Get the Classic Start Menu in Windows 7
Like the new Start Menu in Windows 7, but wish that you could have the Classic Menu too? Now you can have both with CSMenu.
Note: CSMenu comes in exe install file and portable versions.
CSMenu – Before and After
Here is a quick look at the default Start Menu in our Windows 7 example. Time to get that Classic Menu!
Double click the CSMenu exe file to get things started. The install process for CSMenu is quick and straightforward.
After finishing the installation, you will see a message window that will say that CSMenu is going to index your Start Menu. While it is indexing, you will see the following window showing the progress of the indexing process.
Once it has finished indexing, you will need to log off and then log back into your User Account.
After logging back in, go into the Start Menu to locate the CSMenu folder. Right click on the “Show CSMenu” shortcut and select “Pin to Taskbar”. Once you do that, there is your new Classic Menu Start Button right next to the original one (you made need to move it to the left in your taskbar).
Notice that the CSMenu Start Menu button is slightly smaller than the original.
An expanded view of the new Classic Menu in our Windows 7 example.
Hiding the Original Windows 7 Start Button
If you decide that you only want to have your new Classic Menu Start Button display, you can hide the original with a nice little program called Start Killer.
Run the Start Killer exe file and let the program automatically start after the installation is finished. Just one start button to deal with now (nice!).
To make certain that Start Killer runs every time you start Windows, right click on the taskbar icon and select “Settings”. Make certain that “Load on system startup” is selected.
A quick check on startup programs using CCleaner shows the everything is set to have nothing but Classic Menu goodness each time you start Windows 7.
Have fun with your new Classic Start Menu!
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Why on earth anyone would want to return to that old thing I don’t know!
I h8 the new start menu so this is gr8!
the old menu is super counter-productive.
:/ that being said, no use for this app.
I’ve been using it since it first came out. I hate the “All Products” menu in the new start menu because of the need to scroll and click to do anything. With the Classic menu you click once then mouse over the programs icon and the whole menu pops into view at once. You can see the whole thing without scrolling. Then you mouse over a submenu and that menu pops out. then when you find what you want you click once more. Two clicks and you’re there. It’s so simple to use that I can’t believe anybody can prefer all that scrolling and extra clicking. The new menu is cumbersome to use.
However there are some good points to the new menu so I use them both. I have the best of both worlds.
Can you remove the left white pane somehow?
Apart from that I don’t mind the new start options but I have also installed this program as well.
@midgo – Not that I am aware of…
Well most of the people on here don’t work in a busy office where sub menu after sub menu slow down selecting a program. The classic start menu allows a user to quickly get to the program swiftly. I found that hovering the mouse over all programs closes it opens it and when I move my mouse off all programs it closes it again, so I hae to juggle between clicking and hovering (very time consuming). Most of the tech guys in out IT department hate it and 85% of the staff loath it. We want the classic start menu back and NOW
I totally agree with Blocko, I do hobby/indie game programming and I’m finding quite a few things on Windows 7 slow down my work process. I don’t mind the new UI, but I definately prefer the pop out start menu.
How about the best of both worlds….i don’t see anyone using this much, but if you create a shortcut to “My Computer” on your taskbar (IE) right-click taskbar/toolbars/new toolbar…the click the “My Computer” button on the taskbar…hover your mouse over any drive…and voila, folders and files start flying out, just hover over what you want to see and click to open.
“Seven Classic Start” is a commercial third party app that does the job very nicely. On principle however, I think I will stick with XP.
I see few advantages in the transition from XP to 7. “Fixing” new XP installations to restore NT/2000 visual appearance was bad enough. Windows 7 is bloody awful.
Im an educated individual, fully capable of learning new software. However, I fail to understand the hostility (of many forum users) to those such as myself, who are simply not interested in adopting a wizard style menu for every damn function. Once configured/customised (some might say “downgraded”) to approximate 2000, XP was functionally perfect, for me at least. I lament its discontinuation, and by the sound of things I am not alone in this sentiment.
7 is pretty. Pretty is not a substitute for efficient functionallity
@Scott
I work at an office with 1500+ users.
We depend on Windows 2000 at the moment and need to make a upgrade to a new version of Windows.
XP is not really an option, because of support issues.
7 is a bit far away for us yet, but Vista is not an option we are considering.
In our case, we have 1500+ people who need to upgrade.
For some of them, the new menu is good.
For me, i abhore it totally.
Every time in XP i set it to old style.
I did in Vista too when i had that.
I totally do not agree with MS to replace the menu, but i knew they would do that some day ever since they introduced it.
I am thankfull there is a program like this who lets users decide for themselves.
One of the reasons i dislike MS is the fact that i feel it treats its users as retards and does not let them decide for themselves what they like.
download of CSMenu is NOT working! Server closed connection – what does this mean?
ts go’s wrong if windows 7 is not installed on the C- Drive (multiboat):
In Error Message such like “can’t find a part from the path C:\users\Ton\AppData\Roaming\Windows\start Menu\Programs… this because I have done a multiple installation (on C-Drive Visat and on the W-Drive (third partition) Windows 7. The installation is done on Windows 7. On the C-drive in Visata 64 bist it works fine!
I agree with you, Windows 7 start menu slow down my work.
