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.Once my Windows 7 gets bricked, I was considering getting a Chromebook, however
I read some where online that you can make Windows 10 look like Windows 7 by downloading a “classic shell”? If so where can one get this safe download?
Having said that, I think I read that you can no longer do this, is that correct?
You can download Open Shell (formerly Classic Shell) from MajorGeeks.
I have been using it on Win8.1 and Win10 for years.
I use StartIsBack++. It isn’t free, but it’s only $3.99 for a permanent license and free upgrades. It is the Windows 7 Start Menu, with optional XP style flyout menu. I’ve been using it since Windows 8.
Wouldn’t be without Openshell GUI on W8.1 (or W10 when testing/ trying it) I only use the Start Menu, nothing else, and it only consumes 2mb of memory resources when running on W8.1
If you do not like the “ribbon” in (W8.1 or) W10 explorer windows there is a program called “Old New Explorer (ONE)” which restores the traditional Menu Bar with drop-down menus. This is portable so put it somewhere convenient. Start it and click the “Install” button (to “install” it?) and then select the options as you prefer. The “use command bar …” box is the Menu Bar option. Close all explorer window instances and your new settings should be there when you next open an explorer window.
I have used this several times without problems for both W8.1 and W10, but on one occasion the Menu Bar did not appear. I needed to go to the ‘Organise’ then ‘Layout’ option in explorer itself (not in ONE) and found the Menu Bar option there was unticked so I ticked it. I don’t know why this one occasion was different to the rest.
HTH. Garbo.
PS: I also use OpenShell as recommended by others above to restore the “classic style” start menu. I even use this in W7 in preference to the in-built W7 menu, although OpenShell does provide a W7-style menu if you are used to this.
I should have added a link to a useful guide how to use Old New Explorer at https://www.howtogeek.com/260434/how-to-make-windows-10s-file-explorer-look-like-windows-7s-windows-explorer/
HTH. Garbo.
All your posts have been so helpful.
Thank you so much!
When my hard drive bit the dust a couple of years ago, I actually bought a Windows 10 laptop. I hated the set up. It was so confusing for me.
I returned the laptop after 1 week and bought a new 2 TB hard drive for my Dell desktop and reloaded Windows 7.
Now that I know I can make 10 look like 7, it may be an option for me.
I’m 70 years old, so learning something new would not be fun for me!
I’m 70 years old, so learning something new would not be fun for me!
I like to learn new things every day, but some things are just easier with familiarity. Having W8/10 look like W7 is one of those things.
cheers, Paul
I made Windows 8.1 on my desktop and old laptop look like Windows 7, including porting over my custom Classic theme for “aero” (meaning it uses the DWM compositor) that I’d adapted from another theme for 7. I’d made 7 look like XP before that, and the XP I’d made it look like was set to look like Win2k/ME, which looked a lot like Windows 95.
MS put a lot of time and effort into perfecting the Windows 95 UI, and even though today people remember Windows 95 as being a buggy, crashy mess, it was really a remarkable step up from 3.1 in a lot of ways, and the UI excellence was chief among them.
All of the user research that MS did with total beginners, semi-experienced users, experenced users, and expert users is still valid now. People have gotten more accustomed to technology and GUIs, but they haven’t changed the way human beings process information. The lessons MS applied in 1995 aren’t any less valid now, yet MS seems determined to get as far away from their most glorious creation for reasons of what, fashion? Mobiles and minimalist UIs are trendy now, so forget usability and look what some designer thinks is cool?
It’s no coincidence that all of the Linux desktop environments I’ve tried all mimic the Windows 95 pattern to varying degrees by default, except GNOME. Mate, Cinnamon, Xfce, KDE Plasma, LXDE, in the distros I’ve tried, have come configured with taskbar on the bottom, tray and clock on the right, start menu (though it’s not called that in Linux) on the left, with start menus that don’t have any tiles. I ditched KDE’s default “Application launcher” menu in favor of the similarly-named “Application menu,” which is a pretty good approximation of the Classic style from Classic Shell (which itself was the Classic 95 style start menu, with the addition of a focused-by-default search field). I know it’s not called Classic Shell anymore, but I’ve not seen the open version.
When you get it right, you don’t have to keep changing things. MS did, unfortunately.
Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)
Your analysis about UIs is so correct. The Windows-10 UI mess is due to enabled millennials being allowed to run amok without the wisdom of those over the age of 35. So, as one can see, they pandered to the gaming and mobile users at the expense of all other users. Due to their young age, they never learned the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” adage. Or, if they heard of it, they chose to ignore it. (They have to justify their jobs at MS.)
Most regrettable is the amount of work that users need to do to get a usable and workable UI out of Windows-10 oriented to keyboards and desktops/laptops.
I use Start10 and Windowblinds from Stardock. I also use them on my Windows 8 Pro computer where I first started using them and where they were a necessity. (Microsoft admitted finally that black font on Windows 8.0 was NOT black but dark gray and very difficult to read so I chose Verdana Bold as my font for Windows 8 both for Explorer and all my browsers and I could do that because of Windowblinds. That was a lifesaver for my eyes). These two programs are not free but inexpensive (Start8/10 is $5 and Windowblinds is $10). They are worth every penny. I now have transparency (in the degree I want) of windows, Explorer font of MY choice instead of the awful, hard to read Microsoft default one that you cannot change (like you could in XP, Vista and Windows 7) and many other things. Plus, Windowblinds allows me to (besides choosing from many presets for how I want Windows to look) to create my own look. That gets complicated but I did it on Windows 8 and it was wonderful.
Here’s what Open Shell (previously Classic Shell) looks like in Win10
This is in 1903. Right click the Open Shell (I’m running v4.4.140, but MajorGeeks.com has v4.4.142 available) choose Settings. At the top, choose “Show all settings.” In Explorer, be sure you have “Classic Explorer Bar” selected.
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