Classic Shell for Windows 8

[xpclient]

I get a failure report in the update screen of control panel/update screen. Classic Shell installed, frequent update failures. Classic Shell not installed, no update failures.

I'm going to be away for a while, so probably won't be able to further respond until I get back.

It baffles me how CS has to do anything with updating of the system since it doesn't patch any files or modify them. It is just a regular program. Have you tried installing KB2771431? Windows 8's servicing stack is buggy at the moment and updates sometimes fail to install as it is.

 

[skyzoomer]

Show Desktop on the very right

View attachment 13134

Hi Tepid,

The taskbar on my Win8 desktop with Classic Shell 3.6.2 running looks like the one in post #120 in this thread. Copy of that image follows:



There is no "Show Desktop" block icon to the right of the clock as shown in your example. My laptop's display resolution is 1280 x 800. I don't know if that has anything to do with it.

Thanks,
Skyzoomer

 

[skyzoomer]

Ivo, does this shortcut do a full or hibernate shutdown?

%windir%\System32]shutdown.exe /s /t0

This is a hybridshutdown
Shutdown -s -f -t 00 -hybrid

hibernate
Shutdown -h

Normal shutdown
shutdown.exe -s -t 00 -f

/s is for shutdown (normal shutdown) the /t is for time before shutdown, 0 is immediate, no waiting

The reason to put in /t 00 is that the default without using /t is 30 seconds.

at the c:\ prompt type shutdown /? and you will get this... and a little more that I am not posting

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.2.9200]
(c) 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>shutdown /?
Usage: shutdown [/i | /l | /s | /r | /g | /a | /p | /h | /e | /o] [/hybrid] [/f]

[/m \\computer][/t xxx][/d [p|u:]xx:yy [/c "comment"]]

No args Display help. This is the same as typing /?.
/? Display help. This is the same as not typing any options.
/i Display the graphical user interface (GUI).
This must be the first option.
/l Log off. This cannot be used with /m or /d options.
/s Shutdown the computer.
/r Full shutdown and restart the computer.
/g Full shutdown and restart the computer. After the system is
rebooted, restart any registered applications.
/a Abort a system shutdown.
This can only be used during the time-out period.
/p Turn off the local computer with no time-out or warning.
Can be used with /d and /f options.
/h Hibernate the local computer.
Can be used with the /f option.
/hybrid Performs a shutdown of the computer and prepares it for fast startup.
Must be used with /s option.
/e Document the reason for an unexpected shutdown of a computer.
/o Go to the advanced boot options menu and restart the computer.
Must be used with /r option.
/m \\computer Specify the target computer.
/t xxx Set the time-out period before shutdown to xxx seconds.
The valid range is 0-315360000 (10 years), with a default of 30.
If the timeout period is greater than 0, the /f parameter is
implied.
/c "comment" Comment on the reason for the restart or shutdown.
Maximum of 512 characters allowed.
/f Force running applications to close without forewarning users.
The /f parameter is implied when a value greater than 0 is
specified for the /t parameter.
/d [p|u:]xx:yy Provide the reason for the restart or shutdown.
p indicates that the restart or shutdown is planned.
u indicates that the reason is user defined.
If neither p nor u is specified the restart or shutdown is
unplanned.
xx is the major reason number (positive integer less than 256).
yy is the minor reason number (positive integer less than 65536).

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Wow, Tepid. Thanks much for all of that info!

EDIT:
Tepid, when I do a normal Win8 shutdown via SETTINGS > POWER > SHUTDOWN, my understanding is that it is a hybrid shutdown. When I use the shortcut I posted, from the info in your post I'm doing a full shutdown. Is that right?

Reason I ask is that I don't really notice any difference in the power up boot time between the two shutdowns.

Thanks,
Skyzoomer

 

[Tepid]

Reason I ask is that I don't really notice any difference in the power up boot time between the two shutdowns.

depending on the system, you might not.

You can also disable it.

Go to Start -> Control Panel.
Open Hardware and Sound > Power Options.
click on “Choose what the power button does”.
then, click on “Change settings that are currently unavailable”.
Uncheck Turn on fast startup

What is fast startup?

