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Windows Operating Systems

Start11 Brings a Classic Start Menu Back To Windows 11 (theverge.com) 134

Posted by BeauHD from the back-to-the-good-ol-days dept.
Stardock has a new app for Windows 11 that brings back the classic appearance of the Windows Start menu. The Verge reports: "This first beta is designed to regain some of the lost functionality in the current Windows 11 Start menu," says Brad Wardell, Stardock CEO. "We have a lot of exciting new features planned to make the Start menu not just more accessible but also more useful to companies and power users." Start11 includes a configuration UI that will support future Start menu designs, according to Stardock. While the previous Start10 app aimed to bring back the classic Windows 7 Start menu to Windows 10, Start11 will go further in future to add extra features to the Windows 11 Start menu. The Start11 beta is available today, priced at $4.99, and offers the choice between a Windows 7-style Start menu or a more modern one that brings back some of the classic style and features of the Start menu.
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Start11 Brings a Classic Start Menu Back To Windows 11 More

Start11 Brings a Classic Start Menu Back To Windows 11

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  • Wow! (Score:4, Funny)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Wednesday August 11, 2021 @09:05PM (#61682569)

    I haven’t been this excited since Eazel tried to make a business out of a file browser!

    • Bring back Progman.exe!
      Why do I want a start button, when I can have Progman.exe No bars taking up valuable screen space, no Start button to power off my computer.

      I am sure I can remember a bunch of my other arguments I had about Windows 95 that I was bitching about 26 years ago, and manipulate it show how Windows 3.1 was superior. (even though at the time, I had already tired of windows and went to Linux, and tweaking fvwm to get my perfect environment.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday August 11, 2021 @09:13PM (#61682595)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Xenx ( 2211586 )
      Open-shell doesn't play nice yet. Not to say it won't, but not yet.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by sconeu ( 64226 )

        Define "doesn't play nice".

        I've been using it for over a year, and have had zero problems.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by Xenx ( 2211586 )
          You've been using it for over a year with Windows 11? They had a post on their github going over all the problems with it on Windows 11. Placement/overlapping issues, customizations not working properly, fun stuff all around.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Hartree ( 191324 )

        "Open-shell doesn't play nice yet."

        Yet another reason not to move to Windows 11 any time soon.
        I'm sometimes forced to use Win 10 or 8. Open-Shell makes it much better, IMHO.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kokuyo ( 549451 )

      What's your beef with Defender?

    • who cares? Install 3rd party AV if you want, Defender will turn itself off. Just keep in mind that most security features are now labeled Defender, including the firewall and browser sandbox, so you'll probably still see the name floating around.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pruss ( 246395 )

      Classic Shell also does Win95- and XP-style single-column start menus, which I like even better than the Win7-style two-column menu. I use it all the time on my laptop.

      • Classic Shell also does Win95- and XP-style single-column start menus, which I like even better than the Win7-style two-column menu. I use it all the time on my laptop.

        As do I. I don't like Win7's menu. 95/xp was always cluttered, but if you take a few minutes to organize it yourself, it's great.

    • To me, it seems that M$ has finally succumbed to itself and has lost ALL contact with its users.

      With 1.3 billion Windows 10 copies out there and 2.4x sweet fuck all Classic Shell users, I think it is you who has lost all contact with users.

      An angry minority is not a userbase. Most people don't give a crap about Classic Shell, e.g. me. Windows Vista introduced the concept of hitting start and typing, and since then whatever colour shape or location the menu has is completely irrelevant.

    • And its free, even. It provides a nifty Windows 7-style Start menu for those who dislike the course M$ is taking with the Start menu in Windows.

      There is a quote about lipstick and pigs that comes to mind here.

  • What's wrong with Open Shell [github.io]?

  • Does anyone still use the Start Menu? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by srichard25 ( 221590 ) on Wednesday August 11, 2021 @09:31PM (#61682645)

    I can't remember the last time I actually used the Start Menu in Windows. Now all I do is hit the Windows Key, start typing the name of the app I want (normally it comes up in 3-4 letters) and press Enter. Must faster than trying to browse for it in a huge menu.

    • Re:Does anyone still use the Start Menu? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Known Nutter ( 988758 ) on Wednesday August 11, 2021 @09:41PM (#61682671)
      Same. But when I do it in a conference room, people are always amazed. So this concept seems foreign to more folks than it should be. I guess this is expected as these same folks are lost on the concept of the Navigation pane and continue to navigate lengthy directory structures double-clicking one at a time rather than populating Quick Access. Super fun in meetings.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Shades72 ( 6355170 )

        Would be using your method more, if that search functionality produced results reliably all the time.

