List of alternative shells for Windows

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This is a list of software that provides an alternative graphical user interface for Microsoft Windows operating systems. The technical term for this interface is a shell. Windows' standard user interface is the Windows shell; Windows 3.0 and Windows 3.1x have a different shell, called Program Manager. The programs in this list do not restyle the Windows shell, but replace it; therefore, they look and function differently, and have different configuration options.

Shell Software license Windows versions Development status
3.1x 9x 2000 XP Vista 7 8 10 11
Blackbox GPL No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Active
BumpTop Apache License No No No Yes Yes Yes No No No Discontinued
Cairo Shell Apache License No No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Active[1]
Calmira GPL Yes No No No No No No No No Discontinued
Classic Shell Proprietary No No No No No Yes Yes Yes No Discontinued[2]
Emerge Desktop GPL No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Discontinued[3]
LDE(X) GPL No No Yes Yes No No No No No Discontinued[4]
LiteStep GPL No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Stalled[5]
Norton Desktop Proprietary Yes No No No No No No No No Discontinued
Open-Shell MIT License No No No No No Yes Yes Yes No Active
Packard Bell Navigator Proprietary Yes Yes No No No No No No No Discontinued
ReactOS Explorer GPL No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Active[6][7][8]
SharpEnviro GPL No No No Yes Yes Yes No No No Discontinued[9]
TabWorks Proprietary Yes No No No No No No No No Discontinued
Talisman Desktop Trialware No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Stalled[10][11]
Xerox Rooms Proprietary Yes No No No No No No No No Discontinued

See also

References

  1. "Cairo Shell Homepage". Cairo Development Team. 30 May 2020. https://cairoshell.com/. Retrieved 4 July 2020. 
  2. "Classic Shell no longer in development. Source code released". http://www.classicshell.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8147. Retrieved 3 January 2024. 
  3. "emergedesktop.org has shutdown". Emerge. Archived from the original on 11 May 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150511035450/http://www.emergedesktop.org/. Retrieved 25 March 2017. 
  4. "The road ahead is a cliff face". 18 April 2007. Archived from the original on 26 October 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20071026200020/http://ldex.terica.net/community/comments.php?DiscussionID=19&page=1. Retrieved 25 March 2017. 
  5. "Re: Added .NET Framework interoperability to the core and started a c# binding library". 11 January 2017. https://github.com/lsdev/LiteStep/pull/1#issuecomment-271501364. Retrieved 25 March 2017. 
  6. "ReactOS Explorer". ReactOS Project. http://www.reactos.org/. Retrieved 16 May 2014. 
  7. "ReactOS Explorer source code". ReactOS Project. http://svn.reactos.org/svn/reactos/trunk/reactos/base/shell/explorer/. Retrieved 25 March 2017. 
  8. Fuchs, Martin. "ReactOS Explorer (original author, details)". http://www.foxplanet.de/explorer/. Retrieved 16 May 2014. 
  9. "Download SharpEnviro". https://sharpe.sourceforge.net/Download.html. Retrieved 3 January 2024. 
  10. "Talisman Desktop". LightTek Software. http://www.lighttek.com/talisman.htm. Retrieved 15 July 2016. 
  11. "Talisman Desktop News, no updates since Aug 15, 2011". LightTek Software. http://www.lighttek.com/talismannew.htm. Retrieved 15 July 2016. 

External links