Fast startup is a setting that helps your PC start up faster after shutdown. Windows does this by saving system info to a file (hiberfil.sys) upon shutdown. When you start your PC again, Windows uses that system info to resume your PC instead of restarting it.

Notes
•The fast startup setting doesn’t apply to Restart. You need to shut down and then start your PC again for fast startup to take effect.

•Fast startup is turned on by default in Windows.


*********Additional Info from howtogeek...

What is Hybrid Boot?

Hybrid Boot is a new feature in Windows 8 that takes the Hibernate feature we all know and love and improves upon it to bring us faster boot times. In your PC you have multiple sessions, more specifically you have session 0 which is reserved for the kernel session and session 1 which is normally your user session. In traditional implementations of hibernation when you click hibernate your PC takes everything that it currently has in memory (RAM) and writes it to the hiberfil.sys file on your hard drive, this includes both session 0 and session 1 data.

With Hybrid Boot, instead of hibernating both sessions it only hibernates session 0, it then closes your user session. So now when you start your PC back up, it reads session 0 from hiberfil.sys and puts it back into memory, and starts a new user session for you. The result is dramatically faster boot times, with no effect on our user sessions.

*************************
I don't know what to tell you about the show desktop thing, it is on every system I have installed with Win8.
Even WinRT.

It's not really a visible icon till you actually click on it.

 

[Ivo]

The Desktop button may be disabled if the "Disable active corners" is set to All in the Classic Shell settings. In such case you have to press Win+D.

 

[Tepid]

No, I just tried that,, It's not a hot corner icon. It's the Show Desktop icon that has been there since Vista
And ClassicShell does not disabled it, unless I am missing a setting

 

[skyzoomer]

Reason I ask is that I don't really notice any difference in the power up boot time between the two shutdowns.

depending on the system, you might not.

You can also disable it.

Go to Start -> Control Panel.
Open Hardware and Sound > Power Options.
click on “Choose what the power button does”.
then, click on “Change settings that are currently unavailable”.
Uncheck Turn on fast startup

What is fast startup?

Fast startup is a setting that helps your PC start up faster after shutdown. Windows does this by saving system info to a file (hiberfil.sys) upon shutdown. When you start your PC again, Windows uses that system info to resume your PC instead of restarting it.

Notes
•The fast startup setting doesn’t apply to Restart. You need to shut down and then start your PC again for fast startup to take effect.

•Fast startup is turned on by default in Windows.


*********Additional Info from howtogeek...

What is Hybrid Boot?

Hybrid Boot is a new feature in Windows 8 that takes the Hibernate feature we all know and love and improves upon it to bring us faster boot times. In your PC you have multiple sessions, more specifically you have session 0 which is reserved for the kernel session and session 1 which is normally your user session. In traditional implementations of hibernation when you click hibernate your PC takes everything that it currently has in memory (RAM) and writes it to the hiberfil.sys file on your hard drive, this includes both session 0 and session 1 data.

With Hybrid Boot, instead of hibernating both sessions it only hibernates session 0, it then closes your user session. So now when you start your PC back up, it reads session 0 from hiberfil.sys and puts it back into memory, and starts a new user session for you. The result is dramatically faster boot times, with no effect on our user sessions.

*************************
I don't know what to tell you about the show desktop thing, it is on every system I have installed with Win8.
Even WinRT.

It's not really a visible icon till you actually click on it.

Hi Tepid,

Thanks once again for your very informative response. My shutdown setting of "Turn on fast startup" was checked and I'll leave it that way. I'll use Ivo's tip to hold the shift key down when shutting down to do a full boot on the next power up. The tips from both of you have really cleared the fog about Win8 shutdowns.

And YES! The "Show Desktop" thing is invisible but does work when I click on the taskbar to the right of the clock. That is such a great tip you just gave us. I can remove the "Show Desktop" icon that I pinned to the taskbar now and save some space.

Is Ivo the author of the Classic Shell? If so, maybe making the "Show Desktop" icon visible on the taskbar might be helpful for the many who are not following this thread.

Thanks so much and keep up the good work!
Skyzoomer

 

[Tepid]

I do not believe that will be possible. That is probably locked away in some deep code.

Sent from my WP7 Phone

 

[azasadny]

BTW, the more I use Win8, the more I like it! I do have the "crutch" installed (Classic Shell), so I'm not using the Metro side very much, but once a day or so I venture over there and play a bit. I use my PC for work, so I need to remain as productive as possible and Win8 with Classic Shell works for me!

