Locked Query from a 'classic' windows lover here...

[old_tech]

I gotta make a confession 1st so that what follows makes better sense:
Win2000 Pro was my most favorite of all - clean, basic, simple & incredibly reliable in my experiences of working with it.
(NOT to EVER be confused with the horror of WinMe !!!)
((NT4 was pretty good too, just not my favourite.))

Then eXPee came along & cartoon-ized that OS line & I was all set to get a j-o-b as a wallymopp greeter when one of my clients INSISTED for me to stick around and also 'tame' that version as I'd done with the ones before it (meaning '95, '98, NT4 & 2k).

It took ALOT longer but I finally got that done & that was IT for me - when veester came out I announced that I was DONE FOR GOOD & ALL.

Since then age & illness have taken their tolls & my very few remaining clients all use Ubuntu Mate now, thank goodness.

Due to a very rare cognitive & vision complication, I truly need what I use to be very uncluttered & plain.

So - having shared all that - my strong desire is for there to be some method by which to minimalize 7 so as to be as much like a very plain w2kpro as possible - and of course besides needing to have a very plain desktop - I really, really miss plain old pre-7 explorer - no other file manager comes close to its usability - 'specially if it gets Qttabbar added into it.

github.com/indiff/qttabbar

Thus my query=>
Has anyone here traveled the same or similar road to me & maybe have some pointers to share aside of using the apps like classic start button & such ??

Thanks in advance for any helpful replies.

 

[Skip1]

Glad to see you join the forum @old_tech please no outside links in the forum, use inline code function or leave https/http off the address so it's not hyperlinked. Give this a quick read too

You must be registered for see links

Kind regards,
Skip

 

[old_tech]

My bad - sorry.
I had the impression that the forum s/w would just handle any required obfuscations - now I know better.

 

[RedDove]

I am sorry to read of your difficulties and health issues,
and wish I could help you, but there is alot of very smart people
here, I'm sure someone will find a solution for you, if they
have not already.
This does have me curious though and I will be paying a visit
to Mr. Google to find out about what you're asking.

 

[SydneyM]

Hi Old-tech, I think that the original version of Windows 7 Pro would be pretty close to Win 2000 pro. I haven't dabbled much with Win 2K Pro though.

 

[old_tech]

Thanks for your kind replies here Folks !!

As it happens, I was able to grab a copy of the revived (?) WinBorg 7, and much to my amazement, it already had like 90% of the visually & other annoying/disturbing stuff very nicely tamed.

Sadly and of course - it still maintains that totally miserable file explorer abortion that I abhor - but wait - GOOD NEWS !!
(Sort of.)

Another part of this adventure brought Explorer++ into my view.
(...explorerplusplus.com)

Of all the bazillion file managers I've tried - this one is closest to good 'ol explorer.
That being said - I went right ahead and grabbed its single EXE file to get going with it, and...
It will not open - it just throws up a dialogue box of its own that says 'could not register class'.

Since I also use Linux, I tried this wonderful s/w under WINE & it runs perfectly that way - just not on WinBorg7.

In hopes of getting help for it to work I emailed its dev and also posted at its forum - and have gotten zero responses after ~4 days, which has me wondering if it is already abandonware.
That would be very sad as there is really nothing else quite like it that I can find which so closely mimics the functionalities of good old plain & simple OLD version explorer.

Thanks Again Folks !!