Classic Shell: Forum

I've been using the Classic Shell explorer settings and I love them.

Tonight, I reinstalled, also with the start menu option. I set the option for XP style. I just realized, however, that I can no longer search by pressing the Windows key and then typing. Actually I can, but it only searches the start menu, not my files, like it did before.

Is there a setting that I can select, so that the windows orb will search my files, like it did before? Or do I have to choose the Win7 start menu option?

Looks like you only want the Classic Explorer component and not the start menu. Run the installer again, select the "Change" option and uninstall the start menu (and any other components you don't need).

If I can't get that start menu search functionality, then ok I guess I'll uninstall that start menu option.

I have one more question now--did I inadvertently blow away all my old Win7 start menu settings? I had several programs Pinned to the start menu. Are they still going to be there?

The Win7 menu is not gone. You can access it with Shift+Click. In fact if you don't want to uninstall the start menu you can change the settings in the Controls tab and have the Win key and the mouse click open the Win7 menu as before, but have Shift+click or middle click open the classic menu.

OK, thanks. I have shift-click set to enable teh XP start menu, windows key or left click for Win7 menu.
But I still have the cascading All Programs menu, which is nice. I like that.

Very nifty program here.

you can still have a full computer search with classic shell

the Windows Search sucks and it eats up alot of resources with its constant indexing, and if its not set to eat up all your resources with indexing, then its super slow, ridiculously slow, so slow its not even worth using.

Here is a much better alternative that allows you to hit the start menu on your keyboard, type your text, and then select custom Searches to make it even faster than it already is

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=332

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Agent Ransack. Hmmm I’ve tried it before and on my computers, its been nowhere near as fast as the Windows 7 search. If I ever get disaffected with this, I’ll look into that option there, but I’m pretty happy with Windows’ native search.

Now if you are talking about XP or earlier, then I'd probably agree with you there. But with Vista and 7, the search has gotten much better and faster. But I digress....

agent ransack is slower than windows default, because it doesnt create an index of the pc (which means windows default is running and slowing your computer down a little bit, all the time, so if you dont use search often, its probably worth turning off, for the speed alone. Also windows default causes alot of writes which if your using an SSD can be a bad thing..

Also maybe you can try "Everything": http://www.voidtools.com/Everything-1.2.1.371.exe Its pretty much instant (even faster than windows with its indexing)
very simple and user friendly. Its not quite as powerful as Agent ransack though , and im not sure if it searches inside files, and metadata, or just filenames.

apart from Agent Ransack, I also use fileseek.. its pretty slow, but its the most comprehensive search tool I've ever seen.. it finds files you didnt even know you had, it searches everything & anything very thoroughly..

what Windwos 7 search does is similar to what the Search 4.0 or whatever did in XP, it is not "fast" it takes about as long as searching an Office document.. because for the 1% time you use it, it spends the other 99% of the time monitoring all of your computer actions, and recording & cataloging them in real-time... its a beast of a program.. and its simply not worth using unless you really have no idea where anything on your computer is, and you dont organize your own files logically for easy retrieval on your own, working from your own memory and cataloging technique

otherwise, I cant see how people justify running such a resource hog.. you really have to using it all the time and be unable to find anything yourself.. and having it running everytime you turn your computer on? even if your just going to play games or do some 3D rendering? never happening for me anyway

for sure, that would have come in extremely handy for me like a decade ago.. when i was quite unorganized.. but over the years, i've learned to name & rename everything i come in contact with, and place it in the proper directory in the proper partition, like a library..

but for sure, if you dont do that, and you have only a single 2TB partition, and everything is everywhere, like most peoples probably are, then its useful, you probably use it every day..

but with indexing turned off, windows 7 search is useless.. ridiculously slow.. Agent Ransack searches 2TB without indexing in less than a minute.. its awesomely fast and never eats up any resources..

anyway, windows 7 search is a cool tool for those who need it, for sure..

IndexyourFiles & Locate32, are indexing searches.. if you like indexing you might try those..i think superfinder might be too