Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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The most frequent objections to switching from Windows 7 (or 8.x) to Windows 10 revolve around three general areas of concern:

1. Privacy concerns regarding the amount of information (telemetry) that Windows 10 sends from the user’s PC to Microsoft;
2. The limitation of user choice with respect to when and whether to install Windows patches; and
3. The replacement of three-dimensional and Aero Glass user interface elements with a flat and opaque UI.

These three factors help to explain the reluctance among countless users of previous versions of Windows to move to Windows 10. If you are among them, supposing that these factors could be reversed or at least mitigated–would you feel less uncomfortable making the switch? Here’s a guide to help you “Sevenize” Windows 10 as much as I know to be possible.

All the software and tweaks I mention have been performed on Windows 10 Professional, Windows Insiders edition.

Please note that this thread is not intended for the discussion of the merits or drawbacks of Windows 10: there are many, many other places for that here at Woody’s. This thread is intended solely to ease the transition to Windows 10 for those who have been reluctant to do so for any of the reasons listed above, as well as for those who have already switched (willingly or otherwise) to Windows 10 but are unhappy with it for those reasons.

Taming the Telemetry:

Many applications have been published to enable you to put a stop to the snooping. I have used two of them, but you’re welcome to add your favorite one(s).

The first privacy program I used was O&O ShutUp10. It’s a sophisticated piece of software that gives you control of individual “phone home” aspects of Windows 10. However, ultimately I found the Windows Privacy Dashboard to be easier to manage, and that’s what I’m using now. Here’s a screenshot of WPD:

The more items you disable there, the closer you get to replicating the Windows 7 experience with respect to user privacy. Note, though, that this assertion remains conjectural barring a formal Win7/Win10 comparison of network packets going back and forth between your PC and Microsoft servers. Anybody out there (who is fair-minded; no self-fulfilling prophets, please) with the expertise and the time to undertake such a project?

Forced Windows Updates:

As with Windows 10 telemetry, applications abound to stop the flow of Windows 10 updates onto your computer. Most of them, though, function as a simple on/off switch to prevent or allow updates en bloc. I am aware of two programs that enable you to pick and choose the updates you want to install, making your Windows 10 updating experience very much like the Windows 7 experience: the Windows Update MiniTool and the Windows Update Manager. To illustrate how much the patching experience resembles that of Windows 7, see the screenshot below:

As you see, you can select as many or as few of the updates on offer as you care to install. (Sadly, though, you’re still stuck with cumulative updates as opposed to individual patches.)

Windows Update Manager seems to be a bit easier to use than the WUMT, and it’s the one that I use. It will allow Windows Defender definitions through even if you have blocked other updates. The blocking includes the “feature updates” that come out twice a year with new versions of Windows 10. However, I don’t know what happens if you leave the blocking turned on for long enough. Having the items checked off in the Options tab on the left works well for my purposes; under the Auto Update tab, I have every choice either unchecked or grayed out.

User Interface:

The changes made here will have the most immediate, visible impact on your Windows 10 experience.

First, install OldNewExplorer to restore the Windows Explorer look from Windows 7. You can find a description of the program here, and ongoing discussion (troubleshooting, updates, etc.) here.

Next, you can replace the Windows 10 Start menu with the Windows 7 Start menu by installing the free Open Shell Menu. There is also a modestly priced ($4.99) commercial Start menu replacement, Stardock’s Start8. Once more, there are numerous choices for Start menu replacements, but I use Open Shell Menu. (Actually, I’ve recently gone back to its predecessor, Classic Shell, for reasons I’ll explain later.)

These changes still leave you with the flat window control buttons, flat taskbar, and opaque window titlebar of Windows 10. To regain the 3D look and Aero Glass transparency, you can proceed as follows:

Aero Glass: You can install Aero Glass for Windows 8+. The program is not easy as 1-2-3 to install; instructions are found here. However,these instructions are not a model of clarity, at least for the uninitiated, so you may be better off starting with this set of installation instructions.

An easier alternative is to spring for the commercial WindowBlinds ($9.99), which offers you a variety of Windows themes, including the Diamond set that closely resembles the Windows Vista and Windows 7 look. I would (and did) spring the $29.99 for the package including Object Desktop, which offers expanded possibilities for customization. You can have a field day playing with the settings.

