The Portable Freeware Collection Forums

Note: the comparison is written by a tester of Classic Shell, so it may be biased.

http://classicshell.net/forum/viewtopic ... 99&p=11787

SYSTEM wrote:http://classicshell.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2399

• Although it's not portable, I use Classic Shell in my Windows 7 Pro x64 SP1 -- portability is but a minor issue with such deeply grafted system enhancements...
  
  Anyway, for a comprehensive Classic Shell rundown (v1.x!), look to Code Project: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/45430/.

Very useful and a must-have for me. Didn't know about this until I saw it here. In the process of moving from XP to Win 7 at this time.

Midas, TP109, no, only not you!
Will i stay the last here on beloved XP?

billon wrote:Midas, TP109, no, only not you!
Will i stay the last here on beloved XP?

• Fret not, mine is a dual use situation. My trustworthy daily driver laptop stays with XP, while my backup has had Windows 7 Pro x64 since its beginnings -- but I'm still wrapping my head around how sluggish and convoluted it feels to operate...

Will i stay the last here on beloved XP?

Not moving away from it entirely, at least for now. But as more SW stops being supported for XP, the risks increase and the upgrade becomes more necessary rather than optional. Also, the processing power between my Win 7 and XP systems is very noticeable.

TP109 wrote:Also, the processing power between my Win 7 and XP systems is very noticeable.

• Yes, but will it really make a difference?
  
  E.g., take the two machines I mentioned above, both (2nd hand) Lenovos: one's a 8 year old Centrino (ICH8) Core 2 Duo 2GHz, with 4GB of DDR2 of RAM and two levels of secondary cache (amounting to a grand total of 4224KB), Intel 965 chipset graphics and a Seagate HDD -- it just flies, most of the time; the other's a Sandy Bridge (QM67) Core i7 800-2700GHz, with 4GB DDR3 RAM and 3 levels of secondary cache (for a total of 4480KB), Intel HD 3000 graphics and Intel M520 248GB SSD (and it wouldn't be easy to top that 2 years ago), that runs like molasses...

No doubt that the HW/SW combination makes a difference. Not claiming it's entirely due to the OS. The XP system is an 8 year old machine (Compaq); the Win 7 one is a few weeks old (Lenovo).

It's a fairly decent table. I use StartIsBack, as I tried others and preferred the native skin of SIB and for $2 was worth it.

Some clarifications in the table from my own use:

Can use Windows Start Button should be 'Yes'
Adjust Start button size should be 'Yes' when customized
Search partial word matches (substrings) should be 'Yes' when used with wildcards (eg: '*bar' for 'foobar')
Customize icon size of main menu & submenu items should be 'Partial' in that large/small icons can be selected for the main menu
Number of skins / styles / themes should be 'Default number of skins' as more can be added.

Quick note for gloomy news: Ghacks.net revealed that Classic Shell development is being abandoned...

• [url]https://www.ghacks.net/2017/12/04/classic-shell-developer-stops-development/[/url] author wrote:The developer of Classic Shell announced yesterday on the official forum that he won't work on the program anymore.

So it looks like Classic Shell v4.3.1 will be the last official release.