Making Win10 look and act like Win7

[johnhoh]

I've never used the Quick Launch, takes up to much valuable real estate in the taskbar.

You can greatly reduce the real-estate-hogging of quicklaunch by selecting

small taskbar icons
uncheck quicklaunch show text
uncheck quicklaunch show titles
lock the taskbar

Here's a pic of my 10 quicklaunch icons. They take up 12% of the taskbar. My start button takes up 4%

 

[RoWin7]

I've been fascinated by the machine in your avatar. What is it?

 

[johnhoh]

I've been fascinated by the machine in your avatar. What is it?

Thanks for asking. Its my effort to make the smallest, quietest, fastest computer that runs at normal temps. Details are in my specs. Mini-ITX motherboard is mounted on a 6"x6" aluminum sheet which is mounted directly onto a fanless power supply. The cpu fan is the only fan and its both low speed and undervolted (7v) so its inaudible, and since its not enclosed in a case even a tiny amount of airflow cools the cpu well. There are a lot of totally fanless machines out there but they run much hotter than one with just a tiny amount of airflow. I have two machines like this with identical hardware, one is win7 and one is win10 but the win10 machine is modified/tweaked to be virtually indistinguishable from the win7 machine - details of that are in the first post of this thread. I truly do not understand all the win10 bashing - the win10 machine is bugless, looks and works like win7. Why curse the darkness when you can light a candle.

I'll attach a better pic along with a pic of my first machine that was non-standard from 20 years ago, a win98 system built inside a vintage techniques receiver. The power switch controlled the computer motherboard and the receiver's lights worked, but I had to remove the receiver's original mainboard.

EDIT: Changed amp to receiver. I added an amp and large speakers to the receiver later to make an audio server - not pictured.

 

[RoWin7]

WOW.

Without a case, do you have to dust it frequently?

" I truly do not understand all the win10 bashing - the win10 machine is bugless, looks and works like win7"

It's because the average user doesn't know how to modify the OS. Outside my computer club and my online sites, most people just know how to click some icons to open a few programs. They don't even know how to modify programs in MenuBar> Preferences or Options. They use everything out-of-the-box.

Then there's the time factor. If I install 10, do I want to spend a week modifying it before I even install my 60 programs? No, because I work online.

 

[johnhoh]

I have never dusted it and it is not dusty. My hunch is that with a case and a normal fan all the dust in the room gets sucked into the case at some point and then sticks to the parts, but with an open case the room dust never migrates to the computer in the first place. You're so right about the average user not being able to do much to control their own machine. Btw my win10 mods took me about 45 minutes. Winaero tweaker, Classic Shell, and Sledgehammer make the tweaking quick and easy, its just a matter of reading through their menus and selecting check or uncheck.

 

[RoWin7]

Well, doing my Win7 mods was not 45 minutes for me. I went back to it over the course of several days, then spent about a week making my 2nd machine look like my first one.

People I know who are not computer savvy tell me:

Oh, 10 looks just like 7
I don't know what the system is. Where would I look?
It's all screwed up, I've switched to my tablet and/or phone.
The system is Word.
The system is Microsoft.
The system is Office.
What's a browser?
(This was from a woman who took free computer classes at the library.) He taught me that on the internet, you always start by hitting the Google icon. And he set me up with an AOL email.
What's a Chrome?
No, I don't use Firefox. I use Windows.
...

We live in a different world, but we're not happier than those people. We're just more nitpicky.

 

[johngalt]

Being computer savvy is not something the average person can claim to begin with - if they could, me (and a lot of people like me) would be out of a job / running a different business. And, let's face it - Windows, any version you pick, was designed to be used by the average person OOB, with little to no modification. That's the whole point of Windows. In fact, usability OOB is such a prevalent theme in OSs that even many Linux distros offer the exact same thing now. Take a look at several of the top distros, particularly those ranked in the top by consumer opinion - and you'll see that a lot of them are following the same trend - just install, and it's ready to go. Users like me, OTOH, go with more complex installs, setting things up our own way, limiting the hardware scan on startup and manually configuring kernels, kernel modules, and settings, including X, in order to get to much more personal looking, but also much more personal functioning. The average user, again, will grab a Linux distro, install, and then they are done. The parallels are thre, easily seen, and, quite frankly, scary, on the one hand, in that there are so many people out there who understand so little about their PCs' capabilities that they are a latent threat to online security, but at the same time, as I mentioned - they are our bread and butter. I wouldn't be running a computer repair business for years if those people didn't exist.



I used 7 for a very long time - and expounded upon its virtues over XP. I now use 10 - and I've expounded on its virtues over 7. Does that mean I think you're an idiot for sticking to 7? Nope - whatever floats your boat. Does that mean I think you're an idiot for making 7 look like XP? Nope. Again, whatever floats your boat. And I expect the same in reverse - no one should bash me for choosing 10 over 7. Or 7 over XP, back when I did.

