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Classic Windows Start Menu

   

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.

 

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.

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.

 

Download

Classic Windows Start Menu is available under the terms of a Creative Commons License 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)

If you have problems to download files, please check this links:       Mirror 1       Mirror 2

 

32 bits v3.2

updated 21-02-10

64 bits v3.2

fixed 06-03-10

32 bits v3.1

old 29-12-09

64 bits v3.1

old 29-12-09

  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).