Classic Shell: Forum

This is my first post here so please forgive and correct any transgressions.

I have Classic Shell set up on two machines, a desktop and an ASUS Q200e laptop. The desktop works just fine but on the ASUS I cannot skip the Metro screen. At boot, the Metro shows up for a long, long time before Classic Shell shows up. Yes, I have the 'skip Metro' item checked . On the desktop Classic Shell shows up without showing any trace of Metro. I have compared the settings on both machines one by one and they are identical as far as I can see.

Will appreciate any help getting this sorted out.

Thank you very much.

Classic Shell installs a service to skip the Start screen at startup but something on your PC is delaying the start of the service. Windows 8 delays all programs by startup by several seconds and then slowly loads them unlike Windows 7 which is why the service had to be created.

Open registry editor, go to HKLM\SOFTWARE\IvoSoft\ClassicShell and create a DWORD value named "LogService" and change it value to 1. Now restart the PC where it does not skip the Start screen. A log file called service.log will be generated in C:\Program Files\Classic Shell. Upload the log file attached to a post or send it to Ivo.

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Links to some general topics:

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

OK, Thank you.

Here is the service.log you requested.

This might be a useful clue as to why Classic Shell doesn't skip Metro on some machines: It just started happening to me after I had to add .NET Framework 3.5 as a prerequisite to installing My Movies. So maybe something to do with Framework 3.5/3.0/2.0 causes the Classic Shell service to delay getting started. Additionally, the Desktop tile in Metro did show the desktop background before I added Framework 3.5, and now it initially shows the default blue screen with flower in that tile.
Is there a control that would get the Classic Shell service a higher start priority?

(Otherwise, Classic Shell meets all my needs for feeling Windows 7 comfort in using Windows 8.)

See if you can create a scheduler task that runs ClassicStartMenu.exe on login. Also disable the service so it doesn't try to start twice.

The dual solution of service+using UserInit will make it foolproof and once and for all end the issues of Metro not getting skipped. There is no harm in leaving behind the entry in userinit too because it doesn't give errors if the EXE isn't found. Microsoft had no right to cripple startup like this.

_________________
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.

Hi,

this reminds me of my unsolved issue:

https://sourceforge.net/p/classicshell/ ... /c71db759/

Some hidden start secrets ...

Any help appreciated, thanks

Well, looks like nobody wants to bother and check if a scheduled task works better than a service.
I can't try it myself because for me the service starts quickly.
Until somebody volunteers to run the tests I'm afraid the service will be the only solution at the moment.

I found this if it might help: http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-reduce-t ... windows-8/

_________________
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.

Many thanks to GauravK, but still no change: Any upgrade or re-install of CS pushes the start of CS from first in the row to last.
Before the upgrade I don't even see the metro screen, after the upgrade it is displayed for more than 20sec.
(It does not matter if I uninstall 3.6.4 an re-install it, or if I upgrade to 3.6.5, thus it has nothing to do with the version)

Anyone who can explain the start mechanism of Classic Shell under Windows8pro to me?

Thanks

When the service starts it launches one copy of the start menu for every logged in user, and then starts listening for more login events. As soon as somebody logs in, a new copy of the start menu will be launched.

The start menu (ClassicStartMenu.exe) tries to simulate pressing the Win+D key every half second. It stops when the desktop shows up or after 5 seconds.

So basically if the desktop shows up but late, it means that the service was started late. If the desktop doesn't show up but you still get a start button, it means the Win+D didn't work (maybe something was blocking it).

Basically the OS doesn't know that the service needs to be started during login. It starts whenever is its turn (which may be in the order of installation). One way to associate the start menu with the login is by using the scheduler. That's why I urge people having the first kind of problem (menu starts with some delay), to try the scheduler and report the results.

The scheduler does not make any relevant difference, may be even a bit slower. I switched the "regular" CS-service to manual and then tried with various start options in the scheduler.

I can not believe, that I am the only one with this issue. It is the last and only problem on a quite complex W8pro machine.

Thanks to Acronis, I can always go back to the "good" mode.

One day I will solve the problem. Sorry for being a perfectionist. However, many thanks to Ivo for developing this software. Without this, i would have had to downgrade the new PC to W7.

OK, now that we know the scheduler doesn't make things faster we can try other things, like changing the service group.

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\ClassicShellService and change the Group property from UIGroup to AudioGroup. Do a full restart and see if it makes any difference.

Hi, moving to higher groups has no effect, tried that a couple of weeks ago.

I installed 3.6.2 right after the birth of the computer, Dec 1, 2012. Since I collected all the Acronis image-files, I found out, that I moved to 3.6.4 at image-file number 16, dec 28, 2012. At this time, the machine was 90% finished and CS still worked fine. That destroys the theory, that the late installation of a new version results in a late start.

What a nice problem.

Well, if you have a way of comparing the registry between the two images maybe you can find the difference in the service registration.
Also, you may try upgrading from 3.6.2 to 3.6.5 by just replacing the files and not reinstalling. This will keep the service registration from the image that works.

Hi,

I exported a registry prior to and another after an upgrade to 3.6.5

The comparison of the 2 regs shows surprisingly 730 differences.

I copied some differences which relate Classic Shell into a file.

You can download the file for the next 3 days:

http://www.daten-transport.de/?id=xFmNsJnerbyA

Hope this brings us closer to the problem
Thanks

This diff is not very useful. I can't see the full registry paths. Please attach the complete registry dumps.

The 2 reg dumps are 37 MByte zipped. Is there a secure way to send the zip-file to you?
Thanks

You can upload them somewhere and pm me with the link.
Also, I suspect all differences are in the HKLM hive. If you remove the rest, I suspect the size will shrink considerably.
You can also trim the files to only the areas around the diffs.

After spending 2 day with a similar problem I have found the solution.HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\ClassicShellService---> Start: the value must be 2 in order that the Classic Shell will start very fast.
However just editing the value will only make thinkg better the next start. The system (or some other program) overwrites the value to 3 and at a second start again the Classic Shell will load slow (30 sec on my system). In fact the instaler of Classic shell will set the value to 2, but the first start after the instalation the system will overwrite the value to 3.

The solution is:
1) Manually change the value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\ClassicShellService---> Start=2.
2) Prevent any changes to the registry key (lock it). Below is the tutorial I have used to do this:

http://www.bench3.org/tech/prevent-changes-to-a-registry-key-avoid-softwares-to-modify-your-windows-registry/

2=Automatic, 3=Manual, 4=Disabled, so it should be 2 always if Services.msc says Automatic. I don't understand how it's changing to 3 on some PCs? Maybe some bug?

_________________
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.

One possibility is that the service is crashing, and the system disables it by setting to Manual. However that doesn't explain why it starts after 30 seconds. It shouldn't start at all.

It is very strange indeed (probably the most strange thing I have seen on Windows). Without locking the registry will always go from 2 to 3 after some minutes running. No other problem noticed. The only problem that the next start I have a 30 sec delay and I have to look at Metro all this time (not to mention that I hate it:)).

However, after I have locked the registry it works just perfect.