Re: You can't beat the free ClassicShell!
I used CS myself on my test W10 install after disabling Cortana, though I found that the latest version to hand at that point, 4.2.3, didn't work right. The previous one (4.2.1) did, however.
While CS or Start10 provide a workable solution to the problem that is the new Start, it would be nice to have something that took the work needed to cobble the system together into something that worked, didn't download crud that killed it in the background, didn't send a ton of stuff to Microsoft every time I coughed and didn't rely on sodding clouds.
What we actually have is Windows as a Disservice.