What is new in Classic Shell 4.2.6

Classic Shell is one of most popular Start menu replacements for Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10 along with a bunch of unique customization options for Explorer and Taskbar. A new version of the program brings a significant number of changes to the app. Here is the list of changes available in this release.

The full change log for Classic Shell 4.2.6 looks as follows:

Major new features

• Classic Start Menu supports fade, slide and random animations also in Windows 7 style.
• New feature to select the text color for the taskbar on Windows 7, 8, 10.
• New feature to set a texture for the Taskbar and Start Menu for Windows 7, 8, 10.
• Settings to set taskbar color and transparency for Windows 7, 8, 10.
• Metro Settings in search results have a "Pin to Start Menu" right-click command.
• New Explorer toolbar commands to toggle hidden files, system files, file extensions, open Folder Options and create a ZIP file.
• New setting for the font of the Explorer status bar (Windows 8 and up).
• Many new skin features:
  • Skins can use PNG and JPEG resources
  • Textures are supported in Start Menu skins, up to 4 with tiling pattern and a mask
  • Skins support logos/emblems drawn on top of the menu background, up to 10 emblems, first 4 can have a mask
  • Menu shadow can be disabled as a skin setting
  • All Programs tree in Windows 7 style can be completely transparent and use the background from the main menu
  • Skin options are completely rewritten and now support colors, bitmaps, and more
  • New "Metallic" skin that showcases the new skin features

Minor new features:

• Compatibility with Windows 10 Redstone 1.
• New setting to set hover sound for the Start button.
• If a menu item's Label field has a user-defined accelerator key using an amperstand (&) character, it will be executed when you press the key, ignoring other items that begin with that letter.
• You can hide All Programs item in Windows 7 style menu from Settings UI (previously only as a Group Policy).
• Some Start Menu commands are now available from cmd line. e.g. ClassicStartMenu.exe -cmd restart. Other commands include confirm_logoff, advanced_boot, update_restart, update_shutdown, hybrid_shutdown.
• New setting to select the last item in the shutdown menu instead of the first.
• The Shutdown menu has separate items for shutdown/restart without installing updates.
• The Invert Metro Icons setting now works without a restart of the menu.
• Metro icons correctly update their color when the system color changes (Windows 10).

Bug fixes and minor changes:

• Recent documents will not show redundant items with full path.
• The search thread runs at normal priority instead of "idle" so even if the CPU is busy at startup or doing long-running tasks like video encoding, the search will be fast.
• Fixed a bug where you can select two radio buttons in the skin settings.
• Corrupted/damaged Metro Apps are hidden from the Apps menu.

That's it.

You can download Classic Shell 4.2.6 from its official web site.