Make Win 7 look/act like 2k/XP?

[belial2k]

too bad windows doesn't have a huge built in help database that could answer many of these questions.......oh wait, it does

 

[croc]

Application data is a hidden folder, but you can unhide the hidden/system folders in XP. AFAIK, this can't be done in vista. I did eventually get there, but I don't remember how. (had to go through my documents foler if I remember correctly.)

Control panel > folder options > view > hidden files and folders > show hidden files and folders > OK button. AppData is now visible, but a bit dimmer than other folders to indicate that it is a 'hidden' folder.

 

[randomizer]

Organize -> Folder and search options -> View tab -> Show hidden files and folders -> Ok

EDIT: Whoa, this tab must have been open for a bit too long.

 

[4745454b]

Hmmm, I'll have to bookmark this for later.

 

[randomizer]

too bad windows doesn't have a huge built in help database that could answer many of these questions.......oh wait, it does

As the hologram of the old man said in iRobot: "I'm sorry, my responses are limited, you must ask the right questions."

 

[masop]

Application data is a hidden folder, but you can unhide the hidden/system folders in XP. AFAIK, this can't be done in vista. I did eventually get there, but I don't remember how. (had to go through my documents foler if I remember correctly.)

I don't know about vista but in 7, you simply uncheck the hidden options in the view layout and it reveals everything. Open a folder, go to organize, folder and search options, view, and then change hidden files and folders to "show hidden files, folders and drives". Then uncheck hide empty drives in the computer folder, uncheck hide extensions for all file types (many prefer this) and uncheck hide protected operating system files. Once you make these changes, press apply and ok. Now you should see "all files, folders and drives" as well as all file extensions. The last step is figuring out and memorizing the most common file and folder locations.

-- MaSoP

 

[Zoron]

With a Windows Explorer window open (such as Computer), you can press "Alt" and that will pop up the classic menus (File, Edit, etc) which will make things a bit easier to find if you're not use to the way Vista does things. Then it's just a matter of click on the ol' Tools menu and selecting Folder Options... just like you used to do in good ol' XP.

Just because things aren't quite in the same place they used to be, doesn't mean MS decided to not allow it anymore. Sometimes, you just have to do a little digging around to find what you're looking for.

 

[i_hate_flying]

Thank you for this thread, tucansam. I've been running XP for years and when Vista came out, I got really excited. It was almost like when MS released DOS 6. I remember I didn't have enough money, so I went out with a buddy from high school to buy it. He kept the diskettes, I kept the manual, and we shared the program. I've liked everything MS has released since then. I even used 98 without the SE and Millennium Edition and didn't complain. I didn't see anything to complain about!

When Vista came out, I just happened to be building a new system. My dad got a laptop then with Vista on it and I tried it out before buying a copy for myself. I was so disappointed. I couldn't find anything. The same dialogue box would pop up three times asking me the same question "are you sure you want to do this?" It moaned and groaned every time I wanted to use a driver or install a program. My dad hated it, too. So I saved his laptop with a clean wipe and fresh copy of XP. Since then, I've saved the laptops of many friends and family from the evils of Vista. Unfortunately, Vista is on every computer at work so I have to use it. I don't know why, our hospital didn't exactly have a good year but they replaced all the old pentium 4's running Windows 2000 with dual cores running Vista. If you want to talk in terms of efficiency and productivity, we have to pop around and use many different computers in the course of a day and we waste so much time waiting for Vista to log us in and bring up the programs we have to use. Half of that is waiting on Vista, the other is waiting on Citrix. I hate Citrix.

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for this thread because, despite my new suspiciousness of MS after Vista, I was looking forward to Windows 7. Now I know that I will be sticking with XP until some OS hackers come along and make Windows 7 more like XP.

 

[croc]

Thank you for this thread, tucansam. I've been running XP for years and when Vista came out, I got really excited. It was almost like when MS released DOS 6. I remember I didn't have enough money, so I went out with a buddy from high school to buy it. He kept the diskettes, I kept the manual, and we shared the program. I've liked everything MS has released since then. I even used 98 without the SE and Millennium Edition and didn't complain. I didn't see anything to complain about!

When Vista came out, I just happened to be building a new system. My dad got a laptop then with Vista on it and I tried it out before buying a copy for myself. I was so disappointed. I couldn't find anything. The same dialogue box would pop up three times asking me the same question "are you sure you want to do this?" It moaned and groaned every time I wanted to use a driver or install a program. My dad hated it, too. So I saved his laptop with a clean wipe and fresh copy of XP. Since then, I've saved the laptops of many friends and family from the evils of Vista. Unfortunately, Vista is on every computer at work so I have to use it. I don't know why, our hospital didn't exactly have a good year but they replaced all the old pentium 4's running Windows 2000 with dual cores running Vista. If you want to talk in terms of efficiency and productivity, we have to pop around and use many different computers in the course of a day and we waste so much time waiting for Vista to log us in and bring up the programs we have to use. Half of that is waiting on Vista, the other is waiting on Citrix. I hate Citrix.