Here is a screenshot illustrating what you can do with the software described above. I have gone a couple of steps further and installed the Start button and 3D taskbar from Vista, my all-time favorite version of Windows:

(Note: If you use the Open Shell Menu, you may find that it affects the look of the Windows taskbar that you’d customized in WindowBlinds/Obect Desktop. In that case, you might prefer to use the original Classic Shell, from which Open Shell Menu is derived.)

Miscellaneous Customizations:

To bring your Windows 10 environment even closer to that of Windows 7, you may wish to uninstall the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps that come preinstalled in Windows 10. You know, Candy Crush and the like. For this purpose, you can uninstall them one by one, or you can use either the Windows Privacy Dashboard described above or the standalone 10AppsManager to uninstall a bunch (or all) of them with fewer clicks. If you know of other applications or methods to uninstall UWP apps, please post them here!

Finally, when you want to search for something that resides on your PC, by default Windows 10 will–unlike Windows 7–send your search terms to Microsoft Bing. If you dislike the idea of sharing this information with MS servers, you can disable Bing in Search by following these instructions, although Da Boss here cautions that disabling Bing Search may not always work. If you use the Start menus by Open Shell or Classic Shell instead of the Windows 10 Start menu, you can go into their settings to make your searches exclusively local.

* * * * *

A caveat to the foregoing: it is unknown whether and for how long these customizations will continue to work in Windows 10. Whether by design or by accident, Microsoft may at any time render them ineffective, either with a regular monthly update or when a new version of Windows 10 is released. Use at your own risk. So far, they have held for me through more than one introduction of a new Win10 version.

You may find that you don’t want or need to implement all of the tweaks and fixes listed here, and some of them may be more work than is worth your while. That’s OK: the idea is to make Windows 10 more palatable by bringing it as close to the Windows 7 experience as you care to. Have fun doing it, and enjoy your Sevenized 10!

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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Fred, wdburt1, Loonier, klang, WStoyclyde, Cijan, dearnold, bharney, RetiredGeek, claire-m, Elly, Tom-R, wavy, Lars220, byteme, Kathy Stevens, Alex5723, Charlie

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This is great information if a time ever comes when I feel the need or am otherwise inclined to use Win 10.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Cybertooth

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Thanks for the post on how to make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7.

In addition to your suggestions, by accident I mirrored my Windows 7 desktop appearance to my new Windows 10 PC when I used Laplink’s PCmover Professional to move my apps and files from the old to new machine.

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Cybertooth

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I imagine this means that PCmover transfers the desktop icons and maybe the wallpaper? I’d be surprised (but very impressed! ) if it also transferred the Aero Glass transparency for the taskbar and window borders.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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Do to performance concerns, I did not use Aero Glass transparency for the taskbar and window borders on my Windows 7 machines.

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Cybertooth

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Cybertooth wrote:

Anybody out there (who is fair-minded; no self-fulfilling prophets, please) with the expertise and the time to undertake such a project?

I think this is impossible. The data is encrypted and my own tests have shown that the two-way data traffic of even clean Windows 10 installs (with no third-party apps added except for 2 network monitors – Glasswire and Nir Sofer’s CurrPorts) is not limited to Microsoft-owned IP address blocks.

In fact, Glasswire and CurrPorts logs show that here in the UK there appears to be more traffic with MS’ partners, e.g. Content Delivery Networks like Akamai in Ireland and the Netherlands that handle MS’ network traffic (particularly Windows Defender and Store data) on its behalf than with Microsoft-owned IP addresses.

One problem is that with load-balancing (and, I suspect, deliberate obfuscation to stop people blocking ‘known’ IP addresses) the destination IP addresses are not static so you have to pay particular attention to the originating processes rather than to the eventual endpoints… which often change.

Another issue is that blocking IP address endpoints often seems to generate even more network traffic, based no doubt on ‘reporting back’.

Hope this helps… .

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Elly, woody, Cybertooth

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Good points, thanks!

Maybe a more feasible experiment would be to take two plain-vanilla installations (one Windows 7 and the other Windows 10) and then compare the relative amounts of inbound and outbound traffic, whatever the source or destination. The difference would then be attributable to the inherent differences between 7 and 10. Would that yield a meaningful result, do you think?

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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Elly

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Cybertooth wrote:

Would that yield a meaningful result, do you think?

