Classic Shell: Forum

Seems like no matter what I do I can't stop Classic shell from skipping metro. I uninstalled and even with it uninstalled it still skips metro! Does anyone know how I can stop this? I did reinstall it because I love using it but want to try to get the hang of metro but if it continues to skip then I find myself not using metro. Help me out please. Thanks

if uninstalling classic shell doesnt do the trick, then its some other software; what other programs do you have installed that might do this?

What he said. The way Classic Shell skips the Metro screen is by executing code to simulate the Win+D key combination. If you uninstalled it, there will not be any code left to do this. Must be some other software.

I had this issue on my factory OS that I installed classic shell on and re installed windows 8 to see if it was a bug with windows. I re installed the OS last week tried it before I installed classic shell and it was fine. Then I installed classic shell and the same thing happened so its impossible that it could be anything else. There must be something left over from classic shell that is not removed during an uninstall!

by factory you mean?, what brand/model; most company's add bloatware in addition to drivers specific to their product, i wouldn't doubt if there bundling something with a setting that defaults to skip metro
if you installed the operating system from a disk; then you likely have a clean image directly from Microsoft,

do you have a clean install? (installed yourself; from a cd; or upgraded from w7/xp/vista, without using the option to keep some programs)

If the files aren't there at C:\Program Files\Classic Shell, something else is skipping Metro on your PC. Another Start menu replacement or Skip Metro Suite. Check your startup programs using Task Manager's Startup tab.

_________________
Links to some general topics:

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● Read the Search box usage guide.

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

The factory OS was from dell but i have since done a clean install with a windows 8 disk. With the dell os on the machine it always loaded to metro, Then I installed CS because I didn't like metro and wanted a start button. So after CS was installed it skips metro even with the check mark unchecked. So I installed a clean windows 8 and it booted to metro every time. Once I installed CS again no matter whether the check box is checked or not it always skips metro. It's not really a huge deal but I have learned to like metro and would like to use it more. I know i can easily get back to it but if the box is unchecked it should work

The skipping is done by code, not by tweaking the registry. If the Classic Shell binaries (exes, dlls) are gone from the system (please check the C:\Program Files\Classic Shell folder), then it is not Classic Shell that skips the Metro screen.

That doesn't mean Classic Shell is not the cause of this. Maybe it corrupted something in the registry, indirectly causing the desktop to appear. I am unaware of any registry corruption that is done by the installer, or any registry change that can cause the Metro screen to be skipped. If I did, I would not have done it with code

You can try using a system restore to go back to the state before Classic Shell was installed. If you decide to do that, please save the registry before and after. I will examine the differences to see if anything out of the ordinary is happening.

Classic shell is uninstalled and here's a snip of the start up list. Please take a look and prove me wrong. I love Classic shell and really don't want to re install windows to fix it. Thanks

It is a long shot, but you can try disabling the startup programs one by one. Maybe one of them is the cause.

I was trying to do that but haven't found anything that worked yet. im also not sure I can disable everything. some things I don't know for sure what they are so ill have to Google everything and see what can be disabled. I was kind of hoping it would be something easy. I also looked in c:\programfiles\classicshell and don't even have that folder since it was uninstalled

OK, so we confirmed that the Classic Shell binaries are gone.
Can you export the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services into a text file and attach it here? I want to examine it for remnants of Classic Shell or other suspect programs.

Also, what exactly is the behavior you are seeing?
Do you see the Metro screen for a moment, or do you see the Desktop directly? If there is a delay, how long is it?
Can you go back to Metro using the Win key, the charms bar, or some other method? If you can, is it functional, like can you launch apps?

