What's up, people!~
In a previous video, I did a small mention that if we get 3,333 likes under the video, then I'll make a video of me transforming Windows 11 to Windows 2000.
Precisely that number was impossible for us to reach, BUT there are over 3,000 likes, so that should do the trick.
And since I promised, let's get started.
[Daniel's Intro] (Subtitles made by Chaimann) (Aloha, fellow SponsorBlock users)
Windows 11 chose to move away from that old Legacy design and other that has been present in Windows since Vista all along, so Microsoft has really done a decent job of freshening up the interface.
Mostly :DDDDD
Beautiful animations, the design itself is a joy to look at. However... why don't we go back to the level of Windows 2000, without needing to bring back the old version of Windows?
This is what today's video is all about.
What do we want to do anyway?
First, make Windows 11 look as close as possible to Windows 2000.
Second, try to keep the whole thing at least functional and avoid any "tribal dancing".
Will this work or will it not? I have no clue, which is why it will most likely be an amateur project of interface modification.
Many people might be like, "Daniel, what kind of obfuscation is this? You got nothing better to do...?"
First of all, I have always been interested in digging into any system, whether it's Windows or Linux. I have never dug into MacOS, since I don't own any device running it, while Hackintosh is a bit of a bummer for me.
As for Linux, I don't really know it as well as I know Windows systems, which is my prerequisite for making some good videos. * - but only for now))))
But we're getting a little off topic. Okay, let's get started and as we go through the process, we will slowly get acquainted with the software needed for the redesign.
Before we start, let's make sure we have a restore point in case something goes wrong.
And even if it doesn't happen, no big deal - this action is still good for you.
Besides, from the archive with all the programs for the redesign (I will leave a link to the archive in my Telegram channel as well), in the zero-point folder you will need to install the latest version of .NET Runtime - it is used for running some of the applications.
The old task manager also needs to be installed - because the modern version of it has no clue that there is a "classic style" rendering option.
As you can see already, when you turn on the classic theme, our modern task manager tells us "adios" at the moment of startup, which we don't want to see, right?
One last thing before you start, we should turn off Windows Defender completely - there are no viruses and other harmful programs in the archive, it is just me personally who doesn't like Windows Defender.
Once all the preparations are done, the system must be rebooted and at this point I want to remind you that all the actions are done in a virtual machine.
Any sloppy move or unaware action would increase the risk of a total system breakdown. So, now let's get started.
And I forgot to tell you that everything here is tested on Windows 11 build 22000.493.
Our first step will be copying the files to the C: drive. For this purpose, create a folder that's called "Classic", for example, and drop all the files that are present in the folder with the first point (1.) there.
This folder contains subfolders with the address bar and explorer icons; the RetroBar program, which modifies your system's taskbar to look like any old version of Windows - from Windows 98 to Windows Vista...
...and the ClassicThemeTray.exe file, which is just the thing to edit some items in your RAM to enable classic design theme, that was present in the older Windows.
Once we have copied the necessary files into our Classic folder, located on the C: drive, we will now work with the Task Scheduler and create some specific tasks there.
To do this, open the Task Scheduler, go to the "Microsoft" folder and click on "Create Task". There, we enter the name of the task as "Classic", check the box for the task to run with highest privileges and mark it as "hidden".
In the "Triggers" tab, we create the task's conditions: make sure that it will be always executed when you log into the system.
In the "Actions" tab, create 4 commands, which are shown on the screenshot. The first command invokes the Task Scheduler and performs a task named "Apps", which we will be created later...
The next command is the one that turns on the program that will give us the classic theme; it will repeat its process, but with a different task and a BAT file, which will reload explorer.exe for us.
In the "Conditions" tab, uncheck all the checkboxes there, and in "Settings" you'll need to uncheck the checkboxes about stopping tasks.
That's it. However, this is still only one task - we need to create two more.
The second task is called Classic2. It will be unhidden and will not run with highest privileges. The triggers and other settings are identical to the previous task. The only difference is the command - this one will call userinit.exe.
The third task will be called Apps. Since UWP applications are not started by default because of the classic theme, we are going to start them manually. The problem is all in one file, which just does not start at startup - the ApplicationFrameHost.exe
All settings and triggers are the same as in the previous tasks.
After we have created the tasks in the scheduler, we must edit the registry, one particular value that points at userinit.exe.
The userinit.exe is used for initializing user environment: which means it logs you in, applies group policy, starts the shell from the Shell value in the registry, and so on.
In order to do that, go to that registry path and change the value of "userinit" in it to the task scheduler file path, which contains the task that will start up that initialization.
Sounds kind of confusing and cyclical, doesn't it...?
If it does, then I'm sorry.
The next step is to bring back the taskbar from Windows 10, the classic Alt+Tab window, and the old Explorer design as well as other minor things related to Explorer.exe.
We will need an ExplorerPatcher program for this purpose.
We will import a registry file before installing, which will set up some of the available settings already.
Once ExplorerPatcher is installed, Explorer will restart and you will see just a black bar instead of the Taskbar. This is absolutely normal, don't be scared.
Open the ExplorerPatcher settings and adjust them as shown on the screenshots.
[pause the video if it's too fast for you]
Once all the settings are set and the "Restart File Explorer" in the lower left corner is clicked, you will see the old window switching design dating back to the first Windows NT and the old edited design of Windows Explorer from Windows 7.
It is now time to install RetroBar, which will mimic the taskbar design from the older Windows versions.
You need to select the system color palette and check the box in the settings to autorun the program with the system.
You can set the taskbar theme all the way up to Windows Vista; change the tray and hide unused icons; and make your own quick launch bar.
Basically, everything here is like before...
Let's bring back the classic Start menu. To do this, we can use the Open-Shell program. It was introduced in 2018.
This program is a fork of Classic Shell, whose developer discontinued its development in 2017, leaving it to the community to maintain.
This program not only brings back the Start menu, but also modifies the Explorer and the Internet Explorer.
Except that the last program hardly needs any modifications.
Once we have installed the Open-Shell, we need to import the Start Menu and Toolbar settings into the program; replace the one DLL file in the Open-Shell directory and copy the entire Skins folder.
The DLL replacement, however, must be done with Open-Shell turned off, or else Explorer will complain about