Not really. I could almost guarantee that the volume of 2-way data transfer of Win 10 is going to be greater than Win 7 if only because of the increase in the number of Win 10 services, many of them quite ‘chatty’. A quick count of my last remaining Win 7 Pro box (not a VM) shows 171 services. By comparison, a clean install of Win 10 Pro 1909 shows 251 services. That’s a *big* increase.

(I never checked Windows 8.x but successive iterations of Win 10 shows the following:

1511: 196 services
1607: 212 services
1703: 223 services
1709: 234 services
1803: 239 services
1809: 257 services
1903: 246 services
1909: 251 services)

Besides, your first point was about ‘privacy concerns and telemetry’ re: Win 10. I don’t think MS has much interest any more in people tinkering with Win 7 but people here on AskWoody do ask about the pros/cons of using a Microsoft account (MSA) versus a Local account.

Personally I’m not much interested in testing a comparison of two-way network traffic between the two, i.e. 2 clean installs with one using an MSA and the other a Local account. I can’t imagine ever using an MSA so there’s no relevance (to me).

The general consensus of opinion here and on many other forums is that these days there is little or no point tweaking Win 10… too much effort for too little reward. But is that actually true?

(No, it’s not… IMO. For example, I enjoy tinkering and use VMs to test apps, scripts and REG files. I disable a lot of services and several scheduled tasks to increase the performance  of the VMs, all of which run with a meagre 4GB of RAM. It’s even more noticeable on poorly-specced netbooks, many of which have rubbish processors and max out at 2GB RAM… IME they need every bit of help they can get.)

Personally I think a more interesting test would be a side-by-side comparison of two clean installs – one a default ‘out of the box’ with all services, scheduled tasks and apps left as they are, the other install utilising ‘tweaks’. (I would find this interesting as I do not use a single one of Win 10’s default apps, with the sole exception of Notepad. To me, the rest are all bloatware.)

I’m just wondering about what comparison metrics would be useful or even just interesting. One metric would obviously be the number of outbound connections whilst each device was just sat connected to the internet but not actually being used (and whether it was possible to stop all or most outbound connections).

I haven’t done any real testing since 1709 was released. Using Glasswire at the time I found that there was an enormous amount of two-way traffic in the first 2 hours (with several GBs of data downloaded) following a clean install… then high volumes of traffic for a couple of days before Win 10 settled down to a regular connection ‘heartbeat’… (it looks like for Defender updates). Here’s a 3-day period I monitored back in January 2018 (Win 10 Pro 1709 at the time):

Bear in mind that this was 1709… so the behaviour of 1903 and 1909 could be completely different. What if it’s not? What if it’s much worse in terms of frequency?

Another metric might be the volume of 2-way network traffic in the same circumstances… but who knows? And over what period of time? It would be pointless to monitor for just a few days or even a week. I think the minimum period would have to be a month, preferably two and three would be better still in order to help ‘averaging’ and spot spikes.

Setting up and running comparison scenarios is a *huge* amount of work. The methodology needs to be incredibly well-planned in advance if there’s any hope for the end results to be relevant and of value.

(It’s no good having a lightbulb moment – “I should have thought of that” – a fortnight into a month-long comparison test. Been there, done that… more than once unfortunately, in my previous job where I was involved in the support of Win 7 used on ~6,500 devices over ~52 sites.)

Recording and analysis of results is very time-consuming if they are to make any sense at all and actually have a value, both during and after the comparison.

Also, people have different interests and what I might find interesting could bore others… in which case there’s very little reason to carry out a comparison if no-one sees the relevance.

It’s clear that there needs to be a goal that is understood and agreed by all involved… at the end of the day, what exactly is a comparison hoping to achieve.

Hope this helps… sorry it’s so long but it’s a complex area.

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Loonier, Cijan, Elly, Cybertooth

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In the original post above, Windows 10 users wishing to regain the Aero Glass look from Windows Vista and 7 were steered toward Stardock’s WindowBlinds as an easier alternative to Aero Glass for Win8+, which required greater technical understanding of the inner workings of Windows.

I recently “inherited” a Windows 10 system from a family member who was sick and tired of dealing with the frustrations of Windows 10 (to the point where they weren’t even interested in customizing it for a more 7-like experience as discussed in this thread). I took it as an opportunity to revisit the idea of using Aero Glass for Win8+. I figured if I could get it working, I could add it to my recommendations, so I gave it a more determined try this time around.

