Classic menu: more than two columns, recent programs as a list, placeable pinned programs

[emilioheredia-source]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Hi, and thank you for maintaining Open-Shell. I use it every day.

On a wide screen, the Classic with two columns menu leaves a lot of space unused. Pinned and recent programs are stacked in one tall left column, and there is no way to put them side by side:

• the recent programs can only go at the top or the bottom of the left column,
• the Recent Programs item in Customize Start Menu always opens as a sub-menu,
• the main menu allows only one column break,
• the pinned programs always come first in the first column.

This has been asked for since the Classic Shell days: https://classicshell.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1482 (a mock-up of several columns shared between pinned and recent programs).

Describe the solution you'd like

I've built this on top of current master and have been using it daily on Windows 11. All of it is opt-in: with default settings the menu looks and behaves exactly as before, and existing skins work unchanged.

1. Show as a list on the Recent Programs item: the recent programs appear in place of the item, in any column.
2. More than two columns: additional column breaks add columns. The last break still starts the second pane, so a menu with one break behaves as it does today.
3. A Pinned programs item, to place the pinned programs in any column.
4. A Heading item: a separator that shows its label (for example "Pinned" and "Recent"), with optional size, bold and italic.
5. Second pane look: which column gets the skin's second-pane look: the last one (default), none, or the first one.
6. Column lines and Same width for all columns, both off by default.

Nothing about the layout is hardcoded. Each of these is a building block you use in Customize Start Menu and the settings, the same way the menu is configured today. Extra columns use the first pane's look, so no skin needs new images. The new settings only appear in the two-column style, and the Windows 7 style is unchanged.

Would you be open to these as a series of small pull requests? I'd start with the smallest and most independent one (1), then continue only if the direction suits you. I'm happy to adapt names, where the settings live, or the scope. For example, the rest works without Second pane look if you'd rather not have it.

Area of issue

Start menu

Alternatives you've considered

Settings alone can't do this. The pinned programs always lead the first column, the recent programs are either a block at the top or bottom of that column or a sub-menu, and a second column break is ignored. Skins can't add columns either, since the layout code only knows two panes.

Additional context

An example of a layout these changes make possible: places and system items (with All Programs, Apps, search and Shut Down kept at the bottom) | Pinned | Recent, with the second-pane look on the first column, column lines, and headings. Immersive skin, user name pixelated:

This layout is configuration only: nothing in the code is specific to it. It was built entirely in Customize Start Menu and the settings: the existing items (a Column padding keeps the programs, search and Shut Down at the bottom of the first column), two column breaks, the new Pinned programs, Recent Programs list and Heading items, and Second pane look = First column. Other arrangements are just a matter of placing the items differently, for example an icon-only strip made of items with the label none, which Open-Shell already supports.

I also found two Explorer crashes in the current code while working on this, and I'm reporting them separately.

Thanks for considering this.

Area of issue

Start menu

Alternatives you've considered

No response

Additional context

No response