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Retro Start menu star Classic Shell heads out to pasture (developer abandons it, yikes!)
ComputerWorld ^ | Dec 4, 2017 | Woody Leonhard

Posted on 12/04/2017 8:47:44 PM PST by dayglored

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To: TChad

>>the challenge of keeping the code up to date.

I’d expect this, and the deprecation of other APIs, will be a major challenge in that effort:

[Deprecated Shell APIs]
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/jj635743(v=vs.85).aspx


21 posted on 12/04/2017 10:03:52 PM PST by HLPhat ("TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS" -- Government with any other purpose is not American.)
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To: Bob434

>> I don’[t for hte life of me understand why MS doesn’t offer an option to retain old menus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLA_Unit_61398

Wave to the peanut gallery and ask them if MS is making their job easier or harder by not retaining old menus... and APIs.


22 posted on 12/04/2017 10:18:34 PM PST by HLPhat ("TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS" -- Government with any other purpose is not American.)
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To: HLPhat
Interesting link, thanks.

Looks like the modern version of "DOS isn't done until Lotus won't run."

23 posted on 12/04/2017 10:21:14 PM PST by TChad
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To: Bob434
Not only that but they suggest that anyone that doesn’t like the new changes are just being difficult- claiming that ‘many users have requested the changes’

Complaining to Microsoft as an individual consumer will do no good. They shut out consumers opinion and concerns a long time ago. Complaining to computer manufacturers who sell pre-loaded OS computers and are a large portion of the OS sales might be a better approach. Tell the company you want a computer but make it known the dysfunctional MS Start Menu is a big problem.

I was seriously considering buying a new desktop tower soon. I'm using W/8 now and depended on and use Classic Shell. A recent Refresh and reloading of all non MS programs reminded me of just how much I really hate the MS Menu. With Classic Shell no longer possible when I do buy a tower the next OS I purchase will not be from Microsoft.

24 posted on 12/04/2017 10:23:45 PM PST by cva66snipe ((Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?))
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To: dayglored

So, the coolest thing about Windows is making it look old. Gotcha. Microsoft should give up on their P.O.S. operating systems division and stick to cloud services and applications,.


25 posted on 12/04/2017 10:55:21 PM PST by lefty-lie-spy (Stay metal. For the Horde \m/("_")\m/ - via iPhone from Tokyo.)
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To: dayglored

Glad I bought a computer with Windows 7 :)


26 posted on 12/05/2017 12:07:43 AM PST by Freedom56v2 (#KATE'SWALL Build it Now)
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To: WMarshal

“Don’t get me started on user interfaces that use light grey font... “

AMEN, Brother!

http://contrastrebellion.com/

https://www.wired.com/2016/10/how-the-web-became-unreadable/


27 posted on 12/05/2017 1:44:59 AM PST by BwanaNdege ("The church ... is not the master or the servant of the state, but the conscience" - Luther)
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To: bigbob

I run a Microsoft browser window to talk to an Outlook Web Access account I need to get to. Otherwise I would never open IE or Edge (their new browser name).


28 posted on 12/05/2017 2:06:08 AM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: Auntie Mame

Show desktop - press together Windows key + D. Desktop pops right up.


29 posted on 12/05/2017 3:54:53 AM PST by MayflowerMadam ( "Free men are not equal, and Equal men are not free".)
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To: Freedom56v2

“Glad I bought a computer with Windows 7”

I’m ordering my new Win. 7 system this week from Dell. It’s a Christmas gift from Hubby; he’s tired of my whining about 10.


30 posted on 12/05/2017 4:02:21 AM PST by MayflowerMadam ( "Free men are not equal, and Equal men are not free".)
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To: MayflowerMadam

Oh my! That’s an awesome shortcut! Thank you!


31 posted on 12/05/2017 4:29:03 AM PST by Auntie Mame (Fear not tomorrow. God is already there.)
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To: Auntie Mame

I could not survive as a sane person without my keyboard shortcuts.

About 10 years ago when applying for a word processing job I was given a task/project as a test. Moving through three documents, two in Word and one in Excel. Copy-paste, editing, table-to-text, calculations, etc.

Zip zip and I told them I was finished. The tester said I had to do the whole exercise and I said I had. But she said I had finished too soon and hadn’t touched my mouse. All keystrokes. (Thank you, DOS.)


32 posted on 12/05/2017 5:22:10 AM PST by MayflowerMadam ( "Free men are not equal, and Equal men are not free".)
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To: Auntie Mame

I agree and I don’t want to insult your intelligence but there is a way to get the old show desktop icon back if you’re interested.


