Open-Shell-Menu VS lutris

Replace the start menu which is filled with ads and widget bullshit Replace Windows 11 logo with Windows 7 logo

I've been very happy happy with https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu as a Start Menu replacement. If ads have rolled out to my Windows install, I wouldn't even notice.

Whenever I set up a new computer for older family members, despite it being windows 11, I always install open shell[1] and retro bar[2]. Between the two, I've made the operating system look very close to Windows XP visually, and they always appreciate it.

[1] https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu

[2] https://github.com/dremin/RetroBar

There's Open-Shell but it's not exactly a full WM replacement.

Hi yall, I used Open-Shell to change the icon.

There is also Open Shell, a free and open source tool which performs a similar function.

I wish so bad there is a port (a fork) of the Legacy Kickoff start menu for Windows: https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu/issues/1083

Classic Start Menu

I use Open Shell (fork of Classic Shell) as a replacement to original Start Menu. This gives me full control over what appears in start menu - no results from internet, animated tiles, etc (I am on Win 10 though, from what I read the Win 11 is supported, but not yet officially [1]). It could be a solution to the ads appearing in start menu.

[1] https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu/issues/1564

I've been working on integrating RomM into Lutris (https://lutris.net/) for a while, but it's not ready yet since I haven't had time to finish it. Not as a plugin but directly in the main Lutris repo: https://github.com/gantoine/lutris/tree/romm-game-service

It would allow you to store your games on the server, sync the list in Lutris, and install them when you want to play them. I'd like to get a working POC to demo to the Lutris team soon-ish. Oh and if anyone sees this and would like to help get us there, contributions are always welcome!

You can get Lutris: It's an open source launcher that you login into with GOG account and it will download the games and wrap them with Wine, similar to Steam.

https://lutris.net/

For "normal" games you could look yourself using ProtonDB regarding every game released on Steam and AreWeAntiCheatYet for most multiplayer games. If a game isn't available on Steam you have three possibilities. First if it's available on GOG, Epic Games or Amazon Gaming, you could use the Heroic Games Launcher. Second you could try to run the launchers through Steam itself using once again Proton. Third you could try installing it with a script or tutorial in Lutris or Bottles.

Can I suggest you head over to the lutris.net site and follow the link the lutris discord - with what you are describing, it would take me 20 minutes to get the base battle.net working so you can see what is causing your issue or 3 days back and forwards here. As a hint, your wine version has known issues, and unless you manually installed the lutris 0.5.14 from the git page in Mint, or are running flatpak, you have other issues related to that

Hmmm I remember there was some confusion in Lutris around this, like https://github.com/lutris/lutris/issues/4237 , and I had to do some workaround. But I can't check what exactly right now...

As a data point, you can run a fair number of Windows games under Proton by using Lutris instead of Steam:

* https://lutris.net

* https://github.com/lutris/lutris

It's an OSS game launcher that takes the place of Steam, and you can set things up to run locally so you don't even need an account on their system (lutris.net).

Lutris

[Resources] * Ventoy (for EZ bootable USB sticks) ==> https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html * How to use Ventoy ==> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K64sT0pQc-0 * Rufus (alternative bootable USB stick creator in Windows) ==> https://rufus.ie/en/ * MD5 & SHA Checksum Utility (for validating your ISO downloads) ==> https://download.cnet.com/md5-sha-checksum-utility/3000-2092_4-10911445.html * Steam will be in the repositories (repos) and Proton is apart of Steam * www.protondb.com (lookup Steam game info... see how well it works or if it is in a FUBAR state on Linux) * WINE will be in the repos and can be acquired via WINE HQ. I recommend using the repos, but WINE HQ if you need it ( https://www.winehq.org/ ) * Lutris is a front-end to WINE which makes installing and running non-Steam games easy. It can be found in the repos ( https://lutris.net/ ) * How-To videos for setting up various distros for gaming ( https://www.youtube.com/@IntelligentGaming2020/videos ). I have no affiliation with this channel. He is a Linux user/gamer sharing info. Search his channel for your distro to find the specific how-to videos. * r/linux4noobs (a newbie focused Linux subreddit) * most if not all of the distros will have their own subreddits (ex: r/pop_OS, r/linuxmint, r/fedora, r/manjaro, r/EndeavourOS)