Iit wasn’t nearly as difficult an experience as the last time I tried it some years ago. Either I have learned more about Windows customization and am better prepared to deal with the complexities, or the process has been made simpler. I suspect some of each is involved here, but the lion’s share of the difference must be due to the welcome fact that there is a GUI method for adjusting the program parameters, named (not surprisingly) AeroGlassGUI.exe (download here, link near bottom of page).

With this GUI, you don’t need to dive into the bowels of Windows as proposed in the Aero Glass for 8+ guide. Indeed, I found that none of the arcane requirements mentioned there (relating to aerohost.exe or the DWM API or various registry edits) turned out to be necessary to achieve a good-looking desktop.

Instructions for running Aero Glass for Win8+

Before you begin, understand that there are two ways to change the Windows 10 theme. One way is via the Personalization option in the new Settings app. You are not limited to the themes that come preinstalled with Windows 10, and one of the best places to download vetted alternative themes is at DeviantArt. In order to install third-party themes, though, you will need to download and apply the UltraUXThemePatcher. Even so, as far as I can tell you still won’t be able to get Aero Glass to work properly. For this, you will need AeroGlass for Win8+, which is the second way of changing the Windows 10 theme.

You can download AeroGlass for Win8+ from the same page as AeroGlassGUI.exe. Place the Aero Glass folder someplace other than in a Program Files folder (for example, in Downloads or at the root of the C: drive which is where I have mine). Put AeroGlassGUI.exe in the same folder, and launch it to start getting acquainted with the interface.

Once you have AeroGlass for Win8+ (AGfW8) up and running, you will want to explore alternative themes. The one that comes with AGfW8 is a theme based on the Windows 8.0 Release Preview, the last version of Windows to come with its own Aero Glass look. This is better than any Windows 10 theme IMO, but we are looking to make Win10 look like Windows 7, not 8.

There are numerous Windows 7 themes on DeviantArt and other customization sites. You can have fun exploring. The one I settled on is named Windows7 ThemeAtlas Fixed. The ZIP file contains a .png file and a .png.layout file. (In case you’re interested, the .png.layout file is known as a “theme atlas”, which contains the UI elements we know and love such as the window control buttons.) Extract both of these files and copy them to the AeroGlass for Win8+ folder, then open AeroGlassGUI.exe to navigate to and then select “win7rp fix” as the “Theme atlas image” under the Theme & Appearance tab.

You will need to experiment with the sliders in the program to approximate the Windows 7 look. Below are screenshots of the settings that I’ve settled on:

Please note: I have no formal training in computer architecture or programming, so I can’t explain to you how various features and settings interact with each other or why. My knowledge of these things is strictly empirical. However, you may find that you’ll get the best results (particularly for the transparent taskbar) if you first install Open-Shell, the successor to the popular Classic Shell replacement for the Windows 10 Start menu. Experiment enough, and you may end up with a desktop that looks something like this:

As a safety measure, before you begin make sure to create a system image and/or to set a restore point!

One final observation: each new Windows 10 version (“feature update”) has a propensity to break customizations. This goes for both WindowBlinds and AGfW8, forcing their respective developers to repeatedly modify their programs in order to keep up with the changes Microsoft makes to Windows 10. However, while the pursuit of beauty takes ongoing effort, in my view it is fully worth it to be able to work in an esthetically pleasing setting.

Let me know how you make out with Aero Glass for Win8+ and the theme installation process, and of course tell me if I need to correct any mistakes above.

Good luck, and enjoy!

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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Loonier, Elly

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While looking for something else, I just rediscovered this excellent rundown for using the Windows Update Manager by @bobbyb.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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Elly

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For those who would like to give Windows 10 the Windows 7 look but first want to get an idea of how it’s done before trying it themselves, here’s a pair of YouTube videos. Be ready to hit the Pause button often so you can focus on the mouse clicks:

https://youtu.be/XkEP3xdYctE

https://youtu.be/eQNE2qB-pa4

The first video is narrated in English. The second video has no narration, but shows some alternative approaches to achieving the Win7 look.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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Loonier, Elly

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For anybody who might be reading this,    here’s a little quiz:

Does the following desktop look familiar?