It behaves fine! I see metro for about 3-5 seconds then right to the desktop. If I use the windows key I can get to metro without issue and all apps/programs with without issue.
I did export that part of the reg but don't know hot to get it here. im guessing I'll have to host it on mediafire or something so I'll give that a try.

hopefully this works. I have it here in my mediafire
http://www.mediafire.com/?js6752rhrxvcsbo

I really hope you find something because this is driving me nuts trying to find and the last thing I wanted to do was to make it someone elses problem but im fresh out of ideas. Thanks for your time

If you switch to the Full Editor for the post, you will be able to upload files. I expect it will be pretty small when zipped.

I couldn't get it to upload so I hosted it in my mediafire account.

OK, I went through the installed services. These few are suspect:
AdminHelper.exe
Google Update Service
Intel(R) Capability Licensing Service Interface
Intel(R) Dynamic Application Loader Host Interface Service
Intel(R) Management and Security Application Local Management Service
Intel(R) Management and Security Application User Notification Service
PunkBuster Service Component [v1029] http://www.evenbalance.com
Sierra Wireless Card Detection Service
Turbo Boost UI Monitor driver

Run services.msc, find each of the services and set it to Disabled. Restart and see if it makes a difference.

ok I have everything in this list disabled and it still skips metro. I knew what some of this stuff was so I uninstalled the program and then confirmed they did not show back up.

OK, That wasn't it then.
The only thing I can think of is to use system restore and go back to before Classic Shell was installed. If I can compare the registry before and after maybe I can find a clue as to what is happening.

So I just did another clean install today. here is the link to the new Reg export.
http://www.mediafire.com/?thazwv8ctm9zuq5

Hm, the file is kind of small. It is probably just the Services key. I need the whole registry.

If you want to get to the bottom of this, here's what you need to do:
Verify that everything works. The Metro screen is not skipped after a reboot.
Create a restore point. Export the entire registry in one file.
Install Classic Shell. See if the Metro screen is always skipped, regardless of the settings. Note if it gets skipped right away or after 5 seconds.
Export the entire registry to a different file.
Send me both files.
Use the restore point to go back to the working version before Classic Shell. Verify that everything works.

Im not sure what changed but it's working perfect now. I did the clean install then re installed all of my programs and drivers other than CS. It booted and stayed in metro every time! Now I just installed CS and it boots exactly how it should depending on if the box is checked or not. I'm not sure if my registry was messed up but it's working perfect! Thanks you very much for the help

I am experiencing the problem he was having. Nothing seems to fix it and I can 100% guarantee that it's no other program causing it as well. The check box no longer works to not skip and uninstalling doesn't do anything. I do not want to have to do a clean reinstall of Windows 8; is there another way of fixing this without doing a clean reinstall? I'm disappointed that I cannot go back to the default Windows 8 settings if needed.

Oh ALSO... the hot corners behave the same way. Once they're gone they can never be turned back on again. Uninstalling classic shell does nothing either.

Install procdump as described here: http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewt ... p?f=12&t=6
Then run the following command - "procdump explorer.exe". Zip the DMP file and attach it here.

It says multiple processes match the specified file name.

You probably use a separate process for the Explorer windows.
Log off, then log in. Verify that the problem still happens.
Without opening a new Explorer window, open a command prompt and then type the command.

Trying to add filename... says file is too big ... zipped it's 1835 KB

part 1 rar

part 2 rar

Additional detailed information for help.

Computer is brand new with little in way of installation. I believe classic shell was one of if not the very first thing installed on it.

I noticed the lack of functionality of the radio buttons to turn back "on" the hot corners before I ever tried uninstalling it. I noticed the lack of the functionality of the skip metro screen before I ever tried uninstalling it.

The next step I tried was uninstalling it completely. This did not bring back the hot corners nor did it bring back the start in metro ui.

Therefore, I began looking for the regedit entry for enabling/disabling hot corners (on the internet this was the EdgeUI key). I verified that there was no entry in the regedit that was disabling the hot corners. There was none and no change was needed.

After this I was at a complete loss to figuring out this problem and came here. Fortunately someone else has encountered this problem. Unfortunately their only solution was fresh install.

