Well it did not do a thing on my Windows 8.It did not disable the Metro theme.The Metro theme is still there. It is just a command prompt.And I have read about Tihiy's software over on Neowin forums and MSFN forums. So this patcher does not disable the Metro theme by just running it. You have to first copy the hidden shell files from your Windows 7 computer. And not many people are going to be able to do that. And chances are if they do they will copy the wrong files,messing up Windows. So forget this software and just use Classic Shell or Start Menu 7. Which does not disable the Metro theme but gives you both the start button and Windows 7 start menu. And Classic Shell and Start Menu 7 have now been updated. And now boot straight to the desktop,skipping the Metro start menu. Andrea Borman.
Are you being serious? You cannot copy 2 files from the directories that are given in the OP and add it to the patch folder? Literally took me 2mins to get this up and running. Metro is gone as far as i can tell, it boots straight to desktop, metro doesnt flash or anything. Start menu is missing couple of things but im sure its nearly there. For me this is the best solution yet.
Yes I am being serious. The OP says you have to copy certain shell files from Windows 7. And then paste them into the patcher and then run it on Windows 8. But most people won't know what those files are.And they are most probably hidden files. So it is likely that you could put the wrong shell files in the patcher and mess up Windows 8. And some people on Neowin forums and MSFN forums,have reported side effects on Windows 8, after using this software. Andrea Borman.
Well i just went to Neowin and looks like you are the only user moaning over a great piece of software. If you read the instructions you cant go wrong. Most users who are into hacks like this would be testing Win 8 on a Virtual machine i assume too like me so there is no issues. Again the OP says this is run under the users Risk, so warnings have been given. I like a nice little patch rather than Vistart etc. Patcher doesnt have any error checking atm, but that is not hard to implement with some hash checking or similar. The file required from Windows 7 are accessible from a working Win 7 machine and are not hidden files... Have you even run this? Give the OP some credit for a good attempt thats free and has very similar functionality to Windows 7, again all software has to start somewhere. For people who dont know how to find a file when the file name and directory is given, this is not for them.
Well when I was using Windows 8 DP,I did disable the Metro theme. But I also installed Classic Shell because I like the Windows XP start menu. Which, as you know, you don't get on Windows Vista or on Windows 7. And now there is a new Classic Shell feature and you can now for the first time change the start button on Windows 7. But not on Windows Vista. So now I have my Windows XP start button on Windows 8 and Windows 7.As well as my Windows XP start menu on Windows Vista,Windows 7 and Windows 8. In Windows 8 DP you could disable the Metro theme with a registry edit. But Microsoft removed this feature on Windows 8 CP and Windows 8 RP. But if Microsoft would put this option back in and make it like in DP.That would solve the problem.Andrea Borman.
So if i want the Win 7 Menu and to Disable Metro why shouldnt I or others use the patch in OP. If you dont want to use the patch because you want the XP menu why are you telling others not to? Lol you make no sense.
But that's just it. The software does not disable the Metro theme,you have to provide your own shell files. So it seems this software was made by an amateur. If not,then why doesn't he provide the shell files in the software? Andrea Borman.
@ Andrea Borman He can't redistribute the shell files because then Microsoft would issue takedown requests for his software. The software is not amateur made. It just requires you to do a little more work because it's a lot more extensive than software such as Start8 or classic menu.
But what about Classic Shell,Vi Start and Start Menu 7? They provide everything you need, to get, and customize your Windows XP and Windows 7 start menu. And change the start button. But they don't get taken down by Microsoft. Andrea Borman.
They use methods of bypassing Metro, but Metro is still there with them software solutions. This on the other hand stops Metro from working and gives you a real start menu. Yes, it does have it's own issues but some of them can probably be resolved and this is also a proof of concept as to what can be done. It's the Windows 7 explorer for Windows 8. It's not designed to be for Vista, XP or themeable and it's a little more than just a start menu.
Well to make this work you have to copy the shell files from Windows 7 and paste it in the patcher. Then if you want to re-enable the Metro theme you have to then copy the shell files from Windows 8. See here what OP wrote- As he says to uninstall patch "choose 8 to reset shell." But when I extracted the zip file I saw only a command prompt which said Explorer "exe not found," nothing else,no uninstaller. So from what the OP is saying it is that you must copy both the Windows 7 shell files to disable the Metro theme. And copy the Windows 8 shell files to get it back again. Then run them in the patcher. Most people including me could not do that without messing up Windows. If someone makes a software like this,he should provide the files to disable and re-enable the Metro theme. And it should work out of the box. Andrea Borman.
1. Create a folder in the root of c:\ e.g. c:\explorer7 2. Copy patchex7.exe, wrp32.dll and wrp64.dll to the explorer7 folder 3. Copy explorer.exe and \en-US\explorer.exe.mui from a Windows 7 install into the explorer7 folder 4. Run patchex7.exe To uninstall run patchex7.exe and select "8". That's all. If you find it too difficult then you should probably leave it well alone, but I doubt you'd manage to nuke your whole Windows 8 installation from trying.
When I ran the software on Windows 8 all I got was a command prompt. I did not see any setting or file that said 8. Andrea Borman.
You obviously did something wrong or had some anomaly. All of us got it to work just fine. I, too, will probably keep using Classic Shell but I think this is a great idea, and you definitely do not have to re-copy the Windows 8 Explorer files, just run the patch again and choose "8" instead of "7", log out and you're back to Metro and the original Windows 8 desktop. As others pointed out, he can't include the Explorer files, or it's safer not to otherwise Microsoft could send him a cease and desist. Remember BartPE when it was first released? Jeez, Andrea, if you don't like it then don't use it, and if you couldn't get it to work, consider that maybe you followed the instructions wrong. Why do you have to be against this so strong? Let people who want to play with it do so! Whenever new versions of his patcher are released, I plan on trying them, too.
You clearly arent reading the instructions properly. You must copy explorer.exe (from win 7, C:\Windows\ ) to the Patch directory. Then inside the Patch directory make a folder called: en-US, inside this put the explorer mui file (again from win 7, C:\Windows\en-US\) . If you want to get the files off the Windows 7 DVD, you must mount the install.wim and then use Explorer to find the files. File structure should look like this: C:\explorer7\explorer.exe C:\explorer7\en-US\explorer.exe.mui C:\explorer7\patchex7.exe C:\explorer7\wrp32.dll C:\explorer7\wrp64.dll NOT C:\explorer7\explorer.exe C:\explorer7\explorer.exe.mui C:\explorer7\patchex7.exe C:\explorer7\wrp32.dll C:\explorer7\wrp64.dll Then run the patch file (right click run as admin), if smart screen appears click More Info, then click Run Anyway. Now the CMD appears, read it. Press 7 to remove metro. Press 8 to re-enable it. If you cant get round this simple procedure, you should just stick with 1 click solutions like Vistart etc.
Sometimes I think they should ask people signing up a few basic questions. Seriously! Go and find a nice knitting forum.
Beta 2 released - attached to first post - New Alt-tab window works; - Start menu shutdown choices shows Log off, Switch user, Lock. When upgrading, you must first run patchex7 and select "8", then re-logon in order to be able to replace files. After replacing files, run patchex7 and select "7".