Windows 7 Want W7 but not ready to upgrade from XP - Make XP look like W7

[jimbo45]

Hi guys
The same guy who bought you the VISTA TRANSFORMATION PACK (Makes XP look like VISTA) is still working on making XP look like W7 with a Windows 7 Transformation Pack.

Not quite ready yet but if you like the idea of the project, and want to have the look and feel of W7 whilst still using your fast snappy Windows XP give this guy encouragement to complete the job.

Here's his work in progress.

Windows X's Live | Windows Seven project, still alive


I've been using The VISTA transformation pack and my colleagues are always saying "How on earth do you get VISTA to run so fast! Even the Logon looks like VISTA starting up. Their mouths just go agog when I say it's actually XP made to look like VISTA and of course as the OS has much much less overhead it will run snappier even when using "Aero glass" like effects.

The transformation pack so far looks good.

I'll have a machine or 2 running "Proper Windows 7" after it comes out but I will still need XP for some work applications and hardware, even after the W7 final appears for a few months at least.

No reason to keep your Desktop looking Old and outmoded even running an OS that's 7 years old.

I've tried the Vista transformation pack on a Netbook running XP -- Looks very very impressive even though W7 loads fine on these netbooks as well. At least with XP you are still getting proper updates etc for a while.






Cheers
jimbo

 

[Radenight]

Though I admire the efforts put forth by projects like these.. I still will never use one.. to me it's just not worth it.. I use XP because I like XP.. I'd rather XP looked like XP and Vista looked like Vista and 7 looked like 7.. using programs or transformation packs like these is just trying to hide something in my opinion.. Plus it's pretty funny that there are alot of people complaining about Vista yet, they'll go out and download stuff like this.. hahaha

I donno, like I said, it's a good effort and creative but just not very practical in my opinion.. but that's just me..

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there.

I think most people complained about VISTA because of the (pre SP1) poor performance it generally had being installed on equally unsuitable hardware.

In addition VISTA was pre-loaded on to these hardware unsuitable computers people were buying when VISTA was released. Given the fact that most "Shop Installed" OS'es are usually fully of BLOAT running VISTA "un tweaked" on unsuitable hardware wasn't a pleasant experience for most people at that time. By the time SP1 appeared (with cheaper and better hardware) the damage had already been done -- the "Brand" had been broken.

On a Store bought computer the first job I do after reading the manuals is to totally wipe the disk(s) and clean install the RETAIL version of the OS and optimize it for my needs.

You can usually haggle in store when buying a computer to throw in the OS. Often MS Office student edition is thrown in anyway --just ask to swap this for VISTA HOME PREMIUM retail if your store quibbles. In this market people are quite willing to lean a little to make a sale -- even though it's not normally in the nature of W.European and US customers to haggle a bit.

I think the actual "Look" of the OS was fine --not too much complaint there provided you customized it a bit.

I liked the idea of "Gadgets" a lot -- took me a little while to get used to it and the bog standard "Supplied" gadgets were a bit bland and boring but if you select what you need they can be really useful and good looking too.

I have a few installed for Stock exchange, Currency, Sky TV news feed, notes, quick start, SAP ERP connection etc etc "Backported" to my running XP system. Even now I can't upgrade the SAP ERP connection to VISTA / W7 until the corporate SAP version is upgraded (and that's a HUGE project which won't be complete until Q1 2011) -- so for better or worse I'm stuck with at least ONE computer which will have to run XP for a while longer yet.

The project referred to gave me good instructions on customising the look, generating themes and creating and installing my own gadgets (On XP). Things like Window Blinds were also good for this type of stuff.

Given the much leaner resources an XP system requires it's actually quite nice to be able to use gadgets and have nice desktop effects without slowing down the OS too much - or even at all -- don't notice ANY overhead on my system.

As I've pointed out and others agree even though it's a DEAD OS now Windows XP PRO 64 bit edition absolutely runs rings around almost any other OS I've run recently including standard Linux Distros. --should do as it was built on the basis of MS's best server OS OS Windows 2003 Server which really did a decent job.

Note a good command line Server Linux without a GUI still IMO is best for a server but if you need a GUI then Windows 2003 server was fine -- haven't tried Windows 2008 server yet -- but I gather this is built on W7 technology - or is it the other way around ?.

Another feature that is significantly missing in VISTA and W7 is the Powertoy feature where you could have 4 independent desktops -- I find this absolutely indispensible -- each desktop can have it's own independent theme, background,
gadgest etc etc.

If you've got 4, 6, 8 GB RAM or more and you are running a lot of applications you would be surprised how useful this feature is. For example I can connect to maybe 6 different corporate SAP ERP systems each themselves running a load of different applications . Try managing this on a single desktop to say nothing of Email, Photo software that needs to be "prepped" and sent to different printing / processing labs etc etc.-- I'm not looking forward to running all these apps on a W7 system with no "Virtual Desktop" switching facility.

So the point of the post was to say that IF (and ONLY IF --sounds like a proof in a Maths textbook ) you have to use Windows XP for a while longer yet there is no reason why you can't "nick" good stuff from VISTA.

Now if someone can get Virtual Desktops working for W7 / VISTA that would be great. Linux has had this for AGES.
The very few I've seen for VISTA are horrible -- I want it to work just like it did in XP - each desktop looks just like you've logged on to a separate machine -- you can customize each individually and optionally share things like clip board etc etc.

Cheers

jimbo