New
#1
Setting up Windows 7 to function like XP
Hi all!
Some background first. I'm an XP user and I'd like to take advantage of the multiple cores and a hunk of a RAM in the near future that have become available at reasonable prices. While 64-bit XP does support the RAM, it can't really deal with many cores so, some kind upgrade is bound to come up. I'd be as happy as a pig in dung with a 64-bit multiple-core supporting XP which includes a non-crashing Windows Explorer, but as this isn't going to happen, I had to weigh my options.
I decided that I'd had it with Windows and its crashes and the horrendously unstable Windows Explorer, so, Mac OS X seemed like the obvious choice as all my work-related software is available for it... Yet I had some annoying gripes with OS X and after a week of owning the latest MacBook Pro, I installed XP on the boot camp and haven't booted to OS X since. Then I tried Windows 7. I have mixed feelings here. I didn't like the dock on OS X and the new taskbar feels just like it.
I mean... I was sooooo pissed and angry about my XP that I wanted a change. And when I finally got the change in the terms of Mac OS X and Windows 7, I realised how much I actually loved the XP and that my main gripe with it was that I was constantly faced with a non-responsive Windows Explorer.
So, I decided to give Windows 7 a shot and set it up to look and feel like XP. I got the Quick Launch back thanks to this wonderful tutorial here, but I'm unable to fix the window management. When picking "never combine" under taskbar buttons options, I expected the windows to behave like they have from Windows 95 through XP, yet they don't. Instead, the windows are grouped together by application. For example, if I have Notepad text document as the leftmost window and Google Chrome browser next to it, and I create a new text document, it appears not in on the right side of the opened windows, like it has for over friggin 15 years, but between them. Plus, even more silly, while we are supposedly given freedom to re-organise the windows however we like, it is impossible to change the order of the windows within the same application -- that order set in stone like in the old taskbar. I know it sounds nitpicky and unappreciative to the Microsoft's efforts to create a better OS, but I never realised how much I loved the old taskbar before trying out both OS X and Windows 7.
Anyway, is there a way to "un-link" or "un-stick" the windows? I've seen some other registry hacks that give more options to the given three choices, so, maybe it's possible?
Thanks for taking your time reading this!