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<!-- Mirrored from www.classicshell.net/whycsm/ by HTTrack Website Copier/3.x [XR&CO'2014], Tue, 05 Dec 2017 12:39:06 GMT -->
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<head><title>Classic Shell: Why Classic Start Menu?</title>
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<meta name="keywords" content="classic shell, start menu, explorer, windows 7, vista">
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<meta name="robots" content="index, follow">
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
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<link href="../css/style.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"></head><body leftmargin="0" topmargin="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0">
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<div style="border:thick; border-style: solid; border-color: red; font-size: 200%; text-align: center;">Original Page: <a href="http://www.classicshell.net">http://www.classicshell.net</a><br>Original Author: Ivo Beltchev</div>
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<table style="width: 100%; height: 123px;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
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<tr>
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<td style="width: 179px; text-align: center;"><img src="../images/corner.png" style="width: 179px; height: 129px;" alt=""><br>
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</td>
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<td>
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<table style="width: 100%; height: 81px;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
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<td style="vertical-align: middle; width: 600px; height: 101px;">
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<h1 class="title" style="margin-top: 20px; height: 65px; vertical-align: middle;">
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<!-- Caption -->
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Classic Shell
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</h1>
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</td>
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<td style="width: 447px; height: 101px;"><br>
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</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td colspan="2" background="../images/bg_menu.png" height="28">
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<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="25">
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<tr>
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<!-- Start Navigation -->
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<td class="menu" align="center"><a href="../index.html" class="menu">HOME</a></td>
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<td class="menu" align="center" width="36">|</td>
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<td class="menu" align="center"><a href="../forum/index.html" class="menu">FORUM</a></td>
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<td class="menu" align="center" width="36">|</td>
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<td class="menu" align="center"><a href="../faq/index.html" class="menu">F.A.Q.</a></td>
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<td class="menu" align="center" width="36">|</td>
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<td class="menu" align="center"><a href="../gallery/index.html" class="menu">SCREENSHOTS</a></td>
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<td class="menu" align="center" width="36">|</td>
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<td class="menu" align="center"><a href="../translations/index.html" class="menu">TRANSLATIONS</a></td>
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<td class="menu" align="center" width="36">|</td>
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<td class="menu" align="center"><a href="../downloads/index.html" class="menu">ALL DOWNLOADS</a></td>
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<!-- End Navigation -->
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<td class="bgrx" background="../images/bg.gif" bgcolor="#e6f2fa" height="100%" valign="top">
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<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="100%" width="100%">
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<td height="100%" valign="top">
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<td colspan="3" style="height: 10px; vertical-align: top; padding: 0px 20px 20px 20px">
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<!-- Start Main Text -->
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<h1>Why Classic Start Menu?</h1>
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After the Classic Shell project was released back in 2009, it quickly grew in popularity. Before long it was getting
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5-10 thousand downloads per day. That's a sign that many people prefer
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the classic start menu over the Vista or Windows 7 menu. Why can't they
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accept the future? Why don't they stop whining and get with the
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program? Microsoft knows what's best for you, right?<br>
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<br>
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Everybody has their reasons, all I can do here is to list my own. For me the new start menu (<span style="font-weight: bold;">NSM</span>) has several big deficiencies that make
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it much less usable than the classic start menu (<span style="font-weight: bold;">CSM</span>):<br>
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<br>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><rant></span><br>
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<br>
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<h2>1. Keyboard navigation</h2>
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In CSM I can
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press a key and activate a menu item starting with that letter. For
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example:<br>
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<div style="margin-left: 40px;">
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Win, U – Sh<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 112, 192);">u</span>tdown<br>
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Win, I – <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 112, 192);">I</span>nternet Explorer<br>
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Win, S, C – <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 112, 192);">S</span>ettings -> <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 112, 192);">C</span>ontrol Panel<br>
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Win, P, W – <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 112, 192);">P</span>rograms -> <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 112, 192);">W</span>ord<br>
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</div>
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<br>
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If you name your programs and folders wisely you can access many
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frequently used programs with just 2 or 3 keys.<br>
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<br>
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With NSM this is not possible. The search box steals all text input. It
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is possible to tab away from the
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search box and then you have some sort of keyboard navigation. It is
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still very limiting, thanks to problem #2.<br>
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<br>
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<br>
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<h2>2. Lack of cascading All Programs menu</h2>
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In the CSM activating a folder item opens a cascading sub-menu. In the
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NSM the sub-items expand in the same list as their parent. This is a
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problem for multiple reasons:<br>
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<ul>
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<li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Keyboard navigation is impacted.</span>
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First, typing the first letter of a folder doesn’t expand it. You have
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to additionally press Enter or Right arrow. Second, since there is a
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mix of parent and child items in the same list, there is a much greater
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chance of items starting with the same letter.<br>
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<br>
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</li>
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<li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Mouse navigation is impacted.</span> In a
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cascading menu one can simply hover over an item to expand it, then
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move the mouse to the next item to expand, and so on. Makes it very
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easy to browse multiple folders quickly. In the NSM hovering doesn’t
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work and you have to click on the folder to expand it. When you do, the
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next folder moves down to make room for the sub-items, and you have to
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chase it with the mouse.<br>
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<br>
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</li>
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<li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Screen space is not used
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efficiently.</span> I have 1920x1200 pixels on my monitor, why can’t I use
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them? Instead, the NSM is all bunched in the corner. It would be
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perfect for a smart phone or a small touch-screen device. When I’m
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working on my desktop I don’t really care how cool or useful the menu
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would have been on my phone.</li>
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</ul>
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<br>
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<h2>3. The search functionality makes the NSM
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dynamic</h2>
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You can’t rely on the same command producing the same result
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every time. Practically that makes it impossible to learn quick
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shortcuts like Win+U or Win+I.<br>
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<br>
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Do you want to start Internet Explorer?
