If you have a PC with Windows 8 or 8.1 but miss Windows 7, there's no need to downgrade. Following a few simple steps, you can make Microsoft's current operating system look and feel almost identical to its predecessor. Here's how to bring back the Start menu and the attractive aero glass theme how to hide other Windows 8 elements like the Charms menu. Step 1: Swap the Start screen for a Start menu Without a doubt, the most unfamiliar (and, for some, most annoying) feature of Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 is its tile-based Start screen. Where Windows 7 lets you choose from a list of applications by pulling up the Start menu, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 make you go to a completely separate screen just to launch an application or conduct a search. Windows 8.1 places a Start button in the lower left corner of the screen, but don't be fooled; it does nothing more than take you back to the same tile-based Start screen when you click it. MORE: There are a number of third-party Windows 8 / Windows 8.1 Start menu apps including the free Classic Shell, but if you're willing to pay $4.99, we recommend, because it looks the most like the Windows 7 Start menu and allows you to control many other elements of the UI.

To set up Start8: • Download and install. You can try the program for 30 days without paying for it. • Select Windows 7 Style and Shadow Theme under the Style tab. • Select the Desktop tab. • Check 'Disable all Windows 8 hot corners.' This setting will prevent the Charms and Windows 8 Start shortcut from appearing when you hover the mouse in a corner.

• Make sure 'Automatically go to the Desktop when I sign in' is checked. This way Windows 8 / Windows 8.1 will take you straight to the desktop when it boots rather than making you go through the Start screen first. • Make sure Disable Taskbar Translucency is unchecked. • Select the Control tab. • Uncheck 'show the Windows 8 menu when I press the right windows key.' With this setting off, you won't accidentally end up on the Start screen if you hit the right Windows key. • Close the Start8 settings window.

• View all your programs by clicking All Programs on the Start8 menu. • Pin your favorite programs to Start8 by right-clicking on them and selecting Pin To Start8. MORE: Step 2: Install the Windows 7 Aero theme With Windows 8, Microsoft took away the attractive translucent Aero glass effects and style many people love in Windows 7. Instead, the company made the desktop theme flat, solid and a little bit boring. While you can't get all of the translucent effects back, you can get a very similar look to Windows 7's default theme.

• Download and This application tweaks your settings so you can install third-party themes you didn't get from Microsoft. • Download from Deviant Art and open its zip file. Ignore the warning saying that it does not work in Windows 8.1. • Copy the contents of the Themes Files folder from the zip file to C: Windows Resources Themes. • Double-click the Aero8Rounded-Default.theme icon. Your theme should now change to Aero 8 rounded, which looks like Windows 7's default theme, complete with the Windows 7 logo wallpaper. To switch back and forth between this theme, the Windows 7 Architecture theme and several other Windows 7 and Windows 8 themes, right-click on the desktop and select Personalize. MORE: Step 3: Add an Aero glass effect to window title bars Even with the Aero theme installed, the window title bars and borders are opaque.

Windows Gadget is an interesting feature first introduced in Windows Vista and 7. The Vista version has a 'Sidebar' which contains mini-applications (called 'Gadgets.

While you can't make all parts of the UI have the smoky translucent effect they do in Windows 7, WinaeroGlass can make the title bars see-through. • Download and unzip to your desktop. • Double-click Winaeroglass.exe to turn on its visual effect. At present the app has no UI; it just works.

• Copy WinaeroGlass.exe to the C: ProgramData Microsoft Windows Start Menu Programs Startup folder if you want it to start every time Windows 8 starts. Step 4: Skip the lock screen Windows 7 doesn't waste your time by making you swipe away a lock screen before you get to its login prompt. Fortunately, it's easy enough to disable Windows 8's time-wasting lock screen. • Open Regedit by hitting Windows + R and entering regedit at the prompt. • Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MARCHINE SOFTWARE Policies Microsoft Windows. • Create a registry key called Personalization if it doesn't already exist.

You can create a key by right-clicking on the Windows key, selecting New then Key and renaming the folder that appears. • Create a new DWORD value and name it NoLockScreen. To create a DWORD, right-click in the white space on the right side of the window and select New then DWORD (32-bit) value.

Rename the DWORD. • Assign NoLockScreen a value of 1 by double-clicking it and entering the number 1 in the dialog box that appears. • Close Regedit and reboot.

From now on you will be taken straight to the login prompt. MORE: Step 5: Run Windows 8 style apps in Desktop mode Even if your desktop looks like Windows 7, you have a Start menu and your system boots you directly to the desktop, you may still want to run some Windows 8 apps. Under normal conditions, you'd be forced to run new style apps like Bing News or the People app at full screen in Windows 8's Modern UI, but with the help of a utility called you can run every Windows 8 program in its own draggable, resizable window on the desktop. • Download and install. The application costs $4.99 but has a free 30-day trial. You may need to enter your email address to receive a download link. • Select Windowed mode under 'When launched from the Windows 8 Start Menu.'

