Classic Shell: Forum

Hi Everyone,
Been stumped for 2 days. I have been using Classic Shell Start menu for several years. Our office just upgraded to Office 365 and I have been trying to install Office 2016 but having problems. The install states that it completed successfully. But then after clicking the "Close" button on the Office 2016 Install screen, the Task Bar goes black and no "pinned" apps show up. "Start" is non-responsive and the Desktop Icons do not display their images. 3 times, once after each install attempt, I issued a remote reboot command from one of our Domain Controllers to my workstation. After logging back into the workstation there is no sign of the Office 2016 applications.

While reading the Microsoft documents, I noticed that they all referred to "Click Start->All Apps". It was then that I realized I was using Classic Shell, because it uses"All Programs" not "All Apps". So...I uninstalled Classic Shell and behold! There were the new Office 2016 Programs listed under All Apps!

I just downloaded and re-installed the newest version of Classic Shell and everything is working again.
I think that Classic Shell was causing the Start Menu and Task-bar to lock as it was trying to reconcile the new Office 2016 programs. Office 2016 does NOT use a Program Group. Maybe that is what caused the problem? One time only I was able to wake up the Classic Shell menu, after an attempted Office 2016 install, by pressing CTRL-ESC...but the newly installed Office Programs did not appear.

I will now proceed to install Office 2016 on the other workstations. But first I will remove Classic Shell until after the install.
Is there a way to temporarily suspend Classic Shell during the Install? And then turn it back on?

Just thought I would post my experience in case others have the same problem.
Thanks

What is your version of Windows? I assume it is Windows 10?

You can exit the Start Menu by right clicking the Start button -> Exit. You can load it again by launching C:\Program Files\Classic Shell\ClassicStartMenu.exe. The Classic Shell Start Menu automatically loads when Explorer.exe loads. You can disable this behavior too by going to Classic Start Menu Settings -> General Behavior tab -> Uncheck "Start automatically for this user".

From what you describe, it is clear that some version of Classic Shell that you had installed was crashing Explorer.exe on your Windows 10. Re-installing the latest Classic Shell seems to have fixed the problem for you. It is definitely not related to whether Office installer creates program groups. I have Office 2016 installed too (but on Windows 8.1) and had no issues.

Windows 10 because it updates continuously occasionally has issues with Classic Shell. You need to always keep Classic Shell also up-to-date for smooth operation. Also Windows 10 updates are well known for breaking or outright uninstalling certain desktop apps or damaging their configuration after OS updates have been installed. A misconfiguration in the Registry can also cause Explorer.exe to crash when the Classic Shell Start Menu is running. When you re-installed the latest version, the missing files or Registry configuration might have gotten repaired.

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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.