A little background on my computer.... I'm running an SSD drive as C: and a secondary harddrive as D: which is where I install all of my non game related software. Therefore, classic shell was installed on D:. There is no residual files for classic shell that I can find on my system at all.

I am not necessarily wanting to stop using classic shell. I just want the ability to switch between metro ui settings if I want.

I don't know if this helps or not, but I find the behavior odd that if I REinstall classic shell even after I verified that the classic shell program files folder is gone... after it's reinstalled all the settings are still the same as before I had last uninstalled it... even the settings that I had that were not default....

Is there some settings file somewhere on the system that is not in program files\classic shell and not getting removed during uninstall?

Settings are stored in the user registry. They are not removed, for few reasons:
Maybe you are upgrading to a new version, so the settings should be kept
Maybe you are temporarily uninstalling to try something
It is not even possible in the general case, because the uninstaller only has access to the current user's registry. The current user may not even be the same as the logged in user, but an admin that is temporarily activated to run the installer

Either way, the settings in the registry can't possibly affect anything besides Classic Shell. There is no other program that looks in that part of the registry.

This gives me an idea. See if creating a new user fixes the problem. This will at least tell us if the problem is user-specific or system-wide.

Unfortunately the new user has the same problem. After creating the new user and then logging in as that user it comes up with the Windows 8 screen saying "Hi" and preparing windows 8 and so on and once that is done the Windows 8 start screen flashes very briefly before it goes straight to the desktop. The hot corners do not work on the new user either.

OK, that means that the corruption is system-wide. See if running "sfc /scannow" reports any errors. It will at least check if any system files have not been messed with.

BTW, your crash dump looks clean. There are no remnants of Classic Shell or any other suspect software running in the Explorer process.

After completing it said "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations."

I've noticed some very odd behavior from playing around a bit.

If I go in and set my monitors to only display on 1 monitor and turn off the other monitor completely and then sign out and sign back in I can get a brief (one time use only) moment where my charm bar will activate using the hot corner. It will still continue to skip the metro screen on restart though. After that the charm bar doesn't work anymore.

If I then turn it back to dual monitor, I get the hot corners working until computer reset and the hot corners stop working again. None of this addresses the skip metro ui problem.



Also, I decided to try to install some competitor start menu program (start8) to see if by maybe getting some alternative program in there to control the behaviors and then turning those settings off and back on if I could get a response from them instead to rectify the situation. None of them will now take control of this problem using their settings. It seems however Win8 got sucked into flubbing up the start screen and hot corners, it is very persistent and hard to reset.

When you say "charm bar doesn't work", does it not work at all, or only with the mouse? If you press Win+C do you get the charms? If you press the Win key do you still see the Metro screen?

When the Metro screen is skipped after login, is it immediate or after few seconds? Also, if you log off and log in, is the Metro screen still skipped?

I installed all the latest updates for my 64-bit Windows 8 and I still can't reproduce the problem. All of the Classic Shell settings work as designed. I can skip or not the Metro screen, and I can enable or disable the corners.

Looks like in your case some permanent change was done to your system. Classic Shell doesn't do that (at least not on purpose). It is not a corrupted system file because sfc should have caught it. That leaves the registry. It can't be the user registry (HKCU) because a new user has the same problem. That leaves the system registry (HKLM). Do you recall using a registry cleaner or similar software that can do permanent changes in the system registry?

The charm bar only works if I press Win+C not from hot corners. I think that the start screen may be coming up briefly, but it's hard to tell because it is very fast... yes I'm certain I've seen it briefly drawing on the screen before going away. Logging off and back on does not fix it. There has been no other software that I have added that edits the registry in any way. I've installed one game video editing software and a voip. No other software should've affected windows in this way.

I will say that I did upgrade to Windows 8 Pro... after I had classic shell installed, I purchased the downloadable copy of the upgrade to Pro. That's the only thing I could add that would mess with Windows 8.

