About

Open Shell is a free, open-source, community-driven project that forked from the Classic Shell project. It is designed for Windows, aiming to restore the classic start menu experience to modern versions of Microsoft Windows. Its core product, the Open-Shell Menu, offers extensive customization features including changing the Start Button, supporting themes, providing a system tweaker, a Windows Explorer Extension to make the Taskbar transparent, and the ability to drag and drop programs to the start menu. Known for being lightweight and privacy-focused, Open Shell serves users seeking a highly customizable and stable alternative to native Windows start menus, which some find frustrating, unintuitive, or ad-laden. It competes with solutions like StartAllBack, StartItBack, Start11, Start Menu X, and commercial options like WindowBlinds10, often being praised for its stability, functionality, and ease of use. While it continues to adapt to Windows 10/11, it has a known limitation of not working on ARM CPUs. Information regarding revenue, leadership (CEO/executives), and employee count is not available, consistent with its volunteer-driven open-source nature.

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User Reviews

25 reviews

Positive
Pros
Extensive customization options
Familiar Windows 7 interface
Improved search functionality
Lightweight and non-intrusive
Free and open source
Enhanced productivity
Stable cross-OS compatibility
Ad-free experience

Cons
Occasional compatibility issues
Outdated visual design
Complex user interface
Lacks modern features
Reliance on community support
Software bugs and glitches
Windows 11 specific issues
Not a portable application

Key Themes
Start Menu customization
Classic Windows experience
Productivity and efficiency
Open-source and free
Windows compatibility
User interface and design
Feature set and modernity
Website Performance Score
Website Performance Score
Recent News


Company Details

Industry

Software


Founded

2000


Company Size

100-500 employees

Location

Country

United States


Region

California


City

San Francisco