Does anybody have any experience of "Classic Shell" for windows 8.1, ie are there any known problems with downloading or using it, I'm rapidly getting fed up with Win 8.1, I was quite happy with Win 7, probably an age thing, any and all advice welcomed.

It is a great piece of software, I have been using it for months without any issues what so ever.
I forgot to mention to ensure you get it from a trusted site. This is a link to the latest version site:
http://www.classicshell.net/history/#v362

I'm using Classic Shell 4.2.1 under Win 8.1 and it works fine. Highly recommended.

I too was disappointed like many with windows 8 but now my PC looks and works like my old windows 7 pc thanks to classic shell. It's easy to download and configure best of all its free.

As to windows 10, I won't be bothering.

Classic shell makes Windows 8 usable.

Another happy user of it here.

Thanks for the info, I'll give it a try.