If you don’t know, there is a way to cheat if you know what to look for…

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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Microfix

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Would that be the Windows 7 explorer interface buttons?
I’m sure people want to know how to achieve that look.
Looks good @Cybertooth

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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Cybertooth

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[Cybertooth]

Thanks, @microfix.

It’s a work in progress. It may be impossible to achieve the total look of what’s intended, but let me say that the goal here is actually for something that’s older than Windows 7. The window control buttons, the colored information panel at the bottom, and the star button are hints. 

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by Cybertooth.

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The gradient of the status bars from of user interface of Windows 95/98 combine well with Aero Glass.

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Cybertooth

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I wasn’t going to bother to customize the look of W10… but reading here, and watching the videos, I got motivated!

Windows 7 start menu is sooo much better when it comes to being useful for navigation. I’ve tried, really tried, to get used to W10, the way Microsoft wants me to use it… but I hate that I can’t remove things I will never, ever use, like People and XBox game bar… that I have to navigate around/over them all the time.

Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter

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wdburt1, Microfix, Cybertooth

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It wasn’t as hard to make these changes as I had feared. The most important element is the patience to get to understand the process before jumping in, as it involves a number of moving parts. The second most important element is to make image backups and to create frequent restore points in case we mess things up. (I never did have to resort to an image backup, but I did have to go back to a previous restore point once or twice in order to “try again”.)

If you decide to take the plunge, I’ll be around to help if I can.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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Elly

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People and XBox game bar

I run w10 and i have no clue what these are…

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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The People taskbar widget is for pinning contacts to the taskbar, and Xbox Game Bar is an application for capturing video of the screen or capturing a screenshot.

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Try 10AppsManager to remove some Windows 10 Store bloatware:

https://www.thewindowsclub.com/10appsmanager-windows-10/

On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1265 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1992 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox116.0b3 MicrosoftDefender

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Loonier, Elly, Cybertooth

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Ref. post #2276032: The Windows Explorer look that’s cryptically hinted at there, is one of the many GUI designs that ever so briefly saw the light of day among the numerous builds of Windows Longhorn, the precursor of Vista.

Yes, yes, it’s not exactly a Windows 7 look as promised in this thread,    but I wanted to bring attention to what I consider to be the most beautiful variety of the most beautiful version of Windows.

Just clicking through the builds on the Longhornization website (start with Milestone 3, then after Milestone 7 proceed to the pre-Beta builds and finally Beta stages 1 and 2) was a nice brisk walk through a wood of foregone possibilities.

This archive also made for an enjoyable, more extended tour.

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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Elly

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The options for a proper Vista/Win7 look are increasing with the use of Stardock’s WindowBlinds. The artist NewInfinitePro has put together some beautiful theme packs for use with WindowBlinds, such as AeroVistaX Reset.

The glass transparency doesn’t yet seem to be quite up to the clarity we had in Vista and 7, but in terms of the aesthetics this is head and shoulders above anything offered natively on Windows 10. Compared to AeroGlass, the price ($9.99) is IMHO well worth the amount of effort saved, as it’s much more simple and straightforward to use.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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The AeroGlass project has been dormant for a year and is apparently abandoned, as it has not worked on recent versions of Windows 10 and no updates to make it work have been released.

This shattered hopes for those of us who prefer the Aero Glass look. However, WindowBlinds has a feature in the program settings to “force non-acrylic blur on later Windows 10 versions.” This has made possible something like the following…

…which gets us much closer to Aero Glass than anything we’d seen outside of the moribund AeroGlass project.

(N.B. I learned of this option from a  discussion on this page.)

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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In keeping with the title of this thread,
Win7games seems to provide even more nostalgic Win7 looks on W10.

Classic Games
Classic Calculator
Classic Sticky Notes
Classic Start Manager
Classic MSConfig
Classic Paint

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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Loonier, Cybertooth

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[Cybertooth]

Nice find! These will definitely enhance the Windows 7 look-and-feel for Windows 10.

I especially liked it that they brought back the Aurora screensaver, which is one of my favorites from the days of Vista.

Wonder if screensavers from older Windows versions can be easily ported over to Win10; I always liked the “starry night” screensaver from Windows 98.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by Cybertooth.

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Microfix

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not only that, MSConfig which was dropped in Win8/10 makes an ‘unofficial’ comeback for quick diagnosis/settings

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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Cybertooth

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MSConfig was never removed from Windows 8 or 10:

MSConfig the System Configuration Tool.

