How to make Start Menu look like XP's

Is there a way to make Windows 7 startmenu look like Windows XP's without losing functionality? With the tab on top? see pic John

The quick answer is yes.

The complete answers requires a 3rd party program and I've forgotten the name thereof but I'm sure somebody here knows it.

Actually, I tried it out and decided that I preferred the Win7 approach.

If all you want is to change the title of the Windows 7 menu to look like XP, I don't think that's possible, even with a custom theme. The layout is just too different.

There are several tools that let you get the classic start menu on Windows 7. I recommend my own creation Classic Shell: http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/index.html

Classic Shell has a skin that makes it similar to the XP start menu, but there are some key differences (like no recent programs, no pinned programs, and no shutdown buttons at the bottom). Check out the XP Luna skin here: http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/gallery.html#menu

But since one of your requirements is "without losing functionality", you probably don't want to lose the search. I'm aware of only one tool that has search: http://www.classicstartmenu.com/index.html. It is not free though.

Is there to put the tab on the top of the startmenu? John

We had Windows XP and we wanted to look like Vista or Windows 7, now we have Windows 7 and want to look like Windows XP. Just for fun of it could anyone make theme to make look Windows 7 like Windows 95??? :)

notsograymatter said:

Actually, CSMenu has a search bar and everything. I linked to it in my tutorial. Most of the programs you linked to aren't what he asked for and/or you have to pay for them.

Hmm...

Looks like the program you link to is the same as the one in my post. Until few months ago CSMenu and Classic Start Menu were two separate applications. CSMenu was free, didn't have search, and very old versions of it did require StartKiller (not anymore). Classic Start Menu is not free ($20), DOES have search, and has never needed StartKiller. So please update your tutorial by removing the StartKiller part. No start menu application requires it anymore.

Last year the original developer of CSMenu abandoned the project and the author of Classic Start Menu took over and offered it as a free alternative to his paid software. But it looks like CSMenu can't be downloaded anymore. All links now point to the paid software. I don't know if this is temporarily broken, or done on purpose. Maybe he is trying to rename the paid software to CSMenu (it is a catchy name). Either way, it is not a big loss because CSMenu was never that good to begin with. There were many complaints about bugs (see here: CSMenu | Google Groups) and the (new) author hasn't done anything to fix them.

So if you need search (and have 20 bucks) get Classic Start Menu (it may be officially called CSMenu now).
If you don't need the search, get one of these free applications:
http://classicshell.sourceforge.net/index.html
http://usuarios.multimania.es/coreaf...nstartmenu.htm
http://www.vistastartmenu.com/index.html (by the same author as Classic Start Menu we are discussing)
http://www.sevenclassicstart.com/ (this one is NOT FREE, but I include it for completeness)