Classic style Any real tutorial or how-to ?

[smallhagrid]

I've asked this before - and gotten snarky replies like: 'Look around - it can be done' and 'find it yourself'.

(OK, whatever - when I see that kind of stuff it just makes me think nobody really has done it or knows.)

Here's what I'm asking=>

How to morph the looks and functions of 7 into a plain, classic interface as fully as possible ??

Even though it is now an old OS, I've seen no reason to get it nor really any need or reason to leave XP Pro which is 100% fine on my multi-core system with a mere 4GB RAM.

I absolutely hate what has been done with explorer too - and there seems no way to get the good old explorer back (I've asked that too and folks just say to use an alternate app...meh.)

And worst of all - that hideous 'pearl' idea instead of menus - making extra steps to get to what is needed.

That's just plain stoooopid.

So, before anyone leaves a snarky reply telling me to get off my lazy a$$ and research this rather than asking=> ain't gonna happen; if I need to do lots of work to get a good old-style classic windows interface on a newer OS, I can easily do that with Linux and LXDE and still use XP at the same time.

OK, so - has anyone actually achieved this ???

Any good sites for classic GUI style lovers who also want 7 ??

C'mon now, fess up - where's the beef ?!?

Thanks.

[FreeRyde]

A few suggestions here:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-desktop/how-to-make-windows-7-look-like-xp/257ad2da-b7e4-4ca4-9795-8da1db1429a7

[smallhagrid]

Thanks so very much for that great pointer FreeRyde !!!

That seems to be a fantastic starting point and the only missing detail I can see in all of that is the reference to:

....download the 7 to XP pack.zip file => which says nothing about where that file may be found ???

EDIT:

It may be here=>

http://7toxp.weebly.com/how-to-use.html

Of course I have yet to even get my paws on 7, so I've no idea which of the two versions I would need to get of that...

A bonus in the comments at the link you shared is the wonderful letter to mikr0$0ft at the very end, which I quoted, here:

http://www.nsaneforums.com/topic/190577-an-open-letter-to-microsoft-windows-881/?do=findComment&comment=663268

Thanks Again !!!

Edited October 20, 2013 by smallhagrid

[tezza]

Thanks so very much for that great pointer FreeRyde !!!

That seems to be a fantastic starting point and the only missing detail I can see in all of that is the reference to:

....download the 7 to XP pack.zip file => which says nothing about where that file may be found ???

EDIT:

It may be here=>

http://7toxp.weebly.com/how-to-use.html

Of course I have yet to even get my paws on 7, so I've no idea which of the two versions I would need to get of that...

A bonus in the comments at the link you shared is the wonderful letter to mikr0$0ft at the very end, which I quoted, here:

http://www.nsaneforums.com/topic/190577-an-open-letter-to-microsoft-windows-881/?do=findComment&comment=663268

Thanks Again !!!

http://7toxp.weebly.com/download.html

[FreeRyde]

Looks like you and tezza both found the 7 to XP Pack home.

Feedback would be appreciated if anyone tests this Pack.

[smallhagrid]

Thanks.

Before I get that far I will first need to locate a good source for that OS and some good, working medicine for it.

(Searching here for 'windows 7' would be funny if it didn't return mostly links for 8.x !!!)

[tezza]

youtube.com/watch?v=un5T-MyUHeQ

[tezza]

Thanks.

Before I get that far I will first need to locate a good source for that OS and some good, working medicine for it.

(Searching here for 'windows 7' would be funny if it didn't return mostly links for 8.x !!!)

Look in guides an tuts for win7 ;)

http://www.nsaneforums.com/topic/161210-how-to-activate-windows-7-by-phone-via-mak-retail-key/

Edited October 20, 2013 by tezza

[smallhagrid]

Here's what I've scraped together so far for anyone else who'd rather skip the digging for it:

1.
If you want that same classic mode (the gray toolbars and such), that does exist in Windows 7. Just right-click
your desktop, choose Personalize, then scroll down and click "Windows Classic".

2.
There is a whole cottage industry developing to provide hacks and utilities to make Win 7 work and look like XP

Get classic shell (open source, sourceforge), it will make the taskbar, explorer and the start button work like XP.

Go online to how to geek and there are all sorts of tutorials to change the desktop, file manager, folders etc. to
look and work like XP.