What did you have before the Pro? How did you upgrade?

I also had installed windows live essentials and microsoft office 2013 home ??? just trying to throw everything out there. I can't seem to find anything in my registry that should be doing this. Some sites mention RPEnabled in the developer preview version, but that key is not in my registry so it shouldn't be disabling windows 8...

I had the non-pro Windows 8 64 bit version. Not sure if there's multiples besides that it was just Windows 8 standard I guess. When I upgraded I went through Microsoft's website to add the pro features.

The whole reason being I never installed any other metro bypasser as the culprit is because this was the first software listed in the CNET article, and it did everything I needed at the time. I never installed an alternate until AFTER I had already ran into this problem and I only installed alternates after uninstalling this one. That was basically a test to see if I could get win 8 functionality back using an alternate. It did not work.

I then uninstalled the alternate and currently I have this one installed as I like it but hope to be able to toggle the Windows 8 settings when necessary.

There's definitely other odd behaviors that's existing because of this problem. It was difficult to realize they were odd behaviors, because I'm not as familiar with Windows 8. For instance, one thing I know is happening is that for instance in the MAPS app... if I move the mouse to the TOP of the screen it should change to a hand and let me move it from not being in full screen mode. This should also let me drag it to the secondary monitor and then have my apps appear in the secondary monitor. This doesn't work.

Like I said, I can get the hot corners to temporarily work until restart by fiddling around with my dual monitor setup but this goes away when I restart the computer... it's as if something is in startup that is doing this, but I have tested by disabling everything in "startup" and also manually checking both the common startup folder and the user specific startup folder. Neither of which have anything.

RPEnabled was only in the early betas in 2011. It is not relevant anymore.
I will see if I can find a non-pro version and try to recreate the upgrade scenario. Not sure how long it will take me to do that though.
In the meantime, see if you can disable all startup programs and non-essential services. You can also try rebooting in safe mode. It starts less processes that way.

I've tried the startup thing but good advice on the safe mode and services. I'll try. Shall I do it with classic shell uninstalled or just set to not disable the hot corners and not bypass the windows start screen

Also, I do not know if the behavior exhibited before or after upgrading to pro or adding office 2013. I only checked after these things were done.

I installed brand new Win8 on a 64-bit virtual machine, installed Classic Shell, then upgraded to Pro. It works just fine.
Tried it again with different Classic Shell options and still worked fine.

I'm starting to doubt your claim that "I can 100% guarantee that it's no other program causing it as well". Especially since you said that you upgraded to Pro, and also installed other software like Live and Office.

No doubt that win8 pro upgrade or live or office could theoretically cause this. I don't think video games or fraps or ventrilo could.

I'm just saying that I can 100% guarantee that no other program that advertises as being able to bypass Windows 8 Metro / turn off hot corners could have caused this due to my timeline. Bottom line is that this software started the bypass of these features which has never been able to be undone and a second person has come to the forums with this issue now.

Understandably you might not be able to solve this problem for me, but I'd ask that you not shoot the messenger but keep your eye open because SOMETHING is causing this problem and as development progresses you might spot the issue and be able to take corrective action. Although, I was hoping that my particular issue would be solved, at this point I'm at a complete loss because I've tried everything I know of short of a fresh install (which is what the last guy did).

My point was that since Classic Shell was uninstalled, it can't possibly be that its functionality to skip to desktop or disable the hot corners is running. It is obviously gone from your machine, judging by the crash dump. So the fact that Classic Shell has features like "skip metro" or "disable hot corners" is irrelevant.

The problem must be caused by some software messing up your system. This doesn't exclude Classic Shell, but makes any other software equally suspect. In fact, software that launches automatically on startup is even more suspect than software that is already uninstalled.

I would look closely at the list of processes right after startup. See if temporarily disabling some of them fixes your problem. Also good idea to try safe mode.