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Version 3.2 |
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Version 3.2 |
Windows 7 has eliminated the start menu we used in Windows XP and that, in my oppinion, made apps easier to find and launch. Now, you can recover this classic menu for free.
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Sample of visual appearance and context menu |
Another sample with different visual settings |
Options dialog |
The old-guy: Windows classic appearance |
Once executed, this tool will launch a Windows XP-style menu that you can call in the same ways you used to do before: Win key, Ctrl+Esc or clicking left mouse button on the Windows logo; by right-button clicking, you'll access main options menu, to customize, explore or exit the app. So easy!
ClassicWinStartMenu updates menus every time, and shows you the last installed applications, and now new version adds improved visual appearance, context menus, drag & drop, sorting, and more minor features. Also you can add new files or folders just dropping them over the start button. Always remember you can do these operations on the original menu folders, and changes will be reflected into your new menu.
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Tips: - to move a folder, right click and choose "Cut" and then "Paste here" into destination. - fast access to Shutdown through keyboard: press Win key, followed by Space and then numbers from 1 to 3, to select Hibernate, Restart or Turn Off |
Translation and customization
In order to use it with your own language, I provide two files (strings.xml.english and strings.xml.spanish). By default, language is english, so to have the spanish translation just delete strings.xml and rename strings.xml.spanish to strings.xml, or download directly the Spanish version. Despite its extension, "strings.xml" is not a real xml-format file, it just has tags like xml files do.
I encourage you to make your own translation, because all of these files are in plain-text format. For example, to show your recent documents as 'Docs', edit strings.xml, look for the line
<Documents>Documents</>
and change to
<Documents>Docs</>
Remember to keep the structure of the labels to avoid unpredictable behaviors of the menu. This file also keeps user's settings, and all are editable, but avoid that by changing them with the "Options" dialog.
Also, some items can be customized: log off and shut down backgrounds, and the left ribbon of the main menu: just change the supplied images (respecting bitmap dimensions, of course): logoffback.bmp, shutdownback.bmp and ribbon.bmp.
Classic Windows Start Menu is
available under the terms of a
Creative Commons License. If you agree, proceed to download:
IMPORTANT NOTE! Searching the Internet I found that Norton Internet Security (some versions) is reporting CWSM as a threat, and blocks/deletes it. Of course it's a false positive. The reason is very simple: CWSM creates a hook to intercept calls to original start menu, and this behaviour is detected as potential risk but, trust me, it is not dangerous.
Version 3.2 includes new features, such as:
band at main menu
level with OS version is now optional
most recent documents
entry is also optional
access to Windows'
help
full customizable
menu font
independent sorting
for each user
console now opens on
user's folder
fast access to
Windows shutdown (see tips above)
now you can change
the selection rectangle style, more similar to original
highlight recent
installed apps or used docs (lapse of time can be customized)
tooltips
new context options
to "Run as administrator" and "Explore all users"
new drag & drop
cursor with semi-transparent icon
better layout for
desktops with taskbar placed at top, left or right side of desktop
direct link to my
site to check for new versions
an utility to search
for dead shortcuts (although it just deletes shortcuts, not files, use at your
own risk!, I have detected an issue concerning Windows Fax)
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If you have problems to download files, please check this links: Mirror 1 Mirror 2 |
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updated 21-02-10 |
fixed 06-03-10 |
old 29-12-09 |
old 29-12-09 |
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Spanish |
Download | Download | Download | Download |
English |
Download | Download | Download | Download |
Portuguese thanks to Gregory |
Download | Download | ||
Russian thanks to Alek Romankov
/ Ухов Ухо |
Download | Download | Download | Download |
 German
thanks to Dennis / MikeTNT |
Download | Download | Download | Download |
Polish
thanks to Paweł Stachowiak /
Igor Urbanski |
Download | Download | Download | Download |
Italian thanks to Filippo Lepri
/ G R Fonseca |
Download | Download | Download | Download |
French thanks to Patrick Bouzin |
Download | Download | ||
Slovenian thanks to Samo Gašperšič |
Download | Download | ||
Bulgarian thanks to Tzvetan Dragostinov |
Download | Download | ||
Czech thanks to Zbynek Suchy |
Download | Download | Download | Download |
 Slovak
thanks to Ľubomír Grajciar |
Download | Download | ||
Danish thanks to Manfred Letz |
Download | Download |
Suggestions are welcome at sourcecodeboy@gmail.com. If you're reporting errors, please indicate OS version and architecture (x32 o x64).
