Are you missing the Classic Start Menu in your new Windows 7 installation? Now you can get it back and enjoy the Aero-Glass look as well.
Before
Here is the regular “Start Menu” on one of our example systems. Organized and nice but it would be nicer to be able to switch back and forth between the regular and classic styles whenever we wanted.
Setup
When you download the app it will be in a zip file and once you have unzipped the contents here is what is included. At this point you will need to create a “Program Files” folder, place the contents inside, and create a convenient shortcut. Now you are ready to have the “Classic Menu” back.
After
As soon as you start the app your menu will be automatically converted over to the classic style. The rounded corners and Aero-Glass effect make it look very nice. And access for the classic style menu is just the same as for the regular style menu (i.e. Windows Key, Ctrl + Esc, or left clicking the mouse button).
At the moment “drag & drop, add, remove, rename, and sort items” features are not available in Classic Windows Start Menu. You can make these changes in your regular style menu and the changes will be reflected in the classic style menu when you switch back.
A nice built-in trick is the “Original menu…” listing. Click on it to temporarily view and use the regular menu and then click on the “Start Menu Orb Icon” to return to the classic style menu.
If you want (or need) to exit the classic style menu simply right click on the “Start Menu Orb Icon” to open the “Exit Window”.
Note: If you would like for Classic Windows Start Menu to auto-start with Windows each time you will need to add the appropriate shortcut to the “Start Folder”.
Conclusion
Classic Windows Start Menu provides a quick and easy way to have the classic style menu back in Windows 7 while letting you enjoy the Aero-Glass look as well.
NOTICE: The download link has been updated to a new source.
Links
Download Classic Windows Start Menu
If you’re moving to Office 2003 to 2007 you might have a hard time finding the right commands for creating your documents using the Ribbon. Search Commands is a cool add-in that lets you search and find commands quickly.
Giveaway of the Day is an interesting site and sometimes they offer some decent programs for free. However, there is always a catch, they try to include crapware during the app install. We’ll show you how to avoid the extra junk during the install process.
Are you looking for a way to easily start creating your own webpages? KompoZer is a nice basic website editor that will allow you to quickly get started and become familiar with the process.
Over at Lifehacker, I’ve written an article of interest to How-To Geek readers, about how well the default Windows security tools work if you just use a little common sense (and install Microsoft Security Essentials).
Windows 7 has made a lot of improvements to several features, but Windows Explorer can be a bit annoying when organizing a large collection of files and folders. Today we show you a quick tip to help make it more manageable.
For Windows users it’s probably all too familiar seeing the Blue Screen of Death, especially in XP. Today we take a look at BlueScreenView which is a free utility to display and interpret the data located in the mini dump files after the BSOD occurs.
If you’ve made the switch to Windows 7 and use Windows Live Messenger, you might have noticed the icon stays in the new Taskbar. If you are annoyed by this and would rather see it in the System Tray (notification area), just follow this simple process.
Are you frustrated with having no quick and easy way to restart Firefox after modifying the about:config settings or a similar action? Now you can with a little bit of extension magic.
Want more free stuff? Today we we’re giving away 5 copies already gave away 5 copies of DisplayFusion Pro, a multiple-monitor taskbar and desktop wallpaper rotating application that we’ve been fans of for a very long time. And it now supports Windows 7!
Have you ever wanted to swap out the Windows default icons with something else? The new Windows 7 library icons can be changed with a hack to a text file, but there’s an easier way. We’ll explain both.
