At work I am made to use Windows 11 and I hate it immensely. Everything's so slow. Nothing operates properly. In addition to forced reboots which are annoying as hell, it also reboots after some time on sleep, for no reason whatsoever. Copilot is everywhere and cannot be truly disabled without admin rights. While not strictly a Windows issue, Outlook is an incredible piece of garbage. It doesn't know if it's running and so can be launched more than once; the icon for new messages doesn't show when it should; search is still as broken as ever; the ribbon, which makes little sense in other Office apps, is absurd in Outlook; folders are useless and confusing; etc.
At home, while I have a Mac Mini 4, a MacBook Air, and several Linux boxes, I still use an old PC on Win7 as my primary machine. Is it insecure? Probably. But today "insecure" feels more like a feature than a limitation. No forced updates of anything => everything that works, keeps working indefinitely.
Everyone seems to love the Windows 7 era but for me, Windows peaked GUI-wise with Windows 2000 and everything since then has felt like a poor 'skin' or misplaced 'theme' on top of something else.
Windows XP's level of 'plug and play' for devices/drivers ushered in the modern OS feel from a usability standpoint, but from a 'get-shit-done' GUI and responsiveness standpoint Win 2000 (and up to Windows Server 2003 by extension) was all I ever wanted/needed.
These may be rose tinted glasses though, and I'd be interested to hear counterpoints.
The Win7 UI was comfortable, and still configurable enough that I could make the tool work for me rather than having to work for the tool.
I'd be more interested if it brought back the performance of Win7. That OS was released into a world that still had HDD boot drives and had to pay attention to the details. I still run a Win7 machine that boots in under ten seconds.
Sadly no extension can bring either of those back and we are unlikely to see anything along those lines from MS ever again.
2 applications: StartAllBack and Winaero Tweaker are both lifesavers, as far as I'm concerned. Both allow you to customize the look and feel of different elements so you can run the latest Windows 11 but still preserve elements of the traditional UI's - classic Start Menu, analog clock (sounds quaint but it has a second hand and the calendar is much more responsive), different versions of Windows Explorer, etc.
What I miss about Windows 7 is the total control over the system, not the GUI styling. In fact, some features of Windows 10+ are quite handy, for example the desktop tiles, windows corners or build-in virtual desktops.
However, on Windows 7 you can set many things independently: windows caption bar size, menu font, message texts etc, which all require tweaking the registry in Windows 10+.
Classic 7 is only a styling tool and it will not bring me back these settings and control.
From everything I've heard, running LTSC is not a good idea for a daily-driver pc. App support/compatibility is annoying and not guaranteed. I guess if you have a small set of unchanging apps that you use and that's all it could be a good pick.
Interestingly, I hear a lot of people talk about LTSC, but few talking about their positive experiences. Is this the "I'm moving to Canada," of operating systems?
Only a few years ago, i would have used this and donated some bucks for the effort. But apple silicon has made x86 laptops irrelevant, and i haven't owned a desktop in decades. Sad, since windows 7 is the second-best looking OS i've ever used (windows 2000 being first and macos 10.4 being third)
22 comments
[ 0.18 ms ] story [ 34.0 ms ] threadAt home, while I have a Mac Mini 4, a MacBook Air, and several Linux boxes, I still use an old PC on Win7 as my primary machine. Is it insecure? Probably. But today "insecure" feels more like a feature than a limitation. No forced updates of anything => everything that works, keeps working indefinitely.
for windows 8 on linux, there's this: https://github.com/er-bharat/Win8DE
I hope it comes back
If you think, "I should try this", Any reason why? I'm really curious to know
Windows XP's level of 'plug and play' for devices/drivers ushered in the modern OS feel from a usability standpoint, but from a 'get-shit-done' GUI and responsiveness standpoint Win 2000 (and up to Windows Server 2003 by extension) was all I ever wanted/needed.
These may be rose tinted glasses though, and I'd be interested to hear counterpoints.
I'd be more interested if it brought back the performance of Win7. That OS was released into a world that still had HDD boot drives and had to pay attention to the details. I still run a Win7 machine that boots in under ten seconds.
Sadly no extension can bring either of those back and we are unlikely to see anything along those lines from MS ever again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLecpASQacM
I cannot remember what it is called
but makes it look almost like XP and the UI is very fast and crisp
it's under
Windows 10 cannot do that, it cannot turn off visual system entirelyInterestingly, I hear a lot of people talk about LTSC, but few talking about their positive experiences. Is this the "I'm moving to Canada," of operating systems?
With a bit of OOShut10, Windhawk, OoAppBuster and a bit of security policy (gpedit.msc) is bearable.
[0]: https://github.com/YuZhouRen86/VxKex-NEXT