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Cybertooth

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That is correct.

What’s actually changed with respect to MSConfig from Win7 to Win8/10 is that the handling of startup items was taken away from MSConfig and moved over to Task Manager.

Because Startup is the tab in MSConfig that I use the most often, in my case at least what @Microfix said registered in my mind as equivalent in practice to removing MSConfig. 

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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b

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I always found autoruns to be the easiest way to handle startup items – you can ” suspend ” or just delete it – I think it was originally written by Mark Russinovich and then he got poached by Microsoft and they bought it …
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns

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Cybertooth

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yup was having a dig at the website comment

If you prefer to use the good old msconfig.exe tool for that, you must be aware that this feature is no longer included in Windows 10 and Windows 8

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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Except for the dark blue desktop colour, I’m very close to have my Windows 10 look and feel like Windows 95, the looks of which are still my favourite. (I had 98, XP, Vista and 7 all look like 95.)
(The rise of colour television caused billiards, pool and snooker tables shown in tournament broadcasts, to switch from green to dark blue. Remember?)

In my dual monitor setup my laptop is the 17.3″ secondary screen, left half in the image, while my external 27″ monitor is the primary screen in the right half.

Because they’re both 1920×1080, of course they’re equally large in the screenshot. The first image is the screenshot, the second I tweaked to show what I actually see in front of me.

With Winaero Tweaker I can stop Windows sending reports home and with Swift Search I avoid querying Bing. Except for Windows Defender, I disable automatic updates and, in most apps, I even switch off automatic checking for updates. Instead I watch the update anouncements at Dutch Tweakers.net, which reports about updates very promptly and reliably, and I update manually. Of course I also watch Susan …

1 Desktop Win 11
1 Laptop Win 10
Both tweaked to look, behave and feel like Windows 95
(except for the marine blue desktop, rgb(0, 3, 98)

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Cybertooth

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A note about installing Windows 10 Feature Updates when using Windows Update Manager (WUMgr): in the Auto Update tab on the left panel of the GUI, if you have selected the radio button to “Disable Automatic Update”, then no FU will be forcibly installed on your system.

I have verified this on two separate Windows 10 systems. They quietly remained on version 1909 until last week. 20H2 showed in the list of available updates on WUMgr, but if automatic updating is disabled then the attempt to install 20H2 will throw a bunch of errors.

Selecting the radio button for “Automatic Update (default)” will, after a reboot, enable you to properly install 20H2. When you are ready, that is, and not when Microsoft tells you it’s time.

P.S. @E Pericoloso Sporgersi: Sorry that I didn’t see your post until now, that’s pretty neat. It was the Windows 95/98 UI that turned Windows into a winner for me.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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Windows 10 looking like Windows 7

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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Cybertooth

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Now for a note about Windows Privacy Dashboard (WPD), which is also recommended in the original post:

You may find the wording of some of the settings to be confusing–for example, for an On/Off switch for “Telemetry” it may not be entirely clear whether flicking it On means that you are turning on the telemetry, or that you are turning on the blocking of the telemetry. After all, this application exists for the purpose of limiting/blocking telemetry and other potential privacy intrusions, so what exactly does “On” mean in this context?

According to the README.txt included in the WPD Zip file, the simpler of the two readings above is the correct one: if you set the Telemetry switch to On, it does mean that you are allowing telemetry. If you wish to disallow telemetry, flick the switch to Off.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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Here is the desktop of my spanking-new Windows 10 system. A work still in progress, but the major elements are done:

It’s as close as I’ve managed to get it to my dear Vista system. OK, so it doesn’t strictly hew to the thread topic, but the idea is the same.

Windows theme including 3-D taskbar and window borders + control buttons: BetterAeroVistaX, installed via WindowBlinds.

Start menu (not shown): Open-Shell. StartIsBack was my first choice, but it doesn’t play nice with WindowBlinds.

On the to-do list: Explorer icons (if and where possible), port classic Calculator and MSconfig.

Along with the use of Windows Privacy Dashboard to minimize the telemetry and Windows Update Manager to control Windows Updates in much the same way as was done in Vista and 7, this seriously threatens to bring my slow Linux transition to a total halt. I’m not closing that door, however. We shall see for how long these tweaks and customizations keep working.

