How to Make 7 as plain & old-like as possible ??

Discussion in 'Windows 7' started by smallhagrid, Nov 24, 2021.

  1. smallhagrid

    smallhagrid MDL Addicted

    Sep 14, 2013
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    I have 7 Ultimate on a HDD that I can use anytime I seriously need some specific windows s/w to be open & running (VS just using XP in a VM under Linux) - but I barely ever use it unless there is a real NEED to do so.

    It simply does not suit me - just as that nasty win Me II that came before it - too much is too different from the sort of 'classic desktop' paradigm that I prefer & which could easily be gotten under XP.

    Yes - I tweaked it up best as I could - Classic Start Menu, shell, taskbar, etc. - but it ain't enough for me - so I avoid using it.

    Ideally what I'd really be happy with would be if there was some way to sort of theme 7 into a Win2k Pro clone - that was just so perfect IMO.

    Worst of all (again, just IMO) is the horrid abortion that windows explorer has become.
    I've tried every 3rd party file manager I could ever find, but plain old XP explorer along with QTTabBar was perfection and none of the 3rd party things have been its equal.

    So, if someone else here knows how this may be done, please tell me:
    - Is there a sort of win2k classic theme & how may I get that ??
    - Has anyone ever found some way to make the older XP or win2k explorer.exe work as a file manager in 7, and if so - please tell me how that may be done ??

    I know that all of the above may seem quite odd to lots of folks.
    To put it into proper perspective - I have perceptual disabilities which make plain, simple things work best for me - vs. things like browsers & such that are all about fancy graphical things rather than menus;
    Those are just 100% intolerable for me to use.

    Thanks for any helpful replies !!
     
  2. Carlos Detweiller

    Carlos Detweiller Emperor of Ice-Cream

    Dec 21, 2012
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    At least getting the classic theme is easy. Stop and disable the Themes service.
     
  3. smallhagrid

    smallhagrid MDL Addicted

    Sep 14, 2013
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    Thanks for your suggestion here Carlos Detweiller.

    As it happened - I ran across mention of a modded version of 7 called 'Winborg 7' which seemed to arrive with all the classic stuff already done as well as most of the annoyances taken care of, so I tried
    it out on a spare HDD & it is indeed pretty doggone good by my measures.

    It could be a bit plainer & I wouldn't miss all the extra baloney it has now in order to obscure & complicate things, but I may be able to tolerate it for the little that I ever need to use windows for anymore.

    Of course it still has that horribly nasty 'new explorer' so I still wish I could magically have a fix for that somehow.
    The best 3rd party file manager I've found is actually Ultraexplorer - but it does some odd things, which worry me a bit.
     
  4. ruslanshchur

    ruslanshchur MDL Senior Member

    Sep 13, 2020
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    Or open Personalization, and select Windows Classic theme
     
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