Classic Shell: Forum

Hello,

If this has been discussed before, I apologize for not being able to find the thread for it. But I attached a picture of what I'm talking about. Is it possible to increase the font size of where it says how many items are in a folder & the size of the total files there. I drew green arrows that point at them.

Thanks

If you increase your Windows system DPI (set DPI scaling to a higher value), the font size of the text in the status bar is scaled. However I think in the future, Ivo may have to increase the height of the status bar, so the large font fits inside it.

_________________
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.

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried messing around with the DPI settings and noticed that just increasing it one notch (from 100% to 125%) increases the size of a lot of other things just way too much. It would've been nice if Microsoft programmed that setting for me to put any number I want (for example 103%). But things get way too big.

What you said is such a great idea! Can you please mention this to the Classic Shell programmer to integrate that option to increase the height of the status bar, and the ability to increase the font size (and maybe change the font type) within the application itself?

Thanks so much!

You can increase DPI by point percentages too. Click "Custom sizing options" and enter the percentage there. e.g. 105% or 107%.

_________________
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.

Oh, I never knew you can type in a new number or adjust the ruler by dragging it. I clicked the drop down menu and just assumed that the options are restricted to those values. But still, changing the height of the status bar, and font size, is more preferable for me.

Alright, so I messed around a bit again with all this. I noticed that I prefer to keep the DPI at exactly 100% since that is what is shown as accurate (for example, when I want to type a document, I want to see its exact size before printing it; I don't want to see it enlarged on the computer and notice that it's actually small when I print it).

I've actually temporarily fixed this in the past, yet reverted to its small size again because of other conditions. As a matter of fact, I found exactly what can make that font bigger (I'm using Windows 8.1):
Right click Desktop -> Screen resolution -> Make text and other items larger or smaller -> At the bottom, select Tooltips & change that font size. That is the exact option to change the font size for what I want to change in that picture above. Yet I use a program called Media Player Classic a lot (it's an audio/video player) and the thing is that in the bottom of that program, the word "Playing" gets enlarged and the bottom of the letters "y" & "g" don't show. I don't like how it shows that, so I revert back to the smaller font so the whole word is visible.

So the only resolution is if Classic Shell can implement the feature we were talking about earlier. It would be so great if that's possible. Thanks

Hi, I just want to post back on here to state that this has been fixed. There is a feature within Classic Explorer now that allows the modification of the Status Bar font & size.

Could you please tell me where that feature is to be found? I'm running Classic Shell v.4.3.1 on Windows 7 (x86), and I can't find that option anywhere in Classic Explorer Settings.

Or is it unavailable in my Windows version?

Hello, yes I'll show you what to do.

First thing though, I'm running Classic Explorer 4.3.0. Check to see if you have those options in your version before getting this new version. If your version has this setting then you're good.

Open Classic Explorer settings and refer to the picture I attached. Press the button with the three dots. I set mine as:
Font: Segoe UI
Font Style: Semibold
Size: 11

Hope this helped =)

Thanks! That's where I had been looking, but the option isn't there. I had Version 4.3.0 previously, and never noticed it there, either, but then I wasn't looking for it at the time. That font adjustment would be a big help, as my vision is pretty bad, so maybe I'll have to downgrade to 4.3.0. I've backed up my settings to XML files, so it shouldn't be difficult. If I can't find the option in 4.3.0 I'll just upgrade again.

Have you checked "Show all settings" at the top?

Oh my bad, I may have sounded a bit confusing. I thought I read that you had version 4.1.3, you said 4.3.1, which is newer than mine. Sorry about the slight confusion.

So yea, try doing what Ivo said, he's the creator, he knows best, you probably forgot to put that check mark.

Actually I had already checked it, otherwise the status bar options tab wouldn't have appeared at all. Only three options show up on that tab, and I have enabled all three, which are working:

"Show free space and file size"
"Show detailed info for single selection"
"Force status refresh"

By the way, everything else in Classic Shell is super! I especially like your replacement for the file conflict dialogue; the native dialogue in Windows 7 is so wordy that part of it drops below my screen and I can't hit the confirmation button.

Oh, right, you are using Windows 7. This setting is not available on Windows 7, because in this case the status bar comes from Explorer.
On Windows 8 and up, Classic Shell creates its own status bar and can use whatever font it wants. But on Windows 7 the font is decided by Explorer.

Ah, ha! I thought all along it might be OS dependent. Unfortunately, the Windows 7 color scheme dialogue doesn't offer a separate setting for the status bar, which seems to use the same font as the menus. I'd use a larger font there, but it messes up the overall layout. It gets even worse if I increase the DPI; some items don't fit properly.

However, I was able to change the system font in the registry from a barely visible MS Sans Serif 9 to Tahoma Bold 9 without messing up the layout too much. Your file conflict dialogue seems to use the system font, so if I hadn't changed that, it would be very hard to read the dialogue.

Thanks for your help, Ivo!

Edit: Oops -- I was wrong; Windows 7 uses a smaller font for the status bar than it uses for the menus.

OK, I just found a workaround: The status bar font in Windows 7 is the same as the tooltip font, which was set to Tahoma 8. I just changed that to Tahoma 11 bold. What an improvement!

Tip: You can customize the status bar in certain apps that respect the system setting with Winaero Tweaker. It gives you an easy to use GUI for that.

_________________
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.

I was just on their website. They mention that a change in the status bar font affects tooltips, as well. I had already discovered that through experimentation, and by adjusting the tooltip font I was able to improve the status bars of many other apps besides Classic Explorer.

A few of my apps don't respect system settings at all, so they're unaffected by tweaks. In fact, some of them bypass the system font altogether, and do not provide adjustments of their own. My current global system font is a substitution in the registry to eliminate the use of MS Sans Serif, but some apps manage to ignore what's in the registry and use what appears to be 8 point MS Sans Serif. I'd get rid of them if they weren't so useful.