 

[johngalt]

johnhoh - that is a sweet mini setup!

 

[johnhoh]

People I know who are not computer savvy tell me:

Oh, 10 looks just like 7
I don't know what the system is. Where would I look?
It's all screwed up, I've switched to my tablet and/or phone.
The system is Word.
The system is Microsoft.
The system is Office.
What's a browser?
(This was from a woman who took free computer classes at the library.) He taught me that on the internet, you always start by hitting the Google icon. And he set me up with an AOL email.
What's a Chrome?
No, I don't use Firefox. I use Windows.
...

We live in a different world, but we're not happier than those people. We're just more nitpicky.

Funny and true

 

[RoWin7]

... The average user, again, will grab a Linux distro, install, and then they are done. The parallels are thre, easily seen, and, quite frankly, scary, on the one hand, in that there are so many people out there who understand so little about their PCs' capabilities that they are a latent threat to online security, but at the same time, as I mentioned - they are our bread and butter. I wouldn't be running a computer repair business for years if those people didn't exist...

Average user isn't even aware of Linux or what they need in Windows.

Customer/friend offered me her old computer a few years ago.
"What system?"
"I don't know, I'll ask my husband"
"It's windows 7."
Gives me the computer, printer which is powerful enough for a huge office. But she didn't know she can use it again on Win 10.

It's a Vista. There's not a single change except for My Documents, but Windows has been reinstalled from scratch 4 times, by her husband, the computer expert or a service they've paid for. Only a few games have been installed in 10 years.

Hardware is better than good. They bought the biggest (in size) they could find in 2009, with bays for 4 HD's, 4 jacks for connectors I've never heard of. And all she used it for was Facebook and email.

That's the average user.

I wipe it and install Win7, several weeks later it's tweaked exactly like this one and networked. It's my backup.

 

[RoWin7]

...I used 7 for a very long time - and expounded upon its virtues over XP. I now use 10 - and I've expounded on its virtues over 7. Does that mean I think you're an idiot for sticking to 7? Nope - whatever floats your boat. Does that mean I think you're an idiot for making 7 look like XP? Nope. Again, whatever floats your boat. And I expect the same in reverse - no one should bash me for choosing 10 over 7. Or 7 over XP, back when I did.

No one's bashing anyone here, and I love the diversity of users on this site. It means computers are endlessly customizable, and that's also something the average user doesn't know.

 

[johngalt]

Lol. You mincing words. I meant the average *LINUX* user.


And, yes, no one is or has bashed - I was stating my expectations, not complaining in any way.

 

[teckneeculler]

I used to get the occasional customer who'd ask me to fix their 'hard drive', but actually be referring to the tower.
The terms 'uploading' and 'downloading' also seemed to confuse many.
Any of you ever tell your people they'd had an 'eye dee ten tee' problem? (ID 10 T)

 

[RoWin7]

I've gotten a lot of people referring to the case as the CPU, and people who don't have computers thinking that the monitor is the computer.

"PICNIC" Problem is in Chair Not in Computer

 

[TechnoMage2016]

As an old Computer Tech, of way too many years, I've heard all of the previously mentioned 'Misnomers'.
(improperly named parts)


But the most hilarious, was the old hayseed that came into the Radio Store, where I was shopping, one day and said to the counter man, "I want some of that colfax".

Can you even guess what he was wanting?


OK, give up? I'll tell you it was "Coaxial Cable".


Not mentioned yet, unless I missed it, is the woman calling her computer a "Modem". Huh?:huh:


Y'all have a great day now, Y'hear?


TechnoMage


As to the Topic of this thread: One thing I always install on Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 (all versions) is the little utility called "Classic Shell". It's a "Must Have" for those who can't stand the looks or feel of Windows 10. (I include myself in that group)

It's not been updated in some time, but the last official release still works great on Win-8.1 or Win-10. It's not needed on Win-7.

 

[RoWin7]

Oh, yes, it is needed on 7, and I'm very happy with the results. Classic Shell has been forked by a developer, so it's OK for 10. Check out recent posts on their forum or on their site.
Classic Shell • forums

 

[Lance1]

Oh, yes, it is needed on 7, and I'm very happy with the results. Classic Shell has been forked by a developer, so it's OK for 10. Check out recent posts on their forum or on their site.
Classic Shell • forums

Classic Shell is no more. Hasn't been since 2017. It's open source and it's now called Open Shell and the latest version is 4.4.135. check it out.

 

[RoWin7]

Classic Shell is no more. Hasn't been since 2017. It's open source and it's now called Open Shell and the latest version is 4.4.135. check it out.

Sorry, that's what I meant. But 4.3.1 is still fine for Win7.

 

[johnhoh]

Sorry, that's what I meant. But 4.3.1 is still fine for Win7.

Works great on Win10 too, whereas Open Shell has a multimonitor bug.

 

[Lance1]

Sorry, that's what I meant.

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