Solved Classic Shell Does Not Skp Metro Screen.

I have Classic Shell set up on two Window 8 machines, a desktop and an ASUS Q200e laptop. And it is thing of beauty on one machine but less so on the other. The desktop works just fine but on the ASUS I cannot skip the Metro screen. At boot, the Metro shows up for a long, long time before Classic Shell shows up. Yes, I have the 'skip Metro' item checked . On the desktop Classic Shell shows up immediately without showing any trace of Metro. I have compared the settings on both machines one by one and they are identical as far as I can see.

I made a Registry edit to produce a Classic Shell service log and here is the content of that log.


0x50F664F7 Starting service
0x50F664F7 Session 0 (4)
0x50F664F7 Session 1 (0)
0x50F664F7 Starting process: C:\Program Files\Classic Shell\ClassicStartMenu.exe -startup

I believe the problem has something to do with one of the ASUS programs that gets loaded at startup. The OS is the one installed and shipped with the computer while the desktop is a clean install from a DVD.


Will appreciate any help getting this sorted out.

Thank you very much

I have been using Start8 and *most* of the time, I don't see Metro on boot up. But rarely/occasionally it will briefly show the Start screen then pop over to desktop. I attribute this to some start-up OS or app that burps once in awhile and needs more time before Start8 gets control and can do the swap.

I think, therefore, you hit the cause in your comment about a startup program of some kind on the ASUS. You could look either in your Start folder or look in the registry under the start-up section there and see what's in there. Potentially you could play with removing/disabling some of those things to see if it improves. I suspect it would if you pull out the right item.

Thanks mbratch.

I just tried Start8 to see if it would behave differently but to no success. Metro still just sits there a long time just like Classic Shell did. I guess I will try disabling each of the ASUS thingies one at a time starting with the most logical (if there is such a thing) and keep going.

BTW, your avatar reminds me of one of the musicians of Mannheim Steamroller.

Thanks again.

If you quickly click on the Desktop tile, do you see a start button right away, or does it take a long time to show too?

Thank you Ivo. As soon as Metro showed up I clicked on the desktop and it quickly appeared, BUT the Start button waited a long, long time to appear. In the other case where I didn't immediately click on descktop, I noticed while waiting for Metro to clear and Classic to appear the mouse cursor flickered between the hour glass and its normal arrow head shape. Clearly the system was waiting for something to happen.

Thanks again.

Most likely another service is taking a long time to start, delaying the startup of the Classic Shell service. What you can do is try to run ClassicStartMenu.exe on login using the scheduler. You should also switch the Classic Shell service to "manual" to completely disable it. Let me know if this makes a difference. If it helps, I may switch to using the scheduler in future versions.

Go to control panel then go to performance and information tools then click advance to see what maybe causing slow boot time.

Ivo said:

Most likely another service is taking a long time to start, delaying the startup of the Classic Shell service. What you can do is try to run ClassicStartMenu.exe on login using the scheduler. You should also switch the Classic Shell service to "manual" to completely disable it. Let me know if this makes a difference. If it helps, I may switch to using the scheduler in future versions.

Click to expand...

Well, I did as you suggested but Metro and its delay continued to appear before Classic Shell. I removed all other scheduled task with no luck there either.

Thanks again.

There's a way to boot directly to the Desktop without any 3rd-party software. The way to set it up is too much to describe here, but it's at
How To Boot Straight To The Desktop in Windows 8 - Microsoft Community
I haven't tried it though.

Dragon Drop said:

There's a way to boot directly to the Desktop without any 3rd-party software. The way to set it up is too much to describe here, but it's at
How To Boot Straight To The Desktop in Windows 8 - Microsoft Community
I haven't tried it though.

Click to expand...

Yes, good suggestion. I did that early on for another machine before I found Classic Shell and it worked fine. It is worth a try and thanks for the reminder.

Here is an update on this thread. I just discovered that when I choose Start/Shutdown/Shutdown and then turn on the laptop via the power button, the system bypasses the Metro screen an goes to Classic Shell. If I choose Start/Shutdown/Restart, the system does not skip the Metro screen. This is also true if I chose to shutdown from the Charm.

I have compared the power options on the laptop with those on the desktop and find all the common options are the same. But the laptop has addition options, mostly having to do with the battery and lid as one might expect. In addition, Asus has its own power plan called 'something gear'. I'm not sure how to handle that but I will see if I can configure it to work the same for restart as it does for shutdown.

Thanks to everyone who has offered suggestions on this vexing thing and if the above sheds any light on the solution please let me have your thoughts.

I just remembered an easier way to make Windows 8 switch to the desktop at startup. Just choose whatever folder you'd like to open first when you log in. Create a shortcut to that folder and put the shortcut in this folder:

C:\Users\(UserName)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

There may still be a delay of a few seconds and a Start Screen appearance, but then it will go to the Desktop and open your chosen folder.

As it turn out, I had two other problems that I didn't know about when I started this thread. The solution to one of them,
[h=3]Unable to Disable Touchpad on Asus Q200e

appears to have solved this one as well as one other. Don't have a clue why but am thankful Classic Shell now.[/h]