 

[todphillipo]

im having trouble with windows 8 running properly, ive only downloaded 4 things other than updates and it seems to be frezzeing up alot in past few days. and it seems to be acting kinda...slow witht the touch pad. ive only down loaded skype, java, kaspersky anti virus and google chrome. i cant figure out what is up with it. im half tempted to take it back to best uy and tell um to figure it out or give me my money back since i only had it for a month.

A friend of mine has the same problem - slow PC, not worked Apps. He solved the problem by ininstalling Kaspersky.

miauu i got kaspersky form bestbuy when i got it and its junk. its take up to much when ur on. i scanned with it b4 i took it off and it found nothing. as soon as i put vipre on (witch i trust) i scanned and it found like 20 different addwares. but this still does explain y my grandma got same exact laptop as me and both only a month old and hers runs slower than a fudge sunday on a snowy day. mines runs great after i put on vipre but hers is slow when shes on the web. shoulda take 4 mins to load a page with a month old labtop

 

[azasadny]

Whenever I'm troubleshooting or performance testing, I uninstall any AV, run tests, then install the AV and run the same tests to ensure the AV software isn't causing any issues. With Win8, the only AV I'm running is Windows Defender, which comes with the OS. I don't believe that the AV vendors have any mature (stable) products for Win8 yet.

 

[Ray8]

I've installed the latest version (3.6.5) of Classic Shell once more to see how it goes. There were no major updates after the install, so I'll have to wait and see what happens with the next update. If things go foul, I'll try and capture as much information as a I can, so that we can find out whether it's Classic Shell or me that's the problem. As a side note (Luddite Hat on), Windows 8 really is a lot better with that darn tooting, familiar, menu system.

 

[Ray8]

As things would have it, there was another important update and this time everything went fine. I was worried at one point after restart, as the updating screen appeared to get stuck on 30% and then when it went into reboot before it got to 100%, but all was good come login.

 

[bar7737]

Great app. I use this on win 7 also to get the XP feel.

 

[Mustang]

To save me wading through every post on this thread, is there a way to show the programs list in the jump start menu window ... as in Win7 Start Menu?

I've got latest version of Classic Shell and spent a lot of time trying to find a way and can't.

 

[Ray8]

If you mean like in Windows 7, I don't think you can, with mine the program list opens on the right like it did with XP from memory. I believe that Start8 copies the Windows 7 start menu exactly. Once Stardock finalise ModernMix, I might buy both Start8 and ModernMix and get back what should have been provided in Windows 8 from the outset.

 

[Vince53]

Mustang, when I open Classic Shell, it has five programs listed on top. Then it has "Programs," and that opens everything.

 

[Clint]

To save me wading through every post on this thread, is there a way to show the programs list in the jump start menu window ... as in Win7 Start Menu?

I don't know if this is what you are talking about or not.

 

[Mustang]

If you mean like in Windows 7, I don't think you can, with mine the program list opens on the right like it did with XP from memory. I believe that Start8 copies the Windows 7 start menu exactly. Once Stardock finalise ModernMix, I might buy both Start8 and ModernMix and get back what should have been provided in Windows 8 from the outset.

Thanks Ray. Have bought StartIsBack and using at moment without problems, but if it gets borked by M$ updates will go for a freebie; or paid one if it exactly replicates Win7 Orb Start Menu & provides free updates to counter any M$ updates that bork it.

Hopefully StartIsBack will handle any updates as it is derived from hidden start menu in W8 so it's using native code.

I don't know if this is what you are talking about or not.

No, this is what I'm talking about:

​

 

[Ray8]

Classic Shell appears to have fixed what was a known issue when it came to updates and I haven't had any problems since. There was a major update today and everything went smoothly. This review gives a comparison of Classic Shell and Start8, which is a fairly well balanced review: Stardock Start8 vs. Classic Shell | Maximum PC.

When ModernMix comes out of beta into its full version, I think I'll get it and may get Start8 as well, as I assume that they will play nicely together. Classic Shell might work OK, but I don't mind how Start8 brings everything back to how I like it, not how Microsoft likes it.