How to make Windows 7 look like XP

Yes I'm an old hand from back in the 286 days too (in fact even before).  MS are a business and do have to keep offering something new, so they can eat lunch this week.  And to give them credit, some of it is a genuine step forward.  Does anyone really miss DOS 3.0 ?  But of course a lot of it is a questionable foray into a new look, just to be new, and what really earns them enemies is when they axe murder perfectly good functionality of their previous products for no discernable intelligent reason.

Now, the "multiple locations" of documents in Win 7 (and XP too actually) as I understand it isn't really actual copies all over the place.  Rather, they have created "virtual directories" -- a rather convoluted system of real folders masquerading as other somewhat fictitious ones.  This is all done in the name of having "multiple personalities" on one's computer.

Frankly, it's usually just a big fat pain in the butt.  For home and small business systems, computers are so cheap these days that everybody has their own personal one (maybe several) anyway.  They are de facto mostly "single user" devices.   Then again, in larger networked systems (which includes even some very modest sized offices, schools, etc), a complete server system with Unix style file access control is invariably present.

One can forgive Microsoft for wanting in on those multi-user commercial systems.  And I see how employees of a company might have personal laptops that they use for work, so there has to be a well structured file permissions and security system that even personal single user computers need to be compatible with.  The good news is that most of that can be worked around when it comes to personal single use computers.   I obtained a 3rd party file manager "XYplorer" for all my routine hard disk access.   I set up my own system of folders and program launch windows all accessed via my desktop.  This all ends up in a path under c:\documents and settings.. just like MS's default user files structure, but it is more easily configured to do what I want and not what MS thinks I should have.

Windows 7 still has much of that functionality, except for the huge annoyances of its window handling.  As I say, any files that look like they are in two places aren't really duplicated.  There are just multiple levels and paths of access.  And disk space is hardly a consideration anyway these days.

As for 64 bit, watch out.   Supposedly it is finally making some tried and true old favorite apps fully obsolete, ie. as in refusing to run them.  Seems to me that when systems get "newer" and "more powerful" they should still run the old stuff, and even more easily than they used to.

As for Windows 8, watch the computer scenes in a movie like "Skyfall".  I think that's the kind of dazzling multi-dimensional experience MS are aiming for.  Trouble is, all I wanted to do was keep my parts list over on the left hand side of my W7 laptop's LCD while the schematic I was drawing stays over on my big outboard monitor.   And when I click on a directory of detail drawings in another window to see which ones I need to reference in my schematic, I don't need that damn folder opening on top of the other ones I'm already using, thank you very much.   Go ahead and sell the cool new virtual universe to all the kiddies.  But leave me my multi-tasking that you got to a pretty good state in XP.  Anyone listening Microsoft?  (I won't hold my breath...)

Thanks and I agree that the changes was superficial at best.

The windows explorer needs some changes for sure.

When you look you can find 1 or 2 document listings of the same document in several places and to me that is just too much and lets face it I don't need that doc in several places its using more space.

YEAH yeah yeah I have been a XP since it first came out and I have several DVD originals and keys in case something happens and I have at least 2 complete back ups of the HD's in case one dies I can continue on the next one while I repair or replace the broken HD and then do a complete clone so not to loose anything...

Right now looking for a Win 7 Pro 64bit that doesn't keep asking me for the cd drivers.

I DLed   X17-59186.iso and burned it and when I ran it I was told I needed to run I needed to run migsetup.exe and I got this, "is not a valid 32bit pgm and I thought I DLed a 64bit Win 7 Pro 64 as I was told.

It seems when one person says it worked for him everyone else thinks that all it takes but something is not being said about all they did or really had to make it work for them.  these programs I have been seeing all over in this community and other section are not what I would call correct. I have copied original CD's or DVD's and got them saved as Nero .nrg or ISO and when I burnt them to another CD or DVD I didn't have to load anything in addition to what was on the copy and I have been a IT man for a company back when DOS and Win 3.22 first came out and have update myself from then to now starting in 84 beforethe 8088 ot 286 came out and have gone from there to my Intell i7 3.9 system I now have and yes WIN XP Pro w SP3 and haven't had as much trouble with it and I have messing with Win 7 and heaven forbid I touched Win 8 one time and haven't gone an touched it since then...

Sorry but MS just erks me to no end....