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for this thread because, despite my new suspiciousness of MS after Vista, I was looking forward to Windows 7. Now I know that I will be sticking with XP until some OS hackers come along and make Windows 7 more like XP.

Whinge, whinge, whinge.... Try working in a REAL IT environment, with win2k, winXP, winVista, and some test stations running win7... then there are the multitude of Linux versions including OSX, and multiple servers running a mix of AIX, various sunOS, HPUX and the occasional decUX. Also a few Mac's still running on PPC... And you can't even figure out how to set your permissions properly? 'Here's your check, sonny boy, don't let the door slap you in the ass on the way out...'

 

[i_hate_flying]

Been there, done that. I worked as systems administrator for Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs before going to medical school. Now I can whine as much as I want about IT folks messing up my day and keeping me from treating patients.

 

[prelude2250]

Ever consider using windows XP mode in W7? or maybe that along with the times your desktop will change as well.

 

[sminlal]

Ever consider using windows XP mode in W7?

If you're just running windowed XP programs on the Win7 desktop, that doesn't do anything about the user interface gripes some folks have. If you open up the whole XP desktop and run inside that, then what's the point of using Windows 7 in the first place?

I'm really, really sympathetic to the plight of the long-time XP user, 'cause I are one ;-D

But times they are a' changing and there actually are some nice things about Windows 7 - so I've just decided to bite the bullet and get myself acclimatized. It's awfully annoying, but ultimately worth it.

 

[4745454b]

Agreed 100% sminlal. I didn't see to much to get excited with Vista. Not sure Win7 will be much better, but its not as "broken" as vista. (One grahic driver? Really?) We still won't have the 4 pillars, perhaps I should wait until WinFS actually happens.

 

[xaira]

7 to me is basically vista with some ui tweaks, might be more to others, but thats all it is to me

 

[Zoron]

Thank you for this thread, tucansam. I've been running XP for years and when Vista came out, I got really excited. It was almost like when MS released DOS 6. I remember I didn't have enough money, so I went out with a buddy from high school to buy it. He kept the diskettes, I kept the manual, and we shared the program. I've liked everything MS has released since then. I even used 98 without the SE and Millennium Edition and didn't complain. I didn't see anything to complain about!

When Vista came out, I just happened to be building a new system. My dad got a laptop then with Vista on it and I tried it out before buying a copy for myself. I was so disappointed. I couldn't find anything. The same dialogue box would pop up three times asking me the same question "are you sure you want to do this?" It moaned and groaned every time I wanted to use a driver or install a program. My dad hated it, too. So I saved his laptop with a clean wipe and fresh copy of XP. Since then, I've saved the laptops of many friends and family from the evils of Vista. Unfortunately, Vista is on every computer at work so I have to use it. I don't know why, our hospital didn't exactly have a good year but they replaced all the old pentium 4's running Windows 2000 with dual cores running Vista. If you want to talk in terms of efficiency and productivity, we have to pop around and use many different computers in the course of a day and we waste so much time waiting for Vista to log us in and bring up the programs we have to use. Half of that is waiting on Vista, the other is waiting on Citrix. I hate Citrix.

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for this thread because, despite my new suspiciousness of MS after Vista, I was looking forward to Windows 7. Now I know that I will be sticking with XP until some OS hackers come along and make Windows 7 more like XP.

You can tweak the UI so that it more closely resembles XP... you could even do that with Vista. It's amazing that people continue to try to make things harder than they really need to be. If UAC annoys you so much, disable it. With Windows 7 it will be more configurable... so disabling it should be unnecessary. People complain so much that Windows is so full of holes and so vulnerable to viruses/worms, etc... yet when MS does something to make Windows more secure, there are endless complaints about the extra security. Either you want a more secure OS or you don't... you can't have it both ways.

 

[tucansam]

Thanks to all have replied.

Its not about Windows being secure or not. I'll handle my own system and network security, thanks.

Its about the interface.

I've been running the W7 RC on a VM for a couple weeks now, tweaked it as best I could, found a whole bunch of ways to make it look like XP, and still can't find half the stuff I need. I've come to one conclusion: my Core i7 system will run CentOS with xfce. I'll use wine when I need to run a Windows app, but fortunetely 99% of what I use can be found on most platforms.

I know, I know. "Don't let the door hit you...."