With this setting enabled, even if you launch a Windows 8 app from the Start screen, it will open on the desktop. • Select 'Never return to the Windows 8 menu when I close applications' under the Advanced tab. • Close the ModernMix settings window. As long as ModernMix is running, all Windows 8 style apps (also known as Modern apps) will run in windows.

You can even pin Windows 8 apps to the taskbar by right-clicking on their taskbar icons and selecting 'Pin this program to taskbar.' Lode Says: I've been utilizing a program called 'StartIsBack'.

You can try it out for free for 30 days. If you want to keep it you have to pay $2,99. My notebook lookst like Windows 7.

The program lets you make some choices as to looks and a few other handy things, Of course it lets you get rid of Metro. The only thing I had to do separately to stop the Charm bar from still showing up(every time I moved my finger from right edge to left on my touchpad) was disabling Edge Motion under Mouse Settings. Deb W Says: First, I have to admit, I don't hold any degrees.not even one pertaining to my sanity after Windows 8. I am an office manager for a small company. I am not a guru but any means, but I can hold my own on a computer. I bought a new laptop to speed up my own productivity, only to dread opening the lid and dealing with Windows 8.

I really didn't need another password to remember, this time to access my own property. I have nothing good to say about Windows 8, except that it is colorful. I agree with others who said 'If' my computer had a touch screen, it wouldn't be as bad as without, I don't think it should be installed on a computer that doesn't have one. I find myself constantly moving between unwanted screens, and having no idea how I got there. I didn't want to change, I just wanted newer, faster, better.

I didn't need a computer screen that looks like my phone, I can still tell the difference. Actually, I can still boast that I have even kept a land line.

Soon I suppose, there will be a class action lawsuit against Microsoft--- for all those forced to change against their will. Users (aka suckers) will get $10 per computer, and some law firm will get 4.8 billion. Technology is one thing, changing just for the sake of change is another. There is still a good point to the adage, 'if it's not broken, don't fix it'. I am in Windows 8 purgatory most of the time. Actually, I seldom open my new laptop, I hope Microsoft is happy. It's the biggest white elephant I have ever purchased.

What will they do to us next? One can only dream!

Jerry Says: Like your article, hate Windows 8. When getting new laptop, i replace new, uninitialized drive with another and install operating system that i will need.

Problem with new laptops pre-loaded with Windows 8 is that there are no drivers for OS versions other than the one pre-loaded. Manufacturers like Toshiba don't release drivers for operating systems other than Windows 8. USB 3.0 requires drivers that Windows 7 does not have. Recently purchased Toshiba L70 laptop, 3 USB ports (two of them USB 3.0). Drivers will not work with Windows 7.

DENNIS Says: just bought my first computer with win8. The system is designed for a generation who were not properly taught to read and use their computers only for social media.for those who use their computers for actual work win8 is a nightmare.3-4x longer to do anything. Looking into linux if this is the way ms is going. They have to stop listening to these huffington post tech bloggers who keep saying desktops are gone.

Desks can do more than laps and laps can do more than notes. Do they forsee a future of an office of 50 people all doing work on their ipads-i don't think so/ •. Mayor Mashal Says: Utill we all rock the believe that 'there is a distinct difference between rebranding and innovation' then mass rejection of a particular product is inevitable. Tho the fact that consumers interest is paramount in the innovative process of any idea, still yet the chase of the future trend is also considered alongside.

The execution of window 8 by Microsoft was an huge step towards balancing both consumers interest and time based/ future trends. Time based/future trend was exceptionally achieved but consumers interest achievement was minimal, but can be raised to the the maximum if only the general consumers will stop comparing window 7 too window 8, and take window 8 as a new innovation. SadoMessiah Says: It's really funny how ignorant the people are here.- Windows 7 is so great, blablabla. What are you? Little children who cannot accept chances?

Windows 7 is very unstable and many big Games have Problems running with windows 7. They all 'Dont react anymore'. I've never had this Problems in Windows 8.

Windows 8 runs smoother and is faster. I've testet it.

2 Identical PCs with SSDs. Win7: 10 to 15 seconds, Win8: 3 to 5 seconds.

So what is faster now. I use Win8 at home an i dont have to go to the start menu ever, because, if you wouldn't be so ignorant you would know that when you left klick in the left corner you can access all important features of Windows without the start menu. So go learn something about this great OS or go die in a fire. Adam Says: The Microsoft rollout of Windows 8 was not well executed. The people have spoken and they are not looking for a Windows operating system which mimics their smart-phone, despite what Steve Ballmer may have envisioned: 'I think with the addition of Windows 8, with these incredible new form factors that are tablets and PCs, I think we're going to see a lot of growth and vitality and explosion in the PC market,' said Ballmer last October at the company's BUILD developers conference. 'I guarantee you, this will be the best opportunity software developers will see as hundreds of millions of new machines go out with the potential of billions and billions of new applications being sold.'