        Have been cursing more than once about the fact that it can't find software, even when there is an entry for this software in the start menu.

        So now I lost time typing, adding frustration and still need to use the mouse to activate the tool in question. This happened often enough in the beginning that I stopped outright with the typing and just use the mouse. At least I know that works 100% of the time.

        This w

      • Ya know... the whole reason the GUI was made was to make commands discoverable. If you are just going to use command completion, why not stick to the CLI? What a weird fucking monstrous hybrid this situation is. The worst of both worlds. :(

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Xenx ( 2211586 )
      It really depends on what you're trying to do. Sometimes using the mouse is more convenient. Sometimes I'm indecisive and not sure what I want and looking helps. I've also got folders and drives set up in Open-Shell so it's easier to access certain things quickly.
    • I only do that on unfamiliar PCs. On mine I have everything pinned to a panel and I can't always remember the name of what I'm looking for. I'm just going to get used to Win11 because otherwise I look like a retard when I'm on some one else's computer.

    • Sometimes I don't know what the program is called because I use it so infrequently, and it is required by some hardware.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Windows really needs to support tagging for this purpose.

        • the start menu works ok, frankly.

          if I really needed to organize this stuff I could put shortcuts in a folder.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            I tend to use search and put the odd stuff I always forget on the tile area.

            I used to organize by folder but it became a chore. Every time something updated it got put in the root again, and when I uninstalled it left a load of crap behind.

    • When you use the hotkey, you're simply not clicking the start button. You are definitely using the start button, I'm not seeing the difference.

      You are literally saying, that you don't use something you use, but you use a hotkey to use the thing you say you don't use.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I can't remember the last time I actually used the Start Menu in Windows. Now all I do is hit the Windows Key, start typing the name of the app I want (normally it comes up in 3-4 letters) and press Enter.

      Welcome to MS-DOS circa 1981 where you run programs by typing the name of the program.

      I always laugh when people brag about this like it is some sot of great accomplishment.

      If you take a minute to organize your start menu there's almost never a need to type anything.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Gabest ( 852807 )

        Here is an easy one, start the good old Computer Management on Windows Server. No, This PC/Manage does not work there. You have to type the name.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by vux984 ( 928602 )

      " Now all I do is hit the Windows Key, start typing the name of the app "

      Yep, that's how most power users do it now. And the right click options for system, powershell, device manager, etc... all excellent too. And anyone who wants to go back to the way it was before is an idiot. I see people saying Windows XP or Windows 7 had it right... and no... no it didn't. This is so much better.

      It's not perfect mind you, when it can't find something it likes to include web results which i don't ever want, and windows

      • So going back to typing a program name is just like DOS. Now that's going backward!

        BTW, I'm a Unix guy so I've been typing program names all along. Point and click? That's for noobs.

        • It's much easier/faster to use a command line than clicking through a bunch of menus and lists of icons.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

            It depends whether you have good word memory and type a lot or if you have good muscle memory and use the mouse a lot. All apps should be usable exclusively by both methods for good accessibility.

            I have quick access to dozens of programs, hit bottom left corner and click, move mouse up to right icon or folder, click the app, takes me 1 to 2 seconds, using the keyboard would take me longer.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Gabest ( 852807 )

      That's how I use Crome too, but they keep making the address bar more stupid with each update. On Android. You now have to click the edit icon just to go to a different subreddit.

    • sure, that's nice and convenient for the apps you use every day, but how about the tools you accumulate that get used once every 6 months?

      I use a file comparison tool that no amount of typing 'compare' or derivatives will find. It's called 'WinMerge'. Others I can't remember the name of, but I know I have a tool that does x. So I've created a bunch of Start menu folder to group these logically.

      And until very recently, the Windows 10 start menu used idiotic search settings which excluded control panels. So i

    • Re:Does anyone still use the Start Menu? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by fleeped ( 1945926 ) on Thursday August 12, 2021 @02:06AM (#61683141)
      I'm a keyboard and mouse person. I particularly love it when I click on start and the search box, type e.g. "cmd", and when I'm about to click on it, the list grows, cmd has moved up the list and I execute something completely different.

      • Even better is how the thing that matches your search string best is almost never at the top of the list.