 

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An interesting exercise. For me personally, all I want from my Windows 10 desktop is that it looks like all my previous Windows desktops:

A plain black background, with all visual effects turned off, and with icons to run my most used apps (with a double click); a taskbar with icons to run my most used apps (with a single click, yay!) plus a few bits of useful information (like the date and time); and a Start Menu with icons to run my most used, and some rarely used, apps (although generally speaking I only ever use the Start Menu to log off or to power off). All of that is easy enough to achieve using the in-built features

Like almost every other Win 10 user here I wish there was a single “off” switch for Telemetry (and I wish there was little or no Telemetry at ALL), but, it’s not a great deal of effort to turn most of it off manually, and I’ve not found anything turned back on against my wishes after an update. Perhaps I’ve just been lucky

I uninstall (or at least disable, or hide), all the useless junk that comes with Windows nowadays, and, again, I’ve not found anything sneak back on after an update. Perhaps I’ve just been lucky

Perhaps my biggest gripe against Windows 10, discussed elsewhere on the site, is the fact that you own it, but you don’t own it. So, they can do whatever they like with it, and you have no choice but to suck it up, or abandon it. I’d do that, if it was feasible, but unfortunately some of my day to day apps are (currently) Windows only, so, I HAVE to suck it up. That doesn’t mean I’m happy with that aspect of it though

Anyway, thanks for the thread, a lot of interesting information here

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Cybertooth

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We’ve been talking about ways to give Windows 10 the “look and feel” of Windows 7. Here’s a way to Make Windows 10 sound like an earlier version of Windows as it’s starting.

You can have some fun reviewing the startup sounds for versions going back to 3.1. Curiously, though, they don’t offer the Windows 7 sound.

Enjoy!

 

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Making Win 10 look like Win 7 is a very good step in the right direction. What really turns me off and keeps me away from Win 10 is the monthly updating problem(s).  I personally do not want to go through all of the rigamarole I read about only to have more problems than I had started out with.

Take Win 10 (and 11) back to Win 7 & 8.1 updating, which wasn’t great, but you could pick security updates only, and go to the MS Update Catalog for others, and at your discretion, not MS’s.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Cybertooth, DrBonzo

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I agree. I figure if I learned how to use Mint and macOS, I can learn Win 10. But the amount of maintenance for W10 seems to be immense, needlessly and pointlessly complicated, and not at all user friendly. Unfortunately due to circumstance beyond my control I may be forced to deal with W10, and I’m really dreading it. It would have to be a stunningly good OS in order for it to be worth the apparent hassles of maintaining it, and from what I’ve seen form Microsoft over the years, I don’t think they have any interest in making a stunningly good OS.

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Charlie, Cybertooth

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Charlie wrote:

Making Win 10 look like Win 7 is a very good step in the right direction. What really turns me off and keeps me away from Win 10 is the monthly updating problem(s).  I personally do not want to go through all of the rigamarole I read about only to have more problems than I had started out with.

Take Win 10 (and 11) back to Win 7 & 8.1 updating, which wasn’t great, but you could pick security updates only, and go to the MS Update Catalog for others, and at your discretion, not MS’s.

It looks like the closest we can get to that saner Win7 updating scheme, is to use something like Windows Update Manager (described in the original post). This way we still get to decide which update bundles to install, and when.

Sadly, we’re now getting big, all-encompassing bundles of patches, whereas previously they would issue smaller, more-specific patches. But this new system was already being used for Windows 7 in its final few years, so that option had already been lost.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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Charlie

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Yeah, that’s why I was in the B Group and did only Security updates.  If certain other updates that I needed to get were pointed out to me, I’d get them from the MS Update Catalog.

Being 20 something in the 70's was far more fun than being 70 something in the insane 20's

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Cybertooth

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This website offers a few more ways to inch closer to the Windows 7 look, by adding the “classic” versions of Calculator, Task Manager, MSConfig, and Sticky Notes to Windows 10. And as the website’s name suggests, also a number of games that were left out of the newer OS.

 

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For the privacy concerned people there is Windows 10 Ameliorated

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Fred

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Thank you, that was new to me and an interesting read.

Their concept sounds too “out there” for me, though. I’m dubious about the legality of it, as the OS is activated using a “generic volume license key” and they make sure to state that “AME is developed for educational purposes only”.

Moreover, Windows Update is completely disabled, to the point where the user can’t even install patches manually. (I do understand the reasoning for this.)

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