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How about typing “I”? That brings the latest website URL that has I in
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the name. Maybe “In”? Nope – it finds “Remote Zoom In”. “Int” must do
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it then. You wish. I have to type the whole thing “Internet” before
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“Internet Explorer” shows up in the search results. So basically I had
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to type 8 characters (not a monumental task by itself), and after each
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one I had to pause and wait for the search to complete, then scan the
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list of results, hoping to see what I'm looking for. Of course, that's
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my experience. On another computer it will give different results,
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which again proves my point.<br>
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<br>
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Another example – search for WinRAR. Just “R”? Nuh-huh – you get “Adobe
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(R) blah-blah”. “RA”? Nope,
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“No items match your search”. “RAR”, still
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nada. You have to type the whole thing “WINRAR” before it is found.
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The list goes on – “Wordpad”, “Regedit” – I have to type the WHOLE
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THING before it even appears.<br><br>
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And the search is somewhat quirky. Type “C”. It finds
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“Koala.jpg”. WTF? THERE IS NO “C” IN “KOALA” OR “JPG”!<br>
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<br>
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In contrast, the CSM is static. If a sequence of keys worked once, it
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will work the next time. You can train yourself to even longer
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sequences because they would never change. I can press P+T+D for
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<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 112, 192);">P</span>rograms -> <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 112, 192);">T</span>ext -> <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 112, 192);">D</span>ictionary without even thinking or looking at the screen.<br><br>
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<br>
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<h2>4. Consistency</h2>
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The CSM is very
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consistent. Everything is a menu. The same rules and key-presses apply everywhere.<br>
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<br>
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The NSM has 4 distinct areas, each with its own UI. There is the search
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box where you type. There is the “Programs” list, which has folders
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that expand in place. There is the “Places” list, which has folders
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that fly out. And there is the shutdown area that has 2
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buttons and a menu. Each piece may be fine by itself, but all 4 put
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together are a nightmare, especially when you use the keyboard.<br>
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<br>
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<br>
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<h2>5. Jack of all trades</h2>
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Basically the NSM tries to do multiple jobs, while not being
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particularly good at either one. There are better tools for most tasks.
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You can:<br>
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<ul>
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<li><span style="font-weight: bold;">run a program.</span> The classic start menu can be more efficient when organized properly<br>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></li>
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<li><span style="font-weight: bold;">browse programs.</span> The classic menu is so much better at this because of the hierarchical menus and better mouse and keyboard support</li>
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<li><span style="font-weight: bold;">run commands.</span> The Run box (Win+R) is better because it has auto-complete for the recently used commands</li>
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<li><span style="font-weight: bold;">find a document.</span> Windows Explorer is much better because you can specify search locations and more complex search terms<br>
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</li>
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<li><span style="font-weight: bold;">search the Internet.</span> Internet Explorer is better at that</li>
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<li><span style="font-weight: bold;">search for a program if you know exactly how to spell its name.</span> Well, you got me there. There is no alternative for this :)<br>
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</li>
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</ul>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"></rant><br>
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<br>
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</span>
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<h2>Hey, wait a minute!</h2>
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If the search is so bad how come the latest version of CSM has search?<br>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;"><br>
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</span>Since the beginning of the Classic Shell
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project people have asked for a search feature. So I finally decided to
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add search but try to solve some of the problems of the Windows
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implementation.<br>
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<ul>
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<li>the search box can be set to be inactive when the menu opens, so it won't steal the keys you are typing</li>
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<li>the search doesn't try to be too smart. The
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only "smart" feature is that the programs you use often will show up at
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the top of the list. If that's too smart for you it can be turned off<br>
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</li>
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<li>the search looks only for items in the start
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menu and programs in the PATH environment variable. It will always
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return predictable results because it doesn't index the whole
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harddrive, doesn't search for documents or web history, and doesn't
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look at the metadata<br>
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</li>
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</ul>
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<!-- End Main Text -->
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</td>
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</table>
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</table>
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<td class="bgrx" align="right" background="../images/bg_bottom.gif" bgcolor="#88cce6" height="1">
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<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
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<tr>
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<td colspan="2" height="8"><img src="../images/spacer.gif" height="8" width="1"></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td class="cpr">Classic Shell © 2010-2017, Ivo Beltchev.<br>All right reserved.</td>
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<td width="21"><img src="../images/spacer.gif" height="1" width="21"></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td colspan="2" height="7"><img src="../images/spacer.gif" height="7" width="1"></td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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</td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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</body>
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<!-- Mirrored from www.classicshell.net/whycsm/ by HTTrack Website Copier/3.x [XR&CO'2014], Tue, 05 Dec 2017 12:39:06 GMT -->
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</html>
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