There was an attempted shift of the GUI to something more modern. But I speculate as to whether it was MS trying not to be left in the dust or greed via their version of an 'app store.' Many have commented on the Windows 7 vs. Windows 8 'experience', and indeed, this article is truly about that. Yet I think the 'elephant in the room' is Microsoft's desire to be like the cool kids (they never were, and never will be - no matter how many Rolling Stones songs you purchase) and their greed which blinds them to the point where they give up the core competency.

Don't worry - Ballmer paid dearly with respect to his image and legacy, just as he did with Vista. For further reading - dare to check out: The Microsoft Case: Antitrust, High Technology, and Consumer Welfare As for user interfaces.

Check out the film Minority Report for 5 minutes. Everything we currently have is craptastic. We have been using the same tired Xerox idea which apexed in 1973 and has been reborn ad infinitum ever since. Steve Jobs (for the life of me I cannot understand the zeitgeist behind his idolatry).

Why not give credit to Alan Kay and perhaps Jean Piaget instead? Perhaps then we can move forward by understanding the real motivators of our current GUI paradigm long enough to abandon them. We're not children anymore. Sharon M Says: I bought my laptop last year and didn't expect a hot mess like Win 8. It wasn't until I started reading reviews on Win 8 I felt vindicated. I'm not an expert, but I'm not a total no0b, but Win 8 made me feel like one I finally shelled out $100.00 for the Win 7 Home Premium OEM software (Newegg). This whole mess reminds me of when my company switched from a simple, user friendly data entry system called Labman, to a horrendously hot mess called UVIS (Universal Veterinarian Information System) It took months of training, an ungodly amount of driving back and forth between offices ( 3 hours away one way), headaches, mistakes et al, but by the time they realized it wasn't going to work, they didn't want to lose face.

L B Says: I grew to like Vista after a few months of figuring out and correcting the bugs (all but the one that doesn't allow changes to property access even as the admin, that is). That laptop died in Nov and I replaced it with a new one with Win8. Now here we are at March.

I've applied many of the fixes discussed here and elsewhere, added one of the start shells, and rid the damn thing of as many non-functioning or redundant options as possible. But I swear I still can't handle W8, tho like many of you I've been computing since the DOS era. I have CRIED about the frigging W8 start menu and stupid charms, xbox (altho I finally got rid of that piece of crap), and other metro shit taking over my desktop and obliterating my work if I get too close to the left or right side of the screen.

I have partial paralysis, and the necessity of repeatedly trying to get the cursor to the top left to return me to the desktop, and to then go there again to close whatever had taken over, is just too much for me. I can't get work done. I can no longer participate in the one online game I've played for years because it's a timed-game. Having my screen blocked has ruined any fun I got from playing. I thought I had the swipe screen nonsense killed but guess what?

At least 2 Win 8.1 updates have returned that crap. I have never been so unhappy with a product, and have never felt that I was a disabled person until now.

Windows Gadget is an interesting feature first introduced in Windows Vista and 7. The Vista version has a 'Sidebar' which contains mini-applications (called 'Gadgets') which are based on a combination of Script and HTML. They may be used to display information such as the system time, CPU/RAM usage and Internet-powered features such as RSS feeds, and to control external applications such as Windows Media Player. Gadgets can run 'docked' in the sidebar or they can 'float' anywhere on the desktop. On Windows 7, gadgets are all placed on the desktop without a sidebar, and arranged in a slightly different way. Here you will find various original Anime-style gadgets for your desktop. Feel free to download them!

We even expand the concept of Windows Gadget to support Windows 10 and 8 with ADVANCED features in our System Animator gadget. Don't miss it! Anime Clock 02 NOTE: This gadget only works on Windows 7/Vista. You are recommended to use instead.

This is an analog clock with CUSTOMIZABLE clock background and various settings! We have included several Anime-style backgrounds, but you can use your own images as background as well!

You can choose a folder with images of any kind, and a random (or sequential) image will be picked and cropped automatically to fit the clock background, and the background image can be set to change at regular interval. (Full-size screenshots: ). Installation and Info Installing a Gadget Simply click on the unzipped '.gadget' file. Yeah it's that simple! Gadgets on Windows 7 Windows gadgets work directly on Windows 7, just like Vista.

However, the concept of 'Sidebar' is gone so basically you just put the gadgets on your deskop and arrange them in the ways you like. Gadgets on Windows XP You can use Windows gadgets on Windows XP, by installing. 'System Animator' Gadget on Windows 8 Windows 8 does not support gadgets anymore, but you can still run System Animator in HTA mode, WITHOUT the gadget platform.

