# Anyone use a Windows shell besides explorer?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-a-windows-shell-besides-explorer/322822>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [September 22, 2005, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-a-windows-shell-besides-explorer/322822 "2005-09-22T02:31:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-a-windows-shell-besides-explorer/322822/1 "2005-09-22T02:31:30Z")

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I have been hearing things that there are shells out there that make XP run smoother than the explorer shell. I am about to take the plunge into litestep but knowing very little about these types of things I am concerned. Are any of you running a shell like BB4 win or litestep?

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**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-a-windows-shell-besides-explorer/322822/2 "2005-09-22T13:07:31Z")

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I use ACDsee. When I work on someone else’s computer is drives me nuts having to us the MS interface. MS: when being 10 years behind the times is taking things too fast.

I also use Cygwin for a CLI. tcsh rulez!

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**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2005, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-a-windows-shell-besides-explorer/322822/3 "2005-09-22T14:31:01Z")

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Well I took the plunge but ended up reverting back to explorer. Its a shame too, I really liked the customizability and increased features but there just wasn’t enough documentation to figure out how to easily customize stuff. I ended up with half my task bar a different size, my windows didn’t take up all the availible space and it was generally just a mess.