How to make Windows 7 look like XP

Complete Instructions:

R-Click=Right Click

1. R-Click the desktop
2. Click Personalize
3. Click the theme that says "Windows Classic"
4. R-Click the taskbar
5. Check Use small taskbar buttons
6. In the Taskbar buttons: menu select either Combine when taskbar is fullor Never Combine
7. Click OK
8. Yay!!! :-)

You know you're right! Microsoft should continue to support legacy software FOREVER to pander to people who fear change as much as you do.

Of course new software is a big part of Microsoft's business model, you pay once for the license you think MS is a charity? 

So improvements, to name a few: Built in ISO tools for disc burning, libraries, group policy updates, the disc manager you mentioned, multi user mode, myriad security improvements, better 64 bit support, support for more memory, better offline files and folder synchronization, themes, gadgets, improved network management, more UI customization

Windows 7 also has a new kernel, as does windows 8.  Updating the kernel of the OS as much as was done with 7 and 8 is not something that could have been done by patching XP.  They could have made a version of 7 that was visually more similar to XP, but then again why?  Why not take the opportunity to make some adjustments to the UI?  What you may not know here is you and others in this thread are in the minority.  I work for a managed services firm where I spend most of my time migrating and upgrading workstations

• in recent months most of these have been XP-7 upgrades.  Of the thousands I have done I have had less than 10 people complain about 7, most of the complaints can be alleviated with a little bit of training.

From my point of view many of these complaints are simply nit picking by people who refuse to take the time (and it shouldnt take much)  I mean lets be honest, one of your rants here is about them changing the + to > to denote folder hierarchy.... Seriously?  This is a dealbreaker?  If someone cant adjust to something THAT simple.... well to use your own words they also may need a new brain.

And no... I don't think I missed the point, I just don't think you like what I have to say.

My goodness people stop acting like Microsoft is trying to personally attack you for upgrading their UI.

I think, ZachChild, that you have missed the point here - perhaps with the uncritical acceptance that typifies our fashion-obsessed society...and which frequently leads it (mistakenly) to equate 'new' with 'improved'.

You say that with W7, Microsoft have 'upgraded' (=improved) their OS' user interface.  Changed it certainly has, but I invite you to substantiate the assertion.  You might point to (say) the partitioning capabilities now embedded in the OS.  I would say yes, that is an improvement of a sort, though it is arguable whether this is a UI feature (I would say not) and it leaves W7 less functional than many 3rd party partition managers; this is therefore a help only to more basic users.  Was XP incapable of accommodating the same partitioning functionality?

I believe noneknown's point was that W7 does not represent a sufficient advance to warrant the turbulence of the change and if so, I am with him/her completely.  Changes in the aspects which are true UI (themes and other such appearance matters, for eg) are mostly vacuous fripperies.  Someone who needs a new colour or animation to stay satisfied with their PC also needs a new brain.  Some other changes, such as those to the display of tree structures are nothing short of asinine.  The change from the perfectly intuitive + in a box in XP to signify the existence of a lower level directory structure to the less intuitive triangle is a degrade, not an upgrade, and the fact that it presents a smaller target to the searching mouse when attempting to expand or collapse the tree merely lengthens the step backwards that has been taken.  This is change for changes sake, and is rank stupidity.  BTW 'folder' is another example of MS' recurring habit of changing a perfectly understandable name ('directory') into a no better one.

Improved security is one justifiable basis for a change of OS and the pundits who know more than me say that in this respect W7 is better than XP;  I accept their expertise, but at the same time I also observe that patches to newly discovered vulnerabilities arrive for W7 no less often than before for XP.

Finally, chew on this:  do you think that MS would have been so keen to dispose of XP were its board, executives and shareholders not so desirous of the fresh income stream that Me, Vista & W7 would bring?  Do you think that in 2020, W7 will be found so wanting in the eyes of its users, or its successor so attractive by comparison that we will welcome its death?  No, I'm afraid that questionably improved OS are too much part of the business model.