Win 7 makeing like xp help

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alidan

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Aug 5, 2009
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due to recent hdd hichup, im considering an ssd and windows 7.

i have to deal with 2 win 7 machines in my home all the time, but as they arent mine, and i just deal with the crap others cant figure out, i can not customize them.

what i want to know is if there is a detailed explanation to make win 7 look and feel as close to windows xp as possible.

 
you could try turning off all graphical bells and whistles or turn off 'themes' service. that will change windoews' looks back to windows 2000 style.
tom's windows 7 forums or sevenforums might have some informations on how to change windows 7's looks to windows xp's.
imo 7's looks and aesthetics are better than xp's except the customizable explorer bar.
 

Hi alidan,

I was like u, I didn't like W7 at all. RC was gone with in a week, I never bother with Vista.
Than I tried few more times and never kept it more than 2 weeks.

I didn't like the absence of the folder sizes and the look of the task bar and hated with passion the explorer. Than I found a solution to that and voilà , no problem solved.

MS did some updates and modified some features that bugged me, but its OK now, love it, and I have used all kind of linux distributions, Mac OS 9, X and W7 looks just fine. But at first, I was saying to myself, over my dead body! : ) And as Herr_Koos is saying, XP is outdated...

Read this http://www.coolpctips.com/2011/09/microsoft-warns-people-to-switch-from-windows-xp-else-no-futrure-updates/
20111127115516.png
 
look is something that i can deal with, the way it looks, i could get use to.

but just off the top of my head, things in the laptop that annoyed me are

startmenu i have to press all programs just to get to what i want all the time - i would prefer a classic style start where i hover over programs

the whole start bar (cant remember what its called) i have 4 icons there
ie
win media player
show desktop
ff8

and media player is only there because im use to it, and it feels empty when its gone.

when i press any of them, it opens up to the right, not on top of the same icon, makeing it annoying to open another instance or window.

when i have something like 9 explorer windows open, i can right click it and tile it and go threw them, not a little thumbnail of the folder.

explorer bar doesnt default to c:\xxxxxx\xxxxx\xxxx its some crap that doesnt

than there is game compatibility, such as the witcher, i cant get that to run on littl brothers computer without it crashing, but it plays almost flawless on mine.

folder size is something i use constantly, to the point that is a major thing i consider sticking to xp for.

and than there is the retarded way that everything is organised in control panel that changed for no reason but to change.

don't get me wrong, 64 bit would help out immensely, i have 3gb of ram, and i could easily right now be using 7gb at least, if the programs don't crash first. and an ssd, well, that would just take a fairly large bottle neck off of my system.

anyone have an in depth guide to making 7 function more like xp, i would take the laptop and try it out, i i can make it tollarable, than id probably consider it for a main os.
 

:) these are almost exactly the same problems i ran into when i first used windows 7. unfortunately most of these are part of 7's aesthetics and cannot be changed easily.
you can try getting quick launch folder back to windows start menu - you can use that the same way you did with xp - you can find it in here: c:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
if you have a middle button in your mouse, you can click it on the explorer thumbnails to close them instantly instead of right clicking on them and then clicking 'close'. however you can still right click on the thumbnails to see the old right click menu and choose 'close'.
to see path names in the taskbar icons you have to check 'display the full path in the title bar (classic themes only)' from folder options > view tab. and disable taskbar grouping from start menu properties - right click on taskbar > select 'properties' > select 'never combine' from the taskbar buttons drop down list.
to see folder size in tooltips, check 'display file size information in folder tips' from folder options > view tab.
for viewing folder size right in the explorer window, try this: folder size 64 bit
hope this helps a little.
 


Once you discover instant search, you'll never use the start menu again. Press Start and begin typing in the search box, and voila! Instant access to programs, files, even text within files.
As for the taskbar, you can pin any shortcut to it, including Windows explorer. Once pinned, the application will launch on top of the same icon. If you want to open another instance, simply Shift+Click on the icon again.
As for Control Panel, you can change the way it sorts by selecting the View by Icons instead of View by categories option.

There are 1001 little tricks you can use to make 7 work the way you want to. Just start using it. You won't regret it.
 
and when that instant bar doesnt work?
little brothers computer, minecraft, typed what i needed to, and it failed... not to mention that to even make these messages readable i have to spend more time spell checking this crap than writing it. i would much rather xp style start menu, and i cant really screw up a click now can i?

can i get it so it doesnt launch on top of itself? id rather have icons and text about the window like xp, very usefull for me, im on the laptop now, and have to say, i hate that whole start bar more and more the more i look at it.

control panel, yea i did that but everything is still different than everything prior to 7 (possibly vista too but i never used it) i can get use to that, its just an annoyance

and im hopeing to find just the ones i need to make it more xp like, and heres hopeing i can find them.

however me getting 7 hinges on the ssd, i stated a new thread in the ssd area if anyone knows allot about them and whants to help there.

keep in mind i have used windows 7 sense it launched at least 5 hours a week due to it being on laptop and little brothers computer, as they have no idea how to do anything on them, if i could get use to most of the annoying things i mention, i would have already.

and sorry if i come off as an ass in this post, as i think i am sounding like one
 
Check that your have indexing turned on for the drive, otherwise instant search won't work.
To change the default task bar behaviour, got to Control Panel - Task bar and Start menu properties, and change from "Combine, hide labels" to "Never combine". This will keep each program instance in a separate window, and will show the program label like XP did. You can also use the small icons options if you want more space.
 
im on laptop so im not going to do indexing here...

the start menu options, is there a way to seperate the icons from the processes. and only have it combine the processes?

right now i have 10 explorer, nero, 2 chrome, acdsee 8, 7 firefox, acdsee "4", and task manager open.

it combines the 7 firefox processes and 10 explorer windows, but doesnt combine it with the quick launch?
 

quick launch is a seperate folder, it operates like old toolbars - doesn't combine with the pinned programs like explorer or firefox.
if you want to 'un-combine', right click on an empty area on the taskbar > choose properties > on the taskbar tab, select 'never combine' besides the 'taskbar' label.
if you want more screen area, you can also check 'use small buttons' and 'auto hide'.
 


I don't follow. Can you post a picture?
 
o yea that folder size doesn't work it appears. is there a way for that in win 7, its one of the most used functions i have on xp and would be hard to live without.
 
Can't see clearly what's going on in your picture, but anyway.

In any Explorer view in Windows 7, you can change the view in the top right corner.

This will change the folder view depending on what you've selected. Some views are horizontal, others vertical. You can also customize the headings.
 
have to right click the image and open in new tab.

see how there are 9 windows open, with one press it opened them all like that, if there are less it will open them wider or taller, depending on what you pick, and cascade just opens them all in order. if i could i would make a video of it, but i cant, well maybe i could... but it would take a while for it to upload, and the sound would be squeeky because i close something the webcam needed.

 
ok i made a shoirt video, and till the half way point, the audio is completely screwed up, i post a link to it when its done uploading and i have a youtube link for it.

in the mean time, is there a way to turn off the if i drag files to the edge they expand in win 7, as i constantly drag files to be as big as i want, that feature is going to get annoying fast
 
You mean Areo snap? I find it to be one of the most useful features in Win7. Horses for courses i guess.

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Ease of Access Center\Make the mouse easier to use. Then select "Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen".

You can probably answer all these questions yourself by doing a bit of googling.
 
iv tried, but i have no idea what to google, and even if i do google it right, i would have never though areo snap was what that feature was called.

any idea on how to make ctrl alt delete default to task manager without bringing up that blue window?
 
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