Replace Windows Vista Calender with a suitable Windows 7 program

Is there a program available for Windows 7 that can read and modify iCalendar Files? Microsoft depreciated Vista's Calendar program when the company rolled out the Windows 7 operating system.

I really find the Vista calendar program very useful and I want something similar to that for the Windows 7 OS. I particularly liked the Aero Glass look and feel, scheduling features, and ability to run program at startup without requiring an Internet connection.

Currently I am using the Office 2013 Lesson Plan template to define a month. The difficulty with that is I can't schedule it to run at start up and automatically update and notify recurring tasks after the user session starts; plus the Word document retains clutter and superfluous menu ribbons
that are not that necessary in maintaining an up to date calendar file.

Yes, hello Ranger4, what third party programs would you recommend? If they would support import or open of iCalendar files then that would be excellent, and better still if they had Aero Glass UI themes.

The programs I looked at seemed to implement XP theme or are more like hour schedulers than month planners. I don't know how many programs there are out there. I wondered if anyone else knew any better from their own experience?

Also considered Outlook before starting this thread. Outlook is another program that Microsoft have started depreciating, and now is only available on some editions of Office.

Regardless, I don't particularly like Outlook for some reason; its email dependent and it has too much 'attitude' me thinks. Although Outlook is pitched as a web-based calendar program, I don't personally find it a replacement for either Word Templates or Windows Calendar.

So, I'm still looking for a suitable Windows 7 compatible program, featuring Aero Glass theme, monthly planning and independent of the Internet.

Hello SIW2,

Windows 7 took out the Calendar program after I upgraded from Vista, and I've not been able to try Windows Calender in 7.

I once encountered various people discussing replacing windows calender in 7 on some forum site or other. Only, when I clicked on their link provided to download the wincal program, I discovered that this link had been broken on the corresponding Microsoft site.


Thats a neat idea, I'll have a go at your suggestion. Currently, my Vista system drive does not run as a virtual machine or in a dual boot configuration. However, I considered there would be no harm in re-wiring this HD drive into a spare SATA slot and retain the Windows 7 boot order, and retrieve the wincal program that way.

When starting the computer, Windows 7 requested to run CHKDSK on the HDD. ... well, CHKDSK is taking an absolute age in completing ... never seen it take so long before.

I'll report back when CHKDSK has completed and I am able to copy the wincal program across.