• Download System Animator, and unzip the file as usual. • Rename the unzipped '.gadget' file to '.zip', and unzip this renamed gadget file somewhere on your computer.

• Go to the unzipped folder, and click 'SystemAnimator_ie.hta' to launch your first System Animator window (HTA mode)! • NOTE: • for more info regarding running System Animator in HTA mode. • Similar procedures can be used to run Spectrum Analyser (HTA mode) in Windows 8. • Similar procedures can be applied to Windows Vista and 7 to run System Animator and Spectrum Analyser, without installing the gadgets to the gadget platform. Needs to be installed. Anime PC Meter NOTE: This gadget only works on Windows 7/Vista. You are recommended to use instead.

Finding a PC meter/monitoring tool that actually 'looks different'? This may be what you are looking for!

'Anime PC Meter' is a fully functional CPU/RAM/Drive/Network meter, with a cute and interesting Anime-style appearance and animated effects. So, when you see the CPU lady glowing in red, you know the CPU is busy:P FEATURES: • CPU/RAM/Drive/Network meter presented in a cute, Anime-like style! • Multi-core CPU supported • Advanced monitoring details, such as virtual memory/network usage and disk activity (as flashing of bars), through the use of WMI • Interactable interface with extra info and actions available when you place your mouse pointer over or click on various parts of the gadget • Customizable settings (Full-size screenshots: ). ⭐System Animator⭐ 'System Animator' is a system monitor with CUSTOMIZABLE animation! How about a cute Anime gal who dances according to the CPU usage? Free Download Adobe Indesign Portable. Hatsune Miku waving her leek while playing a MP3?

The famous Matrix digital rain effect with scroll speed corresponding to your network traffic? It's up to your imagination! FEATURES: • PC activity monitor with focus on visuals, animations, and FUN! • Supporting the monitoring of 'Sound output' to become a customizable music visualizer! • Supporting various 2D/3D/MMD animation styles with full customization! Several default animations are included, and hundreds more for download! • ⭐ NEW⭐: support,ANIMATED wallpaper mode and 'Wallpaper Engine' support Confused?

Check out our section and watch this gadget in ACTION! System Animator - DOWNLOAD (Windows ): • (Windows 10/8/7 31.3MB October 16, 2017 ) • (🔥 MUST-HAVE🔥 for System Animator 10️ 44.5MB October 14, 2017) For existing users, check out the section for videos demonstratng the NEW features in the recent updates. NOTE: • Check out the section for answers to common questions. • Don't miss the section with TONS of animation downloads for System Animator! • The legacy (Windows 7/Vista｜7.29MB) of System Animator is still available for older systems. Q: How can I make System Animator respond to musics? A: For System Animator 8+, simply enable the 'Use audio FFT' option on the 'Advanced=>HTML5=>General' tab of the settings panel, which works when you drop a music file to the gadget directly.

To monitor any sound on your computer, you need to enable the 'Live input' option, and set your Windows's audio recording device to 'Stereo Mixer'. Besides the 'Live input' option for further details. For the legacy gadget version of System Animator, you need to install 'Spectrum Analyser' gadget in order for System Animator to monitor sound output. • (1 animation) (file size: 13.9 MB) • (1 animation) (file size: 8.20 MB) • (1 animation) (file size: 14.7 MB) • (3 animations) (file size: 8.27 MB) • (1 animation) (file size: 4.89 MB) • (8 animations) (file size: 26.2 MB) • (12 animations) (file size: 17.1 MB) • (1 animation) (file size: 22.6 MB) • (1 animation) (file size: 6.25 MB) • (5 animations) (file size: 66.8 MB) • ★ (19 animations) ★ (file size: 84.7 MB) • (1 animation) (file size: 7.05 MB) • (18 animations) (file size: 30.9 MB) • (2 animations) (file size: 13.7 MB). Animations made by other users By: • (last updated: Aug 7, 2012) • (last updated: Aug 10, 2012) • (last updated: Aug 11, 2012) • (last updated: Aug 12, 2012) By: • (last updated: Aug 27, 2010) • (last updated: Aug 27, 2010) • (last updated: Aug 27, 2010) • (last updated: Aug 27, 2010) Wanna make your own animations too? NOTE: • Some of the files in the section are in RAR format.

World Software News more. If you can't uncompress them. Also note that you need to download ALL parts of the same RAR archive before you can uncompress them.

• Don't miss the section, with MORE animations of a very different style! • 【Anime】 ▶ (31 categories / January 26, 2017) • Air Gear ▶ (October 16, 2009) • (October 16, 2009) • Angel Beats!