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.




xoblite is described as 'Advanced "extended shell" for Microsoft® Windows® 10/11, part of the Blackbox for Windows family' and is an app in the os & utilities category. There are more than 10 alternatives to xoblite for Windows, Linux, BSD, PortableApps.com and Wayland. The best xoblite alternative is Open Shell, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like xoblite are Seelen UI, Noctalia, Cairo Shell and VirtuaWin.
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.




Web-based customizable desktop environment integrated with Windows 10/11 offers tiling window manager, intuitive configuration, widget and menu adjustments, theme personalization, taskbar layout options, wallpaper management, streamlined multitasking, and workflow optimization.




Noctalia is a beautiful, minimal desktop shell for Wayland built with Quickshell. It’s designed with a “quiet by design” philosophy, providing a complete desktop experience that stays out of your way.




Cairo is a desktop environment for Windows. Its goal is to develop a desktop experience that increases productivity and advances current technology standards.




VirtuaWin is a virtual desktop manager for the Windows operating system (Win9x/ME/NT/Win2K/XP/Win2003/Vista/Win7/Win10). A virtual desktop manager lets you organize applications over several virtual desktops (also called ‘workspaces’).



Window Maker has a reputation for being fast, efficient and highly stable. Window Maker has been characterized as reproducing "the elegant look and feel of the NeXTstep GUI" and is noted as "easy to configure and easy to use.




Emerge Desktop is a replacement Windows "shell" (the desktop environment normally provided by Windows Explorer) for Windows 2000 and above. In order to replace Windows Explorer as a shell, it provides a system tray (the area that collects the icons collected at the...



Desktop shell for wayland compositors built with Quickshell & GO, optimized for niri, hyprland, sway, MangoWC, and labwc.




SharpEnviro (or SharpE) is an open source shell replacement system for Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. When using SharpEnviro the default Windows desktop is replaced by a new and more powerful desktop environment.


BB4Win (Blackbox for Windows) is an alternative shell for Microsoft Windows. The program aims to emulate the look and feel of a Linux based desktop. The BB4Win project was discontinued in 2005 but various branches have been built from the source.




The SphereXP is a 3D desktop replacement for Microsoft Windows. Taking the known concept of three-dimensional desktops to its own level. It offers a new way to organize objects on the desktop such as icons and applications. It has been tried out by millions worldwide.



bbLean is the lean version of Blackbox for Windows. It tries to keep balance between features and complexity, to give you some efficient means within a compact shell.

