Classic Shell is now unsupported in Windows 10

Nov 20, 2014 08:34 GMT  ·  By

Windows 8 was the first modern Windows version to come without a Start menu, a change which not only confused many Windows 7 users planning to upgrade, but that also affected adoption of Microsoft's new product.

What also happened was a rapid growth of the third-party software market for alternative Start menu solutions and many developers out there tried to make the most of this problem to attract more users with their apps.

The best example in this case is Classic Shell, one of the top Start menu apps out there which recorded millions of downloads in the last few years, but especially after the launch of Windows 8.

With Windows 10, however, everybody’s wondering whether Microsoft still plans to allow third-party Start menu apps on its desktop operating system or block them all, as the revamped desktop comes with new features that also include a modern Start menu.

Classic Shell no longer works on Windows 10

Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9879, which was officially released last week, no longer supports Classic Shell, which means that users have no other option than to stick to the default Start menu.

From now on, when trying to download and install Classic Shell on Windows 10, they are provided with an error telling them at “Classic Shell has compatibility issues” and it cannot be installed.

Running the installer in compatibility mode and using Microsoft's own instructions to get it work make absolutely no difference, and at this point it's impossible to use Classic Shell on a computer running Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9879. Unless you turn to a little trick, that is.

How to install it anyway

The easiest way to install Classic Shell on a Windows 10 Technical Preview 9879 is to rename the installer from “ClassicShellSetup_4_1_0” to anything you want. We used “Softpedia” instead of the original name, and as you can see in the photo gallery below, everything works smoothly.

It's also worth mentioning that in the previous builds of Windows 10, namely build 9841 and 9860, Classic Shell worked without any trick, so the change only occurs in the latest release.

This is most likely just a compatibility issue that can be resolved in the coming updates, but given the fact that Windows 10 won't receive any other pack of improvements until early 2015, the aforementioned trick is the only way to get Classic Shell to work on build 9879.

We've also reached out to Microsoft for a word on this and we’ll update the article when and if we get an answer.

Classic Shell on Windows 10 (13 Images)

Classic Shell on Windows 10 build 9879
Classic Shell installation error on Windows 10 9879Classic Shell installation error on Windows 10 9879
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