Go to thoosje (?) these people have a utility that will allow you to change the boot and login screens to look like
XP and much more, you can have almost any look you want.

You can get the alt tab functionality back, you can get the "up" button back and many other things, you just have
to rummage around on the Internet using creative queries to unearth the changes you want.

I guess there are many users that don't like the new GUI, I can understand why they just want to get their work
done and all this re-modeling is getting in the way of the work.

I hope this helps, yes there is a way to get what you want even though Microsoft has made it hard. I am also
looking into using autohotkey (a free scripting utility) to add other things. But, programming and scripting may not
be your thing.

3.
I know I can't help you restore everything, but I'd like to help where I can. For your folder customizing woes, I
actually recent wrote a blog post about it. It's frustrating I know, but this will show how to apply a style to all your
folders at once.
http://skeene.net/tech/apply-folder-styles-to-all-subfolders/

* Ironically I hear the opposite complaint a lot: "I want to apply a different sort to each folder!" Alas, there is no
'one size fits all' here.

You can make all folders appear in a tree by right-clicking an empty area in the folder list and choosing 'show all
folders'. It will be the same order as before, with the desktop at the top.
Hopefully that helps get at least a few settings back to the way you prefer.

4. Kind of messy, but=>

The file mentioned below is here:
http://7toxp.weebly.com/how-to-use.html

Download and change the taskbar) First download the 7 to XP pack.zip file,then save it.
Open it with WinRAR and extract it to your desktop.
Click on the folder.
Then,to do the taskbar,click on Start orb changer.
Run the Windows 7 Start Button Changer v2.6 application.
Click Select & Change Start Button.
Click the Windows 7 orb next to it.
Look for Windows XP start.bmp.
Click it.
It will change the taskbar thingy.

Related video:
youtube.com/watch?v=un5T-MyUHeQ

5. Some sources=>

W7 - x4, 2.6gb:
http://depositfiles.com/files/nor6nhaoa
http://depositfiles.com/files/etqu92lqp
http://depositfiles.com/files/wkauj72az

http://www.nsaneforums.com/topic/161210-how-to-activate-windows-7-by-phone-via-mak-retail-key/

http://www.nsaneforums.com/topic/187278-windows-7-sp1-aio-15-in-1-x86x64-sept2013-by-murphy78/?hl=%22windows+7%22

http://www.nsaneforums.com/topic/187342-how-to-get-the-windows-product-key-without-using-third-party-software/


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I still haven't settled on which one to grab - leaning towards the pre-activated ones, naturally - but if anyone has a better suggestion specifically redarding a version or release I'm all ears ?!?

My old box that quit on me has enough ooomph to try 7 on and if it quits again - no biggie if I'm just trying it out.

I really have to see that it can truly be made to look & work in the classic style AND that explorer can be fixed so it's not the abomination they changed it to before I become any sort of believer...we'll see sometime soon...?!

[tezza]

7 Ultimate and if dont want to phone activate use Daz Loader not preactivated

Edited October 20, 2013 by tezza

[smallhagrid]

I still don't know the differences between the huge number of versions of that OS...?

What really amazes me is how so many folks here say 7 was the best since XP - and in searching here for stuff about 7 specifically, even using tags in hopes to narrow the search results - 80% or more come back about 8.x - which makes no sense as it seems to piss off people most of all ?!?

[tezza]

I still don't know the differences between the huge number of versions of that OS...?

What really amazes me is how so many folks here say 7 was the best since XP - and in searching here for stuff about 7 specifically, even using tags in hopes to narrow the search results - 80% or more come back about 8.x - which makes no sense as it seems to piss off people most of all ?!?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows7/products/compare#T1=tab01

[smallhagrid]

Thanks Tezza.

Basically it looks like there's every good reason to stick with the Ult. version unless Ent is better somehow - but I couldn't tell because the link about that leads to a page about 8...yuck.

I did remember there's a tremendous amount of stuff for 7 at MDL too, so it should be easy to get it between here and there.

EDIT:

Another spot that has the OS for download is right here...in many editions:

http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Windows-7-Download-118183.html

And speaking of editions - I also found an edition switcher that simply patches the ISO into another version.

I think that's very cool !!

Thanks.

Edited October 21, 2013 by smallhagrid