Savage hackery projects like this always get my attention. I look forward to testing this out as well.
two more things restored, old network icon w/ old menu and old safely remove icon. edit, have just restored the old battery icon as well.
something i cobbled together with help from some online tutorials...i can't code actual programs so i did it old school and made a simple html app, replaces the taskbar cpl that doesn't work. the check boxes do not toggle anything but they do work for applying the reg settings, the customize button does what the actual customize button does and opens the notification area icon cpl.
Are you able to force Windows 10 to use the Classic Theme (or any scheme via the Appearance tab of the Display Settings applet) without having to close any handles?
no, you still need a 3rd party script or file(s) to get the classic theme working. however glitches using oldnewexplorer have vanished after removing some of the windows runtime components. on my host install with oldnewexplorer installed, opening folders or my computer, the ribbon shows up at random but on the virtual machine oldnewexplorer works as intended, i have yet to see an explorer glitch where the ribbon appears. (just thought i'd mention the ribbon isn't removed as it's unrelated to the runtime stuff) i'm now creating the batch(s) that'll add the old features back; program files; media player taskbar player windows mail dvd maker movie maker calendar photo gallery (not the vista app, as it refuses to load due to random error, it's windows live photo gallery, an old build that looks basically the same, i used resource hacker to replace the program icon and renamed the exe so it fits in better with the other stuff) sidebar security essentials (defender) ms games windows / system folders; media center control panel additions and changes classic tray icons start menu; adds back various links to above stuff tested what i've done so far and it all works
uploading project at the moment, will post a link once it's online, it's a couple of gb. (the replaced and addon files make up most of the largish size) there's also a self extracting archive included for alternative file restoration and that's around a gb. i'm on UK time so you can expect something either late this evening or tomorrow morning.
Hi RanCorX2 good advances this fine well do you know that Windows Movie Maker works fine in Windows 10 although in some system is needed re-registrer some dll's then if you have some interest on this files PM me that can provide where you can download original files ok and good luck in your project still in another hand I also was working in new project using as base W10 build 10240 where I'm searching about how to catch all good aplications that I see in builds 1607/1709/1803 or almost her this job you also know is one similar to a lot of little ants but I'm not in a hurry either
i've tried to collect together all the registry data for the apps i've added back, some bits may be missing at this time because it's still not a 100% complete project. but as it stands, all the apps run, haven't tested all features though. only about 14% uploaded, so probably be online tomorrow, friday. quite pleased with the whole thing so far, the vm os feels a lot like windows 7 now, the aero vs from da is the icing on the cake though. already have that installed on the main os. i'm including a basic read with instructions on how to get it all done without messing up windows, must be followed as it will feck things up if you don't follow the order. still more stuff to remove and tinker with but as it is, it's in a state that is usable. (imo) hope the amount of batch files etc don't put some of you off it was a bigger mess at the start.
ok, here it is; link offline while i change some stuff. have fun, test on a vm. might be a few redudent files included which i'll delete later, i've been constantly shifting stuff from folder to folder, was becoming a huge mess...again. remember if something broken let me know and i'll see if it can be corrected. there are somethings that i know are broken but they can't be corrected as it would make part of the project pointless. (like the tray clock and taskbar menus for settings and data / time) if i kept those then i'd have to keep shell experiences + host and the settings app. The point of things is to ditch all that crap, restore as much of the old stuff and then for anything else, find 3rd party alternatives. luckily the tray and menu things that are broken aren't important enough to ruin windows usability.
next update will so far contain; ui ribbon from windows 7, tested and working on windows 10, replaces modern ribbon in explorer, mspaint and wordpad.
any feedback from people who tried it? i found one mistake and corrected it, spelling mistake in 1_Replace&AddFiles.bat in Feature Restoration folder. will upload corrected file as well as other stuff i mentioned a bit later this weekend.
Appx uninstall seem error, the folder name '&' cause error in cmd and cbs keep unchanged feature update. But after 1. and 2. system is very light and smooth, but missing start menu I run it on build 17133.1, 64 bits
the app scripts folder 1 are just leftovers, yuo don't need them as the other included batches just remove everything at the source. they were part of the original non destructive removal process. not sure what you mean by & and cbs keep unchanged feature update ? 3, 4 & 5 should be used for best results. nearly done correcting some things... forgot to add lines in batch for file restoration to replace regedit with older version only replaced mui as i forgot the takeown stuff. added; ui ribbon from windows 7.1 x64 sp1 (already mentioned) sticky notes (system32, windows 8.x version, couldn't get the 7 one to work) sound recorder (system32, windows 8.x version, same as above) snipping tool (system32, windows 8.x version that matches 7's, same as above) will upload corrected package tomorrow.