Open Shell
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Open Shell is a fork of the Classic Shell project for Windows that getting back the classic start menu to modern versions of Microsoft Windows.
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- CSlayer95 added Ad-free as a feature to Open Shell
- Canicheslayer rated Open Shell
Open Shell information
Developed by
passionate-coderLicensing
Open Source (MIT) and Free product.Written in
Rating
Average rating of 4.4Alternatives
39 alternatives listedSupported Languages
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OS & UtilitiesGitHub repository
- 7,432 Stars
- 449 Forks
- 587 Open Issues
- Updated Mar 13, 2025
Comments and Reviews
Pretty good program for customizing one of the most (un)customizable operating systems. The program itself sometimes feels unintuitive when using, but it's because of Microsoft, I suppose.
Does NOT work on ARM CPUs (Black Screen after Reboot) and will not be developed to run on ARM according to GitHub. https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu/issues/966
I like how customizable it is. The only issue is that it keeps the flat little square for active apps even when using an image for the texture. Ofc you could just enable transparency in the OS settings to make it look better. But otherwise it works like a charm and it's lightweight. If I was willing to plurge a bit & had the cpu for it, I'd probably pay for WindowBlinds10. But as a free option, Open Shell is a great choice.
The very best alternative to and replacement for the crippled Windows 11 Start Menu. How can one say that the app is "outdated and no longer works on modern versions of Windows"? Obviously, it does not work on YOUR system, which is most likely damaged, because as of this writing I have been using the currently newest version of Windows 11 (22H2), and Open-Shell works as well as it had before. I have tried StartAllBack, StartItBack, Start11, Start Menu X, you name it, and none of these programs was even close to stability, functionality and ease of use offered by Open-Shell. Start Menu X was particularly harmful, as I had to recreate registry entries that software removed/destroyer. The other three programs mentioned above are just clumsily designed, often slow, and do not provide the navigating comfort of Open-Shell. The latter is in its own class, THE standard by which the other similar programs can be judged.
I can find all the programs I have installed using Open-Shell. I can't find them with Windows start menu for some reason.
Also, I can drag and drop any program to add to start menu, which I can't do with Windows 10 start menu.
It's an outdated app that no longer works on modern versions of Windows.
Great because Windows 10/11 Start Menu used to have ads even in Windows Professional.