Classic Shell: Forum

Hello,

After running with the new Windows Start menu for the last few months, which although good in many ways, is severely hobbled by the lack of a fully-hierarchical All Programs menu.

So I've come back to Classic Shell and have managed to tweak a whole load of stuff to get me something very, very close (for Classic Shell) to the native look and feel.

One thing that doesn't really work though, is the "Show icon frames" option. All it seems to do is put a slight border around the icon, and slightly darken the background. This may be useful in other themes, but for a Windows 10 look, it doesn't work. Seeing as Microsoft have now finally really nailed the flat look in Windows 10, I suggest that this could be improved to more accurately reflect the native start menu.

I would happily not use it, but the extra padding it affords icons does it make it a little easier to view.

I'd also suggest (though not knowing anything about theme editing) that further settings (such as padding, icon background color) should be added to the Windows 10 Setting tab to allow a more faithful rendering of the new Start Menu (which actually looks pretty great).

Just my 2c,

Thanks,
Dave

I don't quite understand what you are suggesting to change with the icon frames.

Hi Ivo,

Sorry if I wasn't clear.

The effect I was getting was this, with a border around each icon:



The effect I thought I was going to get was either a solid grey background with margin, or a bit more padding, like in Windows 10:



However, I just accidentally turned off "Skin > Disable glass transparency" and the frames disappeared, giving me (pretty much) the effect I was looking for:




Is that a the desired effect of "Disable glass transparency" ?

Either way, it works for me, for now (though I suspect this is just a happy accident).

As for "what I was suggesting to change" it was really just more control over the Windows 10 look for the icons in general really.

Ideally (though this is probably a conversation for another thread) there would be a Windows 10 specific version of Classic Start Menu which would emulate as closely as possible the native setup but with better options for things like hierarchical All Programs.

Cheers,
Dave

The frames should not disappear if you turn off the transparency. The two settings are unrelated. You may have also unchecked the icon frames setting.

The current frame color is selected to work for all possible color schemes. If you want it to be gray, you will have to edit the skin file. It is also possible to increase the size of the background, of course you will be able to fit fewer items on screen.

These are my settings for each appearance:

Possibly the frame color is very close to the background color. What is the color of the selected menu item? Also, if you select another color scheme in Windows, like blue, can you see the frames when the skin is not transparent?

Ah yes, turns out it was my Windows Personalisation color (the darkest grey available) in combination with my Menu Look > Glass * settings:

• Enable menu glass: on
• Override glass color : on
• Menu glass color: #000000
• Glass opacity: 100

This also resulted in me losing mouseover highlighting.

OK, so you're saying there is a way to either add or remove the frame background by editing the skin file? I can look up posts on how to do that and do that if you think it will work?

When glass is on, I've found the selection color and icon frame color harder to see.

_________________
Links to some general topics:

● Compare Start Menus

● Read the Search box usage guide.

I am a Windows enthusiast and did Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

Yes, it seems to be a balance with some of the other settings. I'm hoping to alleviate this by creating a custom skin:

http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=5216

Any help is appreciated!