Windows 7 progress

[johnridley]

I did a bunch of messing around and I've very nearly got Windows 7 looking and acting like XP. The latest success was shutting off the Search box on the Start menu. I hate the thing. I never want to use search, not ever. I know where things are on my computer, and having Search up and in focus by default every time I open Start is just irritating every minute of the day. Turns out there are ways to disable lots of this stuff but it's hidden, some of it in things like accessibility - apparently disabled people are my savior, since they want their computers to work the same way as always.

Getting rid of the oversized Fisher-Price bubble-style windows and buttons was pretty straightforward. Losing the ridiculous task switching stuff and the dock bar, making the system tray not hide stuff, getting screen elements down to proper size instead of taking up 4 times as much room as they should, all that is done. I'm still not 100% happy with Windows Explorer, but at least now it's got a proper menu and the ridiculous nav and preview panes are gone. Preview is just a pain that slows things down by always wanting to open up every file the cursor touches. Also getting rid of thumbnail view by default was a great relief.

Comments

[nicegeek.livejournal.com]

I've been going through this on my new work machine. I found that I could actually deal with the search field; since it'll fuzzy-search on program and applet names and descriptions, I can just type "lang", and I get all of the programs and control panel settings dealing with language.

The main remaining issues for me:
- The line spacing in Explorer is way too wide.
- The "Organize" bar in Explorer has got to go.
- The annoying picture in the start menu.

From what I can tell, some of these settings are stored in a resource DLL that you need a special theme editor to modify (safely; yes, I could binedit it, but I want the machine functional).

[c0nsumer.livejournal.com]

I use it (the search stuff in start) very similarly. To me it's a command line that completes shortcuts, filenames, whatever.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I must be running a different Windows 7 than everyone else. The thing is basically useless for me. It guesses wrong most of the time, and even when the right answer is there it's slower than typing the thing on the "Run" box anyway.