33 posted on 12/05/2017 5:23:45 AM PST by relictele
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To: dayglored

I have been installing Classic Shell on clients computers for some years.

This is a pity, but MS is really killing itself with this egregious W10.

I now have my clients (who can afford it) purchase a Mac, install Parallels then load W7 or W8.1.

It’s a great solution to Windows 10 issues.

BTW - if you ever go this route when installing W8.1 (W8 does not support IE 11) you can install it either ‘Metro’ or Classic.


34 posted on 12/05/2017 5:28:05 AM PST by BBB333 (The Power Of Trump Compels You!)
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To: cva66snipe

You are correct and there’s a larger issue that one might call cynical or even sinister.

Microsoft, obviously, is a publicly traded company. With each new version of Windows - whether the public wants the new version or not - Microsoft starts bragging to Wall Street about market share and uptake of its new OS - with the obvious wink-wink nudge-nudge to investors that Microsoft’s future results will be solid because their new Windows has, say, 30% of market.

This is evidenced best by two items:

1) Microsoft riding herd on PC manufacturers to offer the newest OS even if it’s an unstable, bug-ridden, security nightmare. Microsoft would even prefer that OEMs stop offering the legacy OS altogether.

2) Microsoft’s disastrous - for them and the user base - attempt to force (push) an automatic, overnight upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10. It bricked computers in some cases; rendered untold number of applications and utilities, many of them expensive, useless; and annoyed one and all with its Big Brother tactics.

Similar to Classic Shell, one intrepid developer wrote a utility to wipe all traces of the Windows 10 nag icon and messages and to exclude it from Windows Updates. Once again, MS is less interested in computing and more interested in selling soap.

Fortunately, the OEMs had a bit more business sense and plain old humanity and have been offering Windows 7 for quite some time despite Microsoft’s wishes.

Imagine that: Microsoft had a stable, usable, widely-accepted version of Windows that was reasonably secure. Their overriding instinct was to trash it.


35 posted on 12/05/2017 5:34:22 AM PST by relictele
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To: BBB333
> I now have my clients (who can afford it) purchase a Mac, install Parallels then load W7 or W8.1. It’s a great solution to Windows 10 issues.

My primary home machine is Mac Mini hardware with VMware Fusion VM hosting software, running Windows 7 and Windows 10 VMs, along with Linux and Unix VMs. Very productive. (I have no use for Win8/8.1).

The reason for Fusion is I need to be able to migrate VMs between MacOS, Windows, and Linux hosting platforms, and started doing that long before VirtualBox came out for all those platforms. VMware was the only cross-platform host at that time.

36 posted on 12/05/2017 5:35:09 AM PST by dayglored ("Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.")
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To: Auntie Mame
And with all these changes and "improvements" they still have been unable to come up with a simple way to print a directory listing. It's truly astounding.

C:\> DIR /s >PRN has always worked for me.

So has:

C:\> DIR /s >directory.txt

37 posted on 12/05/2017 5:39:34 AM PST by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: relictele
Imagine that: Microsoft had a stable, usable, widely-accepted version of Windows that was reasonably secure. Their overriding instinct was to trash it.

Yes.

I really am a Free Market kind of guy, but there are unpleasant consequences to such a system. Microsoft would see revenue dry up if they released a perfect OS which never needed to be upgraded. They would indeed be better off to trash such a thing.

Similarly, with government, if your schools are doing great, and if you ask for tax increase to make the schools even better, voters will not approve it. Hey, the schools are great, so who needs a tax increase?? BUT if the schools are terrible, the voters will always support a tax increase -- gotta fix those schools! It's an incentive for government employees to have awful schools. You make more money that way.

38 posted on 12/05/2017 5:43:31 AM PST by ClearCase_guy (Benedict McCain is the worst traitor ever to wear the uniform of the US military.)
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To: dayglored

I use a MacMini as well.

Solid machine and easy to rebuild (2012 or earlier).


39 posted on 12/05/2017 5:58:23 AM PST by BBB333 (The Power Of Trump Compels You!)
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To: dayglored

classic shell is a big part of why I can tolerate and actually like windows 10.

I think there’s a good chance the freeware sourceforge community will keep it going decently.


40 posted on 12/05/2017 6:06:06 AM PST by Mount Athos (A Giant luxury mega-mansion for Gore, a Government Green EcoShack made of poo for you)
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