... better is this.. Supposedly goes inside to find the FAST windows rendering thing.. The details are there in the video description.

Would like to hear the insights of the GDI / Shell experts here Thanks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e77JpO8Uk8M

[Anixx]

Windows 95 vs Windows 8.1 comparison:

Win95


Win 8.1

[roytam1]

in build 10159, the explorer context menu text is missing.

[Anixx]

Try to use 7+ Taskbar Tweaker. It replaces the menu with the classic one.

[crashnburn]

I just went through the entire thread as I just updated: Win 7 SP1 x 64 > 8 > 8.1

Currently running classic shell and its decent (imported from Win 7). I am wondering if I should risk it with the stuff on this thread. Is it safe/ easy instead of 'borking' the system? (Maybe we can have a Quickstart Wiki/ Guide created for the stuff that's spread across this thread).

I dont mind the lack of 3D but there are certain colors I hate and "+ trees" that I wish were there instead of the > arrows. Let me screenshot some of it and ask specifics.