cc333

They are indeed. A carefully tweaked Windows 8.1 doesn't look too bad, though, and is mostly 7-like. I used to hate it, but after excising all the Metro junk, I have warmed up to it considerably. I still prefer either XP or 7 as my main OS, though, as I just like them better overall. c

Here is my highly tweaked Windows 10 VM: I ran the Re-Tweaker script, the blackbird script (which overlaps with the Re-Tweaker some wrt privacy settings), installed Winaero Tweaker, 7+ Taskbar Tweaker, Aero Glass 8+, OldNewExplorer, and of course, Classic Start Menu, and it is *almost* the same as 8.1. Some minor annoyances, though: The system tray icons are weird and distorted, and the Quick Launch (I'm amazed that it's still in there, after all these years) icons are weirdly spaced. The titlebars are too big, but if I make them much smaller, the caption and icon get cut off a bit on top. It's a bit clunkier and slower overall than 8.1 on the same hardware, with the same RAM and CPU allocations. All in all, though, it's surprisingly not too bad. I'd never run it on real hardware, though, so it stays in the VM. c

That actually looks okay! How did you do it?? c

OK, I have my Windows 10 VM set up, running version 1607. I want to keep it that way, and I want to try your Re-Tweaker. Where can I get it? c

Nothing's easy with Windows 10, it seems. I hope you get this sorted out. c

And much of it is allegedly sponsored, quite curiously, by the Russians. Coincidence?? Anyway, I've been trying for a WEEK to download Windows 10 to put in a VM (as it seems like I'll have to succumb to it eventually, I figured I'd be a bit preemptive and install it in its own little sandbox so I can play with it; this IN NO WAY means that I'll be using it as my main OS! I'm sticking with 2k, XP, Vista, 7, and to a small extent, 8.1 for as long as I can), but using this software called SecureDownloadManager is a waste of time! It works OK for other things, but with the Windows 10 download, it will go up as high as 55% complete, then it'll mysteriously pause itself, and when I go to resume, it says an error has occurred. When I restart the download, it loses about half of it's progress! I'm never going to get to 100% at this rate!! I do have a valid license key (which I acquired for free through my school), so I'm thinking I'd be better ff downloading the ISO from bit torrent. At least that doesn't crash and do the 1 step forward, 10,000 steps backward trick. c

Very concisely stated! c

Good point. The telemetry in Windows 7 and 8.1 can be removed more easily, though. In Windows 10, it gets put back with every update (whereas in 7 and 8.1, those updates which contain telemetry components can be blocked semi-permanently). XP is definitely the best! 7 is a close second, but only because it can run newer software, in my opinion. c

Well, before Windows 10, I thought Windows 8.x was junk, with all its useless Metro stuff, but after Windows 10, Windows 8.x (and in particular, 8.1) is beginning to look pretty good, something I thought would never happen. A few of the reasons why, of the top of my head: No ugly UI (with a few easily obtainable third-party programs, much of Windows Aero can be reactivated, as it was in Windows Vista and 7; this is somewhat more difficult in 10, and it gets undone with each update. I do miss the classic theme, though) No telemetry (there was some which was added as part of that GWX program, but it's not hard-coded into the base OS as it is in W10) No mandatory updating (updates behave much as they did in prior versions, and one could choose when to install them, select which ones, and even block some indefinitely if desired) No ads (one of the worst things MS has done is introduce ads, particularly for their own services, directly into the desktop UI) Need I go on? If there were a way to strip out all the bad of 10, I'd go for it. But then, it'd basically be not much different than 8.x, which itself isn't hugely different from 7. So, why not just stick with 7, then? Well, I think that's exactly what I'm gonna do c

I agree. Nothing will get me to upgrade to 10! c

I saw that too. It seems to be the full version, though. c

I hope so! In another reality, she probably did (lately, it seems we've gotten stuck in some sort of weird, alternate, and warped non-reality where everything is fake). Anyway, back to the topic at hand: I'm busy reinstalling Windows on my laptop. The 2000 installation I had blew up fantastically after I tried upgrading the Extended Core, so I backed up everything of value and reinstalled XP on the thing. I'm running all the normal updates through EOL, then I'll apply the POS hack to get the rest. Then I can check to see how everything's going. c

Hi, Similar issue, though I eventually figured out how to get the donation.key generated. However, I put it in the aeroglass folder, but I still have the watermark and the window popping up at startup. What am I doing wrong? c

This is a bit off topic, but I just registered for a Microsoft Imagine account (provided to me by my school), and I can apparently download all the recent Windows versions (7, 8.x, 10, and their server counterparts) plus some other stuff. What really humored me, though, is this: Despite all their efforts to seemingly erase all the other Windows versions from existence (3.x, 9x, NT, 2k, XP and Vista, plus any variants thereof), I can apparently still get MS-DOS 6.22! A 24 year-old OS!!! c

Notepad++ 6.x and 7.x seems to work, except there's no toolbar. After hacking the version checks in the msi, Adobe Audition 3.0 seems to work as well. c

Macs have a way of doing that. Not all Macs or Mac-OSes are perfect (Apple has had their share of disasters over the years), but by and large, they do tend to be more reliable than most Windows PCs I've used. c

@2008WindowsVista: What you did to your Win8.1 looks really nice! How, exactly, did you do it? I wouldn't mind doing it myself, as I have 8.1, and don't like the default look too much (I've fixed it up and have got it to look somewhat like 7, which is okay, but I like Vista's look better). I guess it is wishful thinking to have Vista receive the same kind of KernelEx fun that 9x, 2000, and XP have had, given it's terrible reputation (which I find is more due to poor marketing and misrepresentation of the minimum requirements; as OSes go, it's actually quite decent, especially after some of the updates it has received over the years (SP 1 made it much more stable, I think)). c

Not yet, anyway. c

What about the other 10%? c

Well, neon looks a bit better than the black-on-black mess that 10 has been otherwise. I still won't let go of my Classic theme, though. Which means I stay with Windows 7 (with 8.1 used as a supplement). c

I don't need my reality augmented! NR (normal reality) is bad enough!! And, since I still refuse to downgrade to Windows 10, I'll probably never have it. c

Yup! It does!! It is fairly quick. Not super lightening fast, but it's better than 7 on the same hardware. Sort of. Apples Boot Camp drivers don't support installation on XP x64 (they never have), so you have to unpack and install each driver manually. You also don't have the nice control panel (unless one can figure out a way to spoof the Windows version and/or hack the .msi to install), but it works 100% otherwise. Are you going to get yourself a Mac Pro? If you're going to get yourself an Apple, the 2006-2012 Mac Pros are perhaps the best, most expandable modern Macs you'll find. c

I concur. In fact, I'm using it now, on my Mac Pro (arguably best machines you can find for XP x64, in my opinion). I do like that XP-32 is more well supported, though (XP-64 is this weird thing that sits somewhere between XP-32, w2k3-64 and Vista-64, being relatively compatible with all three (thus being capable of running 90%+ of all software written for them), yet barely supported by anyone). This makes it a bit of a challenge to get it working just right, but not impossible. c

I used the latest BWC Extended Core + Extended Kernel + all available updates (including the USP5 and UURollup). Notepad++ also works, although it's a bit clunky (and the toolbar appears to be broken). c

Yes, I've tried that, and it works (a bit clunky, but it works) on 2000. Also, JDK 8u117 works! Sorry, no screenshots to back it up, but I have installed it, and with a bunch of consternation, it does complete, and the end result is workable. c