Hello,

Following is all referenced to Windows 7 Pro SP1 2009.  Other flavors may vary...

Activity on this question seems to be low these days, which might erroneously suggest it was all solved a few years ago.  In actual fact, it's more like it just faded into the usual numb acceptance of another of Microsoft's poor design choices.   The problem is not helped by the fact that the vast majority of users don't know the difference anyway.  Think of how many users you've seen whose screens are a huge disorganized mishmash of icons conveniently auto-arranged for them in no particularly functional plan.  Well the good news seems to be that, if mere colours, desktop wallpapers, fonts, etc are your beef, then yes, there are all sorts of cures I found online, and will be happy to share if anyone still needs them.  The starting point is to try Win 7's built in adjustments, using START > CONTROL PANEL > PERSONALIZATION.  Near the bottom of the first pane that then opens up (you'll liley have to scroll down), there is indeed a so-called "Windows Classic" "theme".

But all that does is give you back the blue and grey colour scheme long time users may remember.  What it does not do is restore some key functionality of XP and earlier versions that MS have rather inexplicably eliminated.  So if colours and wallpapers are all one is concerned about, the solution is at hand.  Win 7 also includes options to change default file applications, format of navigation in folders (eg. back forward arrows versus tiling), etc.  As usual, they have moved everything around -- the moral equivalent of deciding to locate the steering wheel in the trunk this year and the headlights facing in instead of out.  But at least it's all there.  I've fought with it enough by now that I could likely assist anyone else who has lost sight of those original functions.

A far more serious drawback of Windows 7 lies in major changes in the way desktop windows (or "folders" if you like) are automatically positioned and sized, including total loss of ability to manually position icons within those folders.   The dazzling array of "look how clever we are" bells, whistles, and gimmicks distract expecially the younger newbie users from serious loss of ability to customize the structural performance of one's desktop.   Similar problems began with their file manager (in modern parlance "Windows Explorer") even before XP, but at least in that arena there have been some excellent third party replacements available (try XYplorer).  Likewise, those mature users who were never ever organized anyway and who mainly use their platform for unstructured entertainment may hardly have noticed a bump in the pavement.  But for someone like me who keeps multiple panes of open folders set up on his desktop (in fact the origin of the name "Windows" in the first place), each of them with well configured menus of file and program icons (shortcuts, filenames, etc), Windows 7 really is a sore point.

In fairness to MS, I am not saying Win 7 is all bad.  I can see it is an advance over XP in many aspects of performance, and no doubt security.  And I'm sure that for everything I can see, there is ten times that improvement in behind the scenes engineering.  But at the user level, these simple functional changes to desktop window handling are just plain bone-headed, and it is difficult to credit that they have anything to do with improved performance or security.  Someone just wanted to give the car a new look and said "well nobody uses their turn signal anyway".   Earth to MS, some of us do, and need it badly.   As well, MS's security has gone from difficult to downright infuriating.  I wish MS would get over the concept that every standalone laptop is going to be an essential component of a 100 computer corporate network with fifteen rotating users.  I create my own pdf's and then have to fight with the idiot o/s to send them to my other laptop.  Yes, I know how to assign each one the necessary "permissions" (say, is there anything more annoying than sitting there staring at a message that says "You must have permission of your system administrator" as you grumble " I AM the system administrator you $%^# robot!" ?).   It's just that I don't appreciate having to assign that convoluted mess over and over and over again as I work with a bunch of high security files like pdf sketches of a door jamb.  (yeah, that'll keep all our computers and our nation safe).

Sadly, none of the 15 or so "solutions" I have looked into so far seems even to touch on these deeper operational deficiencies of Windows 7.   I have hung onto my XP platforms and spare copies of XP Pro for dear life, and still use them to this day, hopefully until the day MS cleans up their act a bit and Win 7 is worth using.  Given their recent total departure into Windows 8, that doesn't look promising though.  Oddly enough, I seem to be one of the few people who gets MS's latest offering, Windows 8, and appreciates what they are trying to do.  It won't do for me either, but we'll see what shakes out of the tree the next couple of years.  Between MS and third party developers, maybe something as functional as XP will reappear.  Or as my various business use apps finally force XP into full retirement, maybe Linux or Apple will step up to the plate.  Paying attention Microsoft?

DS