        With that said, if you wanna run cmd, might as well hit Win+R and type cmd

        • Thanks! Learned something new today. Dino needs to change habits
        • Ha! Windows strikes again. Lovely shortcut, but doesn't seem to allow you to run it as elevated.

          • no, you would need a whole lengthy runas /user:administrator cmd for that, which would be irritating.

            I pin it to my taskbar in win7, which is the last windows I'll ever use. Go Steam, Go (continue to develop Proton, please.)

      • I'm a keyboard and mouse person. I particularly love it when I click on start and the search box, type e.g. "cmd", and when I'm about to click on it, the list grows, cmd has moved up the list and I execute something completely different.

        I always wonder what it is people have installed on their machine that causes this behavior. I've seen it reported so many times, but the only time I've ever experienced it is when I can't spell.

        • The Start menu search box will (by default) also search your documents and/or do an internet search. Disabling these (might require OpenShell) will end the 'list growing just when you're about to click' phenomenon.

          • For me it's 23 "programs", 430 "documents" and 179 "files" that contain cmd. Exactly what I wanted from that execution search bar. Mind you, 1 cm to the bottom and 1cm to the right of that, I have the cortana search icon that ... does exactly the same, with shittier gui and grouping of results. Genius.

          • Yes it does, but for me 100% of the time the top search result is always a program in the start menu. Other results come up, but they are never in focus

        • For me:
          1) some microsoft stuff
          2) any programming library that happens to have a file called "cmd" (cmd.h, cmd.hpp, cmd.cpp, cmd.obj, cmd.o, etc)
          3) some apache installation has some files with cmd suffix

          • Yeah I get those results, but they are never in focus. Only the actual command prompt stays in focus despite all other references to cmd from my documents showing up as well. That's my point.

    • That process you just described is using the Start Menu.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by arQon ( 447508 )

      Except that before MS effed up the Start Menu, you could simply hit the first letter of a program on the top level and launch it immediately. No search BS, and you didn't even have to press Enter.

      So basically, you're proud of knowing how to use a mediocre workaround that "normally" only takes 4-5 times as many keystrokes. And you think that's an *optimization*, because even that is somehow still less crap than the new Start Menu...

      Do you see the problem now?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      I can't remember the last time I actually used the Start Menu in Windows. Now all I do is hit the Windows Key, start typing the name of the app I want (normally it comes up in 3-4 letters) and press Enter. Must faster than trying to browse for it in a huge menu.

      For common applications, yes, I do it this way as it's stupidly fast.

      Of course, for common apps I use all the time I pin the app to the task bar - for work this would include the IDE and command prompts. But for lesser used applications I often do t

    • Constantly. Why wouldn't I? Besides, sometimes the MRU list gets screwy and you end up with a situation where you hit start and type "mmc" to bring up a blank management console and get gpedit instead.
    • You know why you started using that? Because the start menu has been made more useless as new . Windows versions get released. At least that's exactly my reasoning. I began using the start menu more often when i installed open shell

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pruss ( 246395 )

      I find I occasionally forget the names of programs that I use on non-daily basis and need to look through a list. Even though I regularly, but not daily, 3D print stuff, I forget the name of "Repetier-Host" quite often and have to look through the start menu to figure it out.

    • I tried the typing thing. I would eventually see what I want, but when I tried to click on it, it would move as it added more results and I'd end up clicking the wrong thing.

      I used Classic Shell, and now Open Shell and have a 95/xp type menu with everything organized into a few subfolders on the menu and have far faster access to whatever I want. Way faster than typing.

      To each their own.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tarlus ( 1000874 )

      This is exactly why the transition from Windows 7 to Windows 8 was tolerable for me. My habit of pressing the Windows key and typing the name of an application did not need to change. I rarely - if ever - fiddled with the start screen.

    • Heresy! That's too close to saying the CLI beats the GUI...

  • Microsoft victims want to KDE their computers harder.

  • Comment removed (Score:3)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday August 11, 2021 @09:53PM (#61682715)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Here's 4.99, kid (Score:3)

    by mcnster ( 2043720 ) on Wednesday August 11, 2021 @09:55PM (#61682721)

    Go buy yourself a real operating system.

    --
    This message brought to you by the Unix Society.

    • $5? You mean buy coffee treat drink or beer and get a real operating system.

      BSD and Linux on tap, all you can drink for free.

      • True. 4.99 for party hats and a kazoo. :-)

    • imagine changing your whole operating system and workflow because you didn't like a drop-down menu that this software fixes for 4.99
  • I use Windows at work. Classic shell is still working well on Win10 for me and I doubt I'll be upgrading unless it's forced. On the positive side, there's a discount for those of us who bought Start8 back in the day.
  • Why is this even here?

  • amazing, for $5 (Score:4, Funny)

    by iggymanz ( 596061 ) on Wednesday August 11, 2021 @10:08PM (#61682763)

    Windows 11 such shit you have to spend $5 to make it suck a little less.

    Ooo, but it has rounded edges on something. We live in blessed times.

  • I've been using StartIsBack for years to restore the Windows start menu and add versatility. I don't see what Start11 is bring to the table that has not already been available for eons...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Guspaz ( 556486 )

      Compatibility with Windows 11 is the main thing. StartIsBack doesn't support Windows 11 yet, nor does OpenShell.

  • .. users bring it back with third party software that "sometimes" can be a pain. But I switched to KDE which is a whole new level of masochism ;)

    To conclude this:
    Windows users are deprecated and masochistic.
    Microsoft fails at Desktop-GUI-design each and every time, I know some Windows Phone Users that love that GUI till today, but Microsoft failed on software support and building an eco system.

    I conclude:
    Satya Needleman should go back to the dimension of pain.

    ps.
    My GUI went over the ocean, ..

    , bring back, b

  • 2021 has seens some of the most impressive tehchnology well see in our lifetimes. Just ground breaking discovery after ground breaking discovery. You can even rent a Windows machine in the cloud now!

  • wtf? (Score:4, Funny)

    by skogs ( 628589 ) on Wednesday August 11, 2021 @11:55PM (#61682963) Journal

    What "lost functionality"??

    The Win10 start menu is literally the best thing they've ever done.

    You want to click around because you're lost? Cool.
    You want to not be a plebe and know how to type? Cool - press Win or click Win....type.
    You want something actually important? Right click it.

    It is seriously the best interface they've ever made if you ignore the fact it searches your goddamned email and the internet for whatever you type.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Seriously though the Win 10 start menu is the best in a long line of crappy start menus.

      The old start menus were a lot of work. When you had a lot of apps installed the list got ridiculously long. You could organize them into folders, but every update would crap out the icons in the root again.

      That's one of the reasons why people littered their desktop with icons. It was easier to find stuff they wanted with muscle memory or by looking at nice big icons.

      So Windows 10 gave you that UI on the start menu, mean

    • The only real negative with the Windows 10 start menu is all the extra garbage and advertising they shove in it. If they got rid of that, it really is nice functionally. Even on my 10 Pro system at home where I have the ability to lock shit out I don't want, there's no way to clean up that big messy area to the right of the menu I actually want to access.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I remember when Brad Wardell was spurred on to found Stardock Systems by a long-running debate on the comp.os.os2.advocacy newsgroup. There was some troll that was constantly bashing OS/2 and its lack of games. To prove the point that OS/2 could be a good platform for games, Wardell developed the OS/2 Galactic Civilizations game and founded Stardock Systems at the same time.

  • Since when was windows 7 "classic"?
    I am still on the "classic" desktop. They got it right with windows 7 (mostly), which means mostly downhill from there.

    I still wouldn't call Windows 7 classic by no means. Windows 2000, oh that was a classic, it had class. (Windows 7 had Aero...)

  • Why do we need an app to restore lost functionality?

  • Why is 11 better than 10? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Entropius ( 188861 ) on Thursday August 12, 2021 @06:00AM (#61683545)
    So, a serious question from a non-windows user:

    What makes Windows 11 better than Windows 10? Not the MS marketing crap, but from the perspective of an average user who mostly wants the OS to stop throwing ads, popups, and random bullshit at them and launch their programs.

    • Well the average user largely doesn't give a shit about what you wrote, but they will point to the slight usability crap and a few additional features that will need to be adopted by software itself.

      E.g. the ability to arrange layouts on the desktop is something I would bet my kidney average users will like. And give it 5 or so years and I will bet you that games hit the market which *require* Windows 11 given that Direct Storage won't be backported to Windows 10, and both the latest Xbox supports it and th

      • Hm. Direct Storage looks like an interesting and potentially useful technology; I hope that it doesn't wind up breaking Proton (which is what I care about these days).

  • When a third party has to create something to restore lost functionality, you know what a shitshow Windows 11 will be. As if we haven't seen the previews in Windows 10.

    • Are they restoring functionality or just reverting presentation? Seems like the latter to me.
  • Microsoft will do anything they can to wreck the menus and their enemy: the Quick Launch Bar.

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