The Classic Start Menu settings allows you to skin the start menu to look completely different, or keep it exactly the same and only tweak one small setting, or anything in between. The Windows 7 start menu with cascading programs menu using Classic Shell.

Vista, 7, and 8) look and feel just like older versions of Windows (e.g. The original motivation of this application was to make new versions of Windows (e.g. This free application is a Swiss army knife of Windows customizations. With Vista, the changes seemed like two steps forwards, one step back.Įnter Classic Shell. The type to search box was an excellent addition, but if you wanted to just browse the programs menu, it was awkward and hard to use. But the up button was so simple, easy to use, and always in the same place. Why remove a perfectly good button? It made no sense. Another complaint was the new Start menu. Yes, Vista introduced “breadcrumbs” in the location bar, which you could click to jump to any of the parent folders in your path, as well as the Alt+Up Arrow keyboard shortcut, which was welcome. I remember when I first got a Windows Vista laptop after years of using Windows XP, the thing that bothered me the most was the missing “up directory” button in Windows Explorer. Taskbar Shuffle was fast, functional, and free. Every other program was either non-free or buggy in some way. I tried a ton of different programs which offered this function, but Taskbar Shuffle was the best (though I recall liking XNeat’s animation better). Before Windows 7, there was no built-in function to re-arrange the items in your taskbar or system tray. This is obsolete now, but when I think of tiny programs that did their job well, Taskbar Shuffle was the perfect example. Here are my favourites, in no particular order! Windows Shell Enhancements: Taskbar Shuffle ( archived download link) So that’s what this list will focus on - tiny programs that just work. Sure, there are plenty of professional applications that are released by huge corporations and have equally massive, sprawling installations over your disk, but I’m most impressed with the little apps that are well-written and just work. As I prepare to replace the hard drive in my aging Dell XPS 1340 (2009) with a faster SSD (on which I plan to reinstall Windows 7, and maybe see if it can handle Windows 10 too), I’m reminded of a few programs that I’ve found indispensable and will be installing on the new disk right away. Over the years, I’ve found that I like my Windows experience a certain way, and I’ve installed a ton of different apps and utilities. I consider myself a Windows power user, having used this OS almost exclusively on all my PCs and laptops since I was a student with Windows 95, and now as a professional software developer on Windows 10.

Twofingerscroll class not registered