 

[i_hate_flying]

You can tweak the UI so that it more closely resembles XP... you could even do that with Vista. It's amazing that people continue to try to make things harder than they really need to be. If UAC annoys you so much, disable it. With Windows 7 it will be more configurable... so disabling it should be unnecessary. People complain so much that Windows is so full of holes and so vulnerable to viruses/worms, etc... yet when MS does something to make Windows more secure, there are endless complaints about the extra security. Either you want a more secure OS or you don't... you can't have it both ways.

I've never once complained that XP wasn't secure. I think most of that comes from the Linux community who are forced to run Windows on a few machines. As long as you secure your machine/network appropriately, and don't go clicking on fishy links or opening strange emails, you don't even need all of those Windows updates. I don't install them and I've never had any problems.

As for UAC, it's not like I can disable it on computers I'm not an administrator of.

Anyway, good for you tucansam, sounds like a good plan. On my way to check out CentOS now...

 

[lejay]

Why not just use Win7 and have it autohide the taskbar, if you're so picky about wasted screen space. In my mind, using the bottom 15 or 20 pixels as a taskbar doesn't bug me, since it's perhaps 2% of the overall screen height (1200 pixels), but on a smaller screen, it could become more significant.

Woohoo, hidden brags!

 

[Zoron]

I've never once complained that XP wasn't secure. I think most of that comes from the Linux community who are forced to run Windows on a few machines. As long as you secure your machine/network appropriately, and don't go clicking on fishy links or opening strange emails, you don't even need all of those Windows updates. I don't install them and I've never had any problems.

As for UAC, it's not like I can disable it on computers I'm not an administrator of.

Anyway, good for you tucansam, sounds like a good plan. On my way to check out CentOS now...

You may not have personally complained about the perceived lack of security in Windows, but there are plently of people who have... hence we have UAC. Fortunately, you seem to be one of those people who knows that security begins and ends with one person... the end user. I love how Mac people tell me how much they don't worry about viruses or spyware... well guess what? Neither do I. If you have to go out and buy a Mac to feel more secure on the internet, then it's obvious you're too lazy and rely on others for PC security.

UAC is there for a reason... people get click-happy and tend to click "Yes" on anything that pops up without once pausing to read what the hell they've just agreed to. Of course, then end user then proceeds to blame MS for making such a crappy OS with so many security holes. MS attempts to cover their asses by trying to increase security using a method that Linux and Mac OS have used for years, and then the end users complain they have to keep clicking "Yes" to do whatever it is they want to do.

If you're not an administrator, make yourself one. If you can't, then find someone who is and ask them to turn it off. Frankly, once you get used to UAC, it really doesn't bother you much after a while.

 

[reconviperone1]

Well, I think windows 7 is like macintosh good,even better because i can run *** on it. I have used windows xp 64, and it does have incompatibilities, but honestly, a lot of that is blown up, it's actually a good operating system, so go that route. But, it would be bebeficial to go the windows 7 route too, some enhancments are pretty awesome, and it's easy to learn, I'm using xp and windows 7 right now, same thing only different.

 

[sminlal]

UAC is there for a reason... people get click-happy and tend to click "Yes" on anything that pops up without once pausing to read what the hell they've just agreed to.

Actually the real reason that UAC is there is because everyone uses an Administrative account. If you use an unprivileged account for your day-to-day work then UAC is completely superfluous. I've been doing that on XP for years...

 

[4745454b]

As long as you secure your machine/network appropriately, and don't go clicking on fishy links or opening strange emails, you don't even need all of those Windows updates. I don't install them and I've never had any problems.

If only that were true. The web page of kellybluebook got hacked one time, and just visiting the site would put something on your computer. Put something on your computer unless you had those patches you don't install.

 

[viometrix]

dude you want all this new flashy hardware, then why make your desktop look like ***? but you must be one of those that loves their cars to smoke out the back killing the environment...get with the times, i didnt like all of win 7's flash either, but i adapted and found it much more effecient to work with...otherwise go into properties and themes and select windows classic

 

[mindless728]

i recommend he get arch linux x64 and install what ever desktop manager he wants, enough said, he can have it his way.....well except for playing games well

 

[q4quality]

Okay, so is there not two things going on with MS change from XP to W7.
One is the internal works, larger memory support, 64b operation.
The other is the fluff, the changes in the GUI.
It should be easy enough to make the internals better without having to change the GUI. Isn't the fact that MS thinks we all want more fluff on our PC's OS a sign of our increasingly superficial society. MS could still sell new OS that look like the old ones, but had better internal workings. Sure they may think the new GUI will be more efficient, but there is really no reason they could not give users the option to choose any of the old GUIs, or the new GUI, as the one they would interface with. Now that would be a real advancement towards progress... if MS made new OSes that were technically better internally but still allowed the user any of the old OS GUIs or a new OS GIU. That would make me a fan of MS again, and make me feel like they actually do care about the end user.
Heck, doesn't Lynx do that already (sorry about any spelling mistkaes, I;m in a rush right now)