How To Make Windows 8 Look Like Windows 7

How to make Windows 11 look like Windows 7

Give Windows a more than retro wait

(Image: © Microsoft)

Windows xi non only brought a great new selection of features, tools and apps, merely likewise a completely new await.

The redesign introduced past Microsoft is non to anybody's tastes though. Some people find they yearn for the days of Windows vii and the completely dissimilar appearance they was in place all those years ago.

In this tutorial we will show you how to use a selection of free and low-cost utilities, as well as tools and options built into Windows itself, to transform the look of Windows 11 so it is much more like Windows 7. This will give you the bets of both worlds – a modern, secure operating system, and a retro look.

How to download and install Windows 11 right now
Windows 11 problems: how to gear up the most mutual issues
How to check if your PC volition get Windows xi update

How to make Windows 11 look like Windows 7 screenshot — (Epitome credit: Hereafter)

i. Maybe the most obvious change to Windows xi is the repositioning of the Outset button and other apps to the middle of the taskbar. Thankfully, Microsoft has fabricated it easy to move it back to the left hand side of the screen for people who prefer things the manner they used to be.

Right-click an empty section of the taskbar and select Taskbar settings, then wait for the Taskbar behaviours section. Click the drop-down menu labelled Taskbar alignment, and select the Left option. The Start button and all of the other buttons in the taskbar will all be aligned to the left.

ii. Moving the Start button is one pocket-size win, but you'll yet run into the Windows 11 Start menu when yous click it. By installing StartAllBack, however, you can very closely mimic the wait and experience of Windows vii – the full version of the app costs $iv.99, but at that place is a costless trial bachelor also.

After downloading and installing the app, select the Remastered 7 option in the Welcome section. This volition reinstate the Windows 7 Start carte du jour and taskbar instantly, merely you can customise things further by working your style through the Offset Card, Taskbar, Explorer and Advanced sections of the app.

3. In the Start Carte section yous can choose which shortcuts can exist displayed in the carte du jour, equally well every bit opting to add fly-out menus for many items. In the Taskbar section, y'all can customise the appearance of the Offset button and other elements of the taskbar.

You tin combine elements of Windows eleven and 7 by deselecting the Utilise enhanced classic jumplists to retain the more modern carte when yous right-click on taskbar button. At that place are further options in the Explorer section including the Classic context menu setting that lets you lot choose between erstwhile and new style right-click menus throughout Windows xi.

4. The move abroad from the Control Panel has been underway for some fourth dimension now, with Microsoft encouraging you to use the Settings app whenever possible. While this makes sense a lot of the time, you may well yearn for the days of the Control Panel.

This is still bachelor in Windows xi, merely information technology is far from obvious in how to admission information technology. There are various means to get to the Control Console, merely perhaps the easiest is to printing Windows + R at the same time to bring up the Run dialog, and then blazon command before pressing Enter. You lot may also want to brand it easier to access in the future – just correct click its taskbar button when it is running and select Pin to taskbar.

five. Information technology'due south great to customize your desktop with a photograph you lot accept taken or some other image you honey. But if you're looking to take a trip downward memory lane fifty-fifty further, you could reinstate the default Windows vii wallpaper.

Sadly, Microsoft decided not to include this paradigm with Windows 11, but you can download it from various websites including the Windows Wallpaper Wiki. With img0 (or Harmony equally it is known) downloaded to your hard drive, right-click an empty area of the desktop, select Personalize and click Background. Click the Browse photos button and navigate to the folder containing the paradigm you have merely saved.

6. Windows 11 includes numerous components and features that merely did not be in Windows 7 and this means that there are diverse actress elements dotted around that you may not need.

In the taskbar for example, Windows xi has buttons that serve as shortcuts to Search, Job view and Widgets. You tin get rid of all of these – assuming you exercise non want them – by correct-clicking an empty department of the taskbar and selecting Taskbar settings. In the Taskbar items department, utilise the toggles to disable any buttons you would prefer to hide.

7. A strange change in Windows 11 means that information technology is no longer possible to drag and drop items onto the taskbar to create a shortcut, or elevate and drop files onto a taskbar button to open it in the associated app – only yous can change this past editing the registry. Printing Windows + R, type regedit and press Enter.

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Beat \Update\Packages, click Edit > New > DWORD (32-bit) Value and create a new entry chosen UndockingDisabled. Double click this new particular and assign information technology a value of 1 before restarting your calculator to enable the new drag and drop power.

8. One of the artful changes Microsoft introduced in Windows 11 is rounded corners – and it is not something that'due south to everyone'due south taste. At that place is no built-in choice to disable rounded corners on windows and applications, merely the accordingly named Win11DisableRoundedCorners tin help.

Download the utility, and double click to launch it. When Microsoft Defender SmartScreen springs to life, click the More info link so the Run anyway push button. Yous may also demand to click a User Account Command confirmation, and then rounded corners volition exist banished and replaced with square ones. You can run the tool again to get them dorsum if you change your mind.

9. Windows 11 includes Widgets (press Windows + W to bring the Widget panel into view), but Windows vii used to include something similar chosen Gadgets. Although no longer officially bachelor, you lot can port Gadgets back into the latest version of Windows using 8GadgetPack.

You tin can download this gratuitous utility here and when it's installed, the Gadgets bar will appear to correct paw side of your screen. Right-click an empty space and select Add gadgets to browse through the selection of tools and information panels, calculation any that take your fancy.

10. If you lot would like to recreate the Aero transparency effects used throughout Windows 7, you should look no further than the gratuitous tool Glass2k which you can download hither.

In one case installed, y'all tin can right click the title bar of any running app or open window to gear up a transparency level. You tin configure Glass2k to beginning automatically with Windows and it will recollect different settings for dissimilar apps and windows so you don't accept to keep tinkering with settings.

Windows 11 system requirements – is your PC compatible?

Sofia is a tech announcer who's been writing nigh software, hardware and the web for nearly twenty years – but still looks as youthful as ever! After years writing for magazines, her life moved online and remains fuelled past applied science, music and nature.

Having written for websites and magazine since 2000, producing a wide range of reviews, guides, tutorials, brochures, newsletters and more, she continues to write for diverse audiences, from computing newbies to advanced users and business concern clients. Always willing to try something new, she loves sharing new discoveries with others.

Sofia lives and breathes Windows, Android, iOS, macOS and just almost annihilation with a power button, but her particular areas of interest include security, tweaking and privacy.