I stopped using windows after Using Win10 for a short time, but ClassicShell was always maintained and worked flawlessly... oh, dev stopped in 2017. oh well.
the source was released and there is a fork that has recent changes https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu
The start button image has to be replaced so that the replacement intercepts mouse clicks.
Still far better than the MS start menu fetching internet garbage instead of just launching an app as it's supposed to.
For those who know Classic Shell, Open-Shell is its successor.
Open-Shell: https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu
https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu
I'd love to hear about other alternatives people are enjoying, but this has reliably shielded me from what MS has done to their start menu for several years now.
-------------------------------
Edit:
I just wanted to add that I'm a little shocked that a discussion of Open Shell or other alternatives to the default Windows menu isn't higher in this thread. Windows has always been an OS that was meant to be customized. If Microsoft makes a poor choice for the default start menu, then change it. This isn't OSX.
Yes, Linux is great, but Windows is highly customizable too. MS may be trying to look more like Apple these days, but the roots are still there. Graft whatever you want onto them. Sometimes you need to use Windows, so you might as well learn how to make yourself comfortable with it.
https://pureinfotech.com/restore-taskbar-location-windows-11...
..but its the popularity of Android and Google which put Microsoft to this direction. They get away with it, why not Microsoft? On my Nvidia Shield TV, I have to watch about 33% of my startup screen with commercials. Commercials which sometimes aren't meant for my children. What have we come to that we accept this behavior from a TV? And Google gets away with this. (I'm not trying to downplay Microsoft's behavior, however.)
I can't remember if the shell was enough, but I remember that all the store apps were disabled, search in the start menu didn't search online, no cortana stuff, it was actually quite usable.
You might need the non-home edition to do some of the those things, I think group policies were involved. It's been a long time though, I've been using Linux for everything ever since Proton became good enough for gaming.
[0] http://www.classicshell.net/ (not https) [1] https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu
It's fast, reliable and highly configurable.
It took the interns at Microsoft, what, nearly 10 years to fix the whole search function fiasco? Not impressive, and a working search function can not be considered a feature.
> Previously if you wanted to go into the windows registry editor, you had to know the right incantation, but now, all you have to do is hit the Windows/Meta key and type 'reg'
The same search, but on Windows 10 with Open Shell [0]: https://i.imgur.com/YyxIzcO.png
And in my opinion, the start menu is much better looking: https://i.imgur.com/NeXwFlM.png
> it even shows you power-user stuff really intuitively.
Examples?
In my circles I can't think of a single developer and/or power-user that use, or plan on using Windows 11 (except in a virtual machine for quick compatibility-testing). We're all on micropatched W7's or Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC - otherwise Linux. W11 has sort of become one of the topics we joke about during lunch.
Power-users do not care about a cool and stylish UI, new icons or a simple working search function.
> A lot of these blog posts (like many comments in this thread sadly) are low effort hate/FUD for farming clickbait/karma rather than objective analysis.
ghacks has been covering Windows for many years. It's also not clickbait and MS are turning the operating system into an ad platform, unfortunately.