I won’t use seven until i knew a solution. XP x64 works fine with me now.
Yes it is a shame as I love windows os and will never go MAC but linux looks better by the day with microsofts resistance to listen to its buyers. The user who have been loyal to microsoft for years now get the shaft. Looking around this seems to be a real major issue that is going to bite MS in the butt. Its a simple feature they own the script just add the options that way companys dont waste time and money on training, loyal windows users have a comfortable and yes much faster way of using thier computer as the new way is so hard and slows you down with the new menus and set up. I like 7 but I dont think i will even upgrade my vista machines to it unless they tweak it back to where its a user friendly os as xp was. I love xp personally not real big on vista as you have to mod it to make it run as well and fast as xp and 7 well they got to cute and let the techie writers get to techy with its design which now makes it useless to everyday users. I hate keyboard commands as they take to long and too many to remember I like a simple click of the mouse and there is the program i want. i do alot of web design so without my mouse it takes forever. Just set it as an option to have classic start and classic folder and control panel and 7 will succeed leave those options out and windows 7 will flop worse then vista. I know all those high dollar people at microssoft cant be that dumb its simple…KISS Keep It Simple Stupids
I totally agree that the vista and win 7 start menu is horrid. Also this applies to office 2007 as well. I tried to find the print button on word 2007 and gave up after about 10 minutes. Why anyone thinks that getting rid of drop down nested menus is an improvement is beyond me! With this application I am willing to install win 7 (just bought it yesterday)
Imo CSMenu sucks. you cant add custom folders. Here’s a similar guide I found that allows you to add custom folders to the taskbar:
http://nerdbusiness.com/blog/h.....-windows-7
I get an error when I run First Start CSMenu. Missing an INF file that should be installed with the program. I can’t tell if this program is any good but I can tell you that it’s a FAIL cuz First Run won’t run.
Nothing wrong with classic. Fascinating to hear people say “classic sucks, you just can’t handle new ideas”.
HEY how bout I arranged the start menu so with a quick set of keys could have any program on my machine launched without touching the damn mouse. Faster baby, Faster. WIN->p->a->n and BOOM notepad. WIN->p->g->v and BOOM ventrilo.
Now I have to actually go interact with the damn thing. I’m not here to interact with their damn fruity start menu, I want my program started, and if I can’t get it running just by thinking about it, I want the next best thing. New menu is a step backward in speed and efficiency of movement. I’m sure it’s the best thing for the Fischer Price toy crowd, and fine if “The Rest Of Us” love it, but I why remove the efficiency?
That is actually the first thing I tried to do after instaling.
Hopfully with enough complaints Microsoft will add the option to go Classic in Service Pack 1.
I see a lot of people in favor of the new start menu judging the ones that don’t like the new start menu as stubborn or just stupid.
Who’s actually at fault here the user or the programmer who decided to cancel out user choice?
Microsoft acts as socialist here, enforcing users to behave in a certain way. As if everyone in the whole world use their systems the same.
Neither of the two supersedes the other one, it’s just 2 different ways of doing the same thing.
another easy solution;
run -> gpedit.msc -> user configuration -> Administrative tasks -> All settings -> Force Classic Start Menu
enable it and voilá
I have to withdraw my comment. seems only to work in 2008 server and not in Win7
sry for the inconvinience
I’ve just installed an OEM license of Win7 after running the release candidate, deciding to go ahead and move the the new O/S in spite of hating the absence of the classic start menu. Click, scroll, click, scroll…how terribly inefficient in contrast to menus which spawn quickly with a simple mouse gesture.
After trying CSMenu, 7Stacks, and Classic Start Menu, I found my own simple approach which works suitably for now, if and until Microsoft either provides an update that restores the classic menu or else I adapt to the new style. About these other alternatives, Classic Start Menu comes nearest to being a replacement that I like, and I may yet choose to go with it. But, I miss that it doesn’t provide a fly-out Control Panel menu nor the other special folders…Network, Printers, etc. In contrast to CSMenu however, which I pretty quickly gave up, at least Classic Start Menu does support dragging around menu items to organize them as you like. And it does look good in its Aero skin. 7Stacks seemed a relatively good idea, but there is far too much delay in providing the pop-up menu, at least on my 1.2GHz netbook. I’d not think there should be much delay, but there’s enough that it doesn’t have a true menu feel as I prefer.
So, what’s my alternative? It’s native to Windows, so all speed of operation is consistent with what you’d expect, but it doesn’t offer the special folders menus. For that, I still resort to the new Windows 7 Start Menu, and that suits me OK since special folders don’t get accessed as often as programs do. In any case, the alternative is a right-click on the Taskbar away from implementation….a new Toolbar, that points directly to the Start Menu folder. Once you’ve defined the toolbar, move it fully to the left of the taskbar and then use another toolbar or the main one to force the Start Menu toolbar down to the smallest size possible so that all you see is the toolbar title “Start Menu” and the chevrons to the right of that, indicating that there are more toolbar items available. That’s the trick…having the toolbar small enough to get the chevrons which then, upon clicking them, cause the toolbar to launch as a menu above the taskbar, which then expands in conventional classic start menu fashion.
Hope that helps someone,
Daryl