Someone reviewed v on Jul 5, 2022

Pros: 555

Cons: 555

Bottom Line: 555

Sammo reviewed v2.0.1 on Jun 16, 2010

This is the best shell replacement that I have used. It is fully customizable and actually uses less system resources than the default windows shell does.

Grandpas reviewed v1.9.5 on Jul 4, 2007

I've tested a lot of desktop managers. On my opinion, Aston is clearly one of the best.
You can't install it .. look at it and after 5mn say 'yes it's good' or 'no, it's bad'. You have to make your own settings, use it for several hours or days .. and then .. well you will see that it's a very good piece of software. Very few problems with win32 (never used with Vista) ... unfortunately, the windows x64 compatibility is not perfect.
Aston can not be compared with Samurize; clearly not the same objectives.

Ain Soph Aur reviewed v1.9.5 on Jul 4, 2007

a very nice shell with a lot of features. i think it has a shiny future but the skins are not very beautifull but you can make a lott out of it. sorry for my bad english.
but on the other hand, you can also use 'samurize', its free (ok, not a shell) and highly customuzable! a lott better then this...

sorry for my bad english

ahjefri reviewed v1.9.5 on Jul 4, 2007

those who have not tasted aston they do not know what they are missing,,, You can skin this shell on the fly within 1 hour of your own taste,,, that's not to menstion how slik and low footprint it is,,,

tinkerdill reviewed v1.9.5 on Jul 3, 2007

You can download themes from internet, you don't have to pay anything about those! HELLO!

Stephen Bungert reviewed v1.9.5 on Jul 3, 2007

Man, is it ugly.

Just because something can be done, doesn't mean it should be done.

ahjefri reviewed v1.9.4 on Apr 2, 2007

Another nice version of Aston,,,

tannman1 reviewed v1.9.4 Beta 2 on Mar 15, 2007

Good shell however my start button now doesnt work but getting assistance in forum. Lots of themes to choose.

mikeyx11 reviewed v1.9.4 Beta 1 on Mar 7, 2007

@ Blackhole8746:

Bahahahaha. You are hilarious. Please continue to entertain us with your jokes...

Now for my review:

This worked fine for me however personally I don't like it, but it does what it says and does it fine.

Lurifax reviewed v1.9.4 Beta 1 on Mar 6, 2007

Blackhole8746, thanks for the laugh, you tool. Explorer gone? Oh nooooo! This wasn't supposed to happen! Oh...wait....

ahjefri reviewed v1.9.3.1 Xmas edition on Jan 8, 2007

Aston shell is not only the best shell around ,, it's the ultimate,
1- Simple,
2- Cabable
3- Slick
4- Small footprint
5- Featured
6- Dynamic (very costomized)
7- Skinnable ( if you like any window blind skin less than one hour you can create matching skin for Aston)
8- It has a lot of plugins which are complete set of tools you name it like Calendar, Clock , CPU, Net, and Memory watcher) and they are all skinned

Total Commander + Aston Shell + StrokeIT + AVA Find

is a must tool for me ,,,,

phenomnaruto reviewed v1.9.3.1 Xmas edition on Dec 30, 2006

Obviously,
the reviewer below me has no idea what the program does .... its suppose to replace the explorer shell.
embarrassing.

Blackhole8746 reviewed v1.9.3.1 Xmas edition on Dec 29, 2006

Oh my gosh what a horribly written piece of crap!! I installed it and it "logged off" to apply settings, so far so good, but when I logged in again, the explorer shell was gone! Explorer crashed, and there I was with no explorer shell... Cool huh? (I think this is why they call it the Xmas edition)

It might be a good program, and I might want to blame this whole thing on the OS (XP SP2) instead of the guys who wrote "Aston"... But all in all, I don't advise you to use this...

phenomnaruto reviewed v1.9.2 Beta 3 on May 22, 2006

Very nice upgrade, I'm surprised this is 1.9.2, with the new features everything is easy, and also I like the new preview/mini screenshot feature your see when you hover your mouse over any program thats running and recognized in the taskbar. I would recommend this to anyone! This version also runs faster on my computer ^_^

UTAKER reviewed v1.9.2 Beta 3 on May 22, 2006

The best program so far for the people who are looking for the default windows a shell replacement.
I used it and liked it, but somehow switched to the windows default shell (seemed to be easier for me to work with the default one, maybe my old habit)

S-e_R reviewed v1.9.1 on Nov 8, 2004

The desktop looked great exept for one thing, when i was switching between one theme to another it came up with the illegal operation error and it wouldnt start and since it was integrated in the startup files for the pc, i couldnt switch back to my normal desktop and i had to find a way to get my computer working again. Overall, if this was fixed the program would be a really good program with cool desktops.

kebabi reviewed v1.9.1 on Jul 30, 2004

This is the best shell replacement I have tested, I love this!
There is soooo many good themes and plugins fro this, that I can't choose what I use..
But I don't like to buy many programs, so 4/5

adaminferior reviewed v1.9 on Dec 6, 2003

Good solid program. After trying out many windows shell replacements over the years i've found this to be my favorite and with the excellent theme "Techno Dream ...No Escape" (without hyperbole this is the most professionaly done and slickest looking theme I have ever seen) I didn't have a single problem with either the shell or the theme. It looked nice and it ran nice. But after a week or so of running it without any problems of any kind I switched back to explorer. Old habits die hard.

Richard30ky reviewed v1.6 on Jun 11, 2002

its more stable than the others i have been using it for days now with no hangups freeze or crash my system and my apps load and run faster with benchmark proof even .not to mention that the themes are pretty good - i agree the others give you more options or more themes and skins but in stabability and speed error free and usefullness this one is more of a improvement rather than a buggy crash disaster like the others.

sangxue reviewed v1.2.6 Beta on Jun 28, 2001

more screenshots on your website plz

Klug reviewed v1.2.4 on Jan 1, 2001

LiteStep is better than Aston?
Ls - simply add-on to explorer, in him is not implemented half of shell functions.
Ls does not realize DDE, without which impossible functioning of some installers and explorer as file-browser.
Ls does not realize SHAppbarMessage, without which some programs (Xing, ICQ, MS Office etc) does not work properly.
Ls nearly do not compatible with Win NT & Win2000.
On my ip150 "recycle" in Ls occupies beside 3 seconds, but in Aston - 0.5 second.
Ls is not small - simply it use MSVCRT.DLL. Besides, latest Ls releases uses OLEAUTO&OLE32 and COM interfaces for plug-ins' design, this really slowly...
Be smarter - choose Aston.

Einlanzer reviewed v1.2.4 on Dec 28, 2000

Not to mention litestep is 100% free unlike this and serenade...

MaK reviewed v1.2.1 on Sep 5, 2000

One of the best shell I've ever tried,the icons are very nice but I don't think that not one of this shells are faster than Explorer, and why it is not much easier to put icons of hard drives on the desktop.

Yearout reviewed v1.2.1 on Sep 4, 2000

Nice? yes, but $35 OUCH! There is SO many FREE shells out there faster and did I say FREE. Please look in to the others out there. Try them all then if you like this one buy it. Try www.stardock.com there you get you moneys worth.

paradox909 reviewed v1.2.1 on Sep 4, 2000

This is the shell I use at work. It is way faster then Litestep and it looks really nice.

DigitalSin reviewed v1.2.1 on Sep 4, 2000

Nice shell. Much easier to configure than a lot of others out there.