Classic Start Menu in Win7?

[ablatman]

Like the title says, I'm looking at migrating to a Windows 7 family operating system (Server 2008 R2, probably Enterprise), and I want to know if anyone here has found a way to force Win7 to use the classic start menu rather than the new bloat-filled one. I tend to be very keyboard centric, and I do a LOT of keyboard shortcuts (I have dedicated three-key shortcuts for the 5-10 programs I use often -- Xfire, Steam, Firefox, Chrome, Mumble, Ventrilo, etc.), and I like the way I interact with the Classic-style Start menu -- mostly that when I start pressing keys after opening it, it highlights the piece of the menu tree I want it to. Not so with the vista-style Start menu, thus why I want to switch.

The closest I have seen to a solution is at best a partial solution -- it seems that it would require me to mouse over and click a button (rather than hitting the Windows key) before interacting with the classic-ised Start menu. Also, it seems a bit shady (it's called CSMenu)...

Thanks!

[p0Pe]

http://www.classicstartmenu.com/
http://www.classicstartmenu.com/images/Classic%20Start%20Menu%20with%20Aero.jpg
here you go.
but why doesnt you use launchy if you have that many shortcuts you use often? push the hotkey you have for the program, and write the program you want to run and it finds the shortcut in the database. f.eks ste - steam
http://www.launchy.net/

Edit, i strokes me, the csmenu you talk about is that the one i am refering to above lol!? if so. try launchy, your gonna love it

[ablatman]

Yeah, I found about four things that kinda do what I want last night, and as I recall, one of them didn't work at all (maybe because it didn't like running on Server 2008 RT and/or running inside VMWare), one of them still had the search bar (which is annoying, as I usually do start > p (to bring up the programs folder) and with the search bar waiting for text entry it just doesn't work. Then there was one that LOOKED right, but didn't have shortcut keys (I'm not sure what they're called, but it's when the words have a single letter underlined that will select them when the field is active, like in the firefox menu bar, f selects file, e selects edit, v for view, h for help, etc.), and the last one I found was the one that came closest to what I want was also the only free one.

I've currently settled on Classic Shell (http://sourceforge.net/projects/classicshell), and below is a screenshot.

Note the underscored letters:
http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/8572/ss1se.png

[p0Pe]

did you try the program i suggested .....

[ablatman]

did you try the program i suggested .....

IIRC, that's the Aero version of one of the four I tried -- either the one that didn't work, or the one with the search bar, I can't remember which. If it had the option to remove the active search box, then I'd try it, otherwise it doesn't do what I need.

Basically, I don't like the the overall look of the "new" style (what xp/vista/win7 default to) start menu, and I don't want to have an active search box in my start menu -- I can understand why it's there, it's just not particularly useful to me.

[p0Pe]

did you try launchy?

[Shoggy]

@ablatman: you are my hero of the day! :) Awesome little tool. I always hated the new start menu, the explorer tree style and of course the confusing copy menu. Now it looks like my beloved old XP :D

[p0Pe]

am i the only one who has completely stopped using the start menu because of launchy? try the fucking program dudes. you will love it

[Baleful]

am i the only one who has completely stopped using the start menu because of launchy? try the fucking program dudes. you will love it

I've never heard of launchy before, I'll have to check it out. I currently just use RocketDock.