Windows 7 transformed into Vista - Really nice!

[yoltboy01]

Hey guys!

 I saw a Video recently, where Windows 7 got transformed into Windows Vista. I tried it out on a Virtual Machine and I am very impressed by that. It Looks 100 % like Windows Vista, even the Branding is original Vista.

As you also know Windows 7 supports Internet Explorer 10/11, Office 2013/2016, Microsoft Security Essentails, latest Chrome, latest Firefox, latest Skype, latest Spotify... It feels like Vista supports those Applications now too 

I will add a screenshot.

 

 

[Vistapocalypse]

That video was posted by MSFN member WinClient5270, OP of  Last versions of software for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 and perhaps the greatest Vista guru of our time! 

This is no doubt a much more practical idea than your earlier wish to essentially transform Vista into Windows 7.

Edit: Of course I wrote that before win32 developed Windows Vista Extended Kernel.

Edited January 14, 2021 by Vistapocalypse

[VistaLover]

10 hours ago, Vistapocalypse said:

This is no doubt a much more practical idea

... I was always intrigued by these Win7->WinVista transformation packs, although applying them appeared to me to be a tad over my skills; also was/am unsure of their impact on the whole OS performance. With Win7 reaching EoS in 5 months, they sort of look as moot to me now... 

My 2007 Toshiba laptop (originally with Vista 32-bit OEM) is now on its dying bed ; hardware is quite outdated compared to 2019 requirements (embedded gfx card doesn't even have h264 hardware decoding capabilities, so all video decoding is delegated to the CPU ) and despite some 2015 hardware upgrades (replacement of the original 128GiB HD with a 500GiB one, RAM augmented to 3GiB from 2GiB, repair of the screen etc.), the OS has become corrupted and sluggish; I am not prepared to invest more money on the machine/OS (also taking into consideration the miserable state of Vista with regards to current software support), the only realistic option would be to, sadly, move on to a recent laptop model with, no doubt, Win10 ()...

Now, I know that a Win8[.1]->WinVista transformation pack does exist, because @WinClient5270 was using it on his machine, although I'm not sure a video tutorial has been created for it ; if a Win10->WinVista TP had been available by now, it would be an idea I would gladly entertain, as I simply and utterly loathe the abomination that is the Win10 interface!

But then I wake up and realize one is not likely to appear, given the nature itself of Win10, "Windows As A Service", not a finished product, rather a constantly evolving "beta" OS (for which updates are massive and difficult to control; with every major OS update, the TP would probably break... ).

[win32]

1 hour ago, VistaLover said:

Now, I know that a Win8[.1]->WinVista transformation pack does exist, because @WinClient5270 was using it on his machine, although I'm not sure a video tutorial has been created for it

Yes, there is one:

Hopefully the day when the only viable Windows OS is 10 never comes.

[yoltboy01]

12 hours ago, VistaLover said:

... I was always intrigued by these Win7->WinVista transformation packs, although applying them appeared to me to be a tad over my skills; also was/am unsure of their impact on the whole OS performance. With Win7 reaching EoS in 5 months, they sort of look as moot to me now... 

My 2007 Toshiba laptop (originally with Vista 32-bit OEM) is now on its dying bed ; hardware is quite outdated compared to 2019 requirements (embedded gfx card doesn't even have h264 hardware decoding capabilities, so all video decoding is delegated to the CPU ) and despite some 2015 hardware upgrades (replacement of the original 128GiB HD with a 500GiB one, RAM augmented to 3GiB from 2GiB, repair of the screen etc.), the OS has become corrupted and sluggish; I am not prepared to invest more money on the machine/OS (also taking into consideration the miserable state of Vista with regards to current software support), the only realistic option would be to, sadly, move on to a recent laptop model with, no doubt, Win10 ()...

Now, I know that a Win8[.1]->WinVista transformation pack does exist, because @WinClient5270 was using it on his machine, although I'm not sure a video tutorial has been created for it ; if a Win10->WinVista TP had been available by now

I also have a Toshiba Satellite A350-134 from 2009, which ran Windows Vista Home Premium at the beginning. I havent used that Laptop since 2013 I guess. I recently used it again and thab I realized that Vista is unsupported for 2 years now. So I upgraded it from Vista to Windows 7 (which might be also a bad decision as the Upgrade took ~2 Hours and Win7 is ending soon). I dont really like Windows 7's shell, so I used this transformation pack and I am REALLY impressed! It feels like Windows Vista SP3 or a refurbished Vista that is so much faster. Windows 8.1 will be my next upgrade, as Windows 8.1 is the fastest OS on this old Laptop. Windows 7 Boot takes over a minute, while 8.1 took 26 seconds.

Specs:

Model: Satellite A350-134

Ram: 3 GB

Memory: 150 GB HDD

Processor: Pentium T3400

[WinClient5270]

I'm glad you're enjoying my transformation pack! I found it to be a practical solution for those that are using newer hardware incompatible with Windows Vista (such as Intel Haswell), or those that require newer software that don't work with Vista. The Windows 8.1 one isn't as accurate to the real Windows Vista due to changes in the shell/DWM compared to Windows 7 but it's still far better than anything achievable on Windows 10, where everything is such a broken mess and Microsoft insists on keeping any sort of customization impossible through forced updates that break your changes.

As for me, personally though, I choose to stick with the original Windows Vista as I use Ivy Bridge hardware which works with Vista fine, and don't require anything that only runs on Windows 7 or later. I also find Windows Vista with Service Pack 2 to be faster and more stable than Windows 7 on the same hardware in most cases.

On 8/17/2019 at 9:10 AM, Vistapocalypse said:

That video was posted by MSFN member WinClient5270, OP of  Last versions of software for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 and perhaps the greatest Vista guru of our time! 

This is no doubt a much more practical idea than your earlier wish to essentially transform Vista into Windows 7.

Thank you for the kind words

[Win10-Hater]

@VistaLover You must consider looking into buying a Sandy/Ivy Bridge i5/i7 laptop (any Lenovo Thinkpad, Dell Latitude/HP Probook/Elitebook). They will give you the best value for the money you can buy them for on Ebay or some seconds market. They have full support for Vista. You can avoid spending lots more on newer craptops that support Win10 and Linux only.

[noobie91]

18 minutes ago, Win10-Hater said:

@VistaLover You must consider looking into buying a Sandy/Ivy Bridge i5/i7 laptop (any Lenovo Thinkpad, Dell Latitude/HP Probook/Elitebook). They will give you the best value for the money you can buy them for on Ebay or some seconds market. They have full support for Vista. You can avoid spending lots more on newer craptops that support Win10 and Linux only.

Very very well said!!

[legacyfan]

This Sounds Really Cool I Will Consider Trying This Some Time

Edited January 24, 2021 by VistaEX

[Sergiaws]

As I know, Windows 7 don't have the Windows 2k/XP/Vista classic start menu, and classic shell don't bring the same WinXP / Vista start menu experience. That's why I prefer using original WinXP/Vista instead of a Transformation Pack. I think that I'll using Linux if Windows 8.1's support would finish.

[cc333]

Has anyone tried running Vista's explorer.exe in 7?  That might reintroduce the classic start menu in a way that could work somewhat natively on 7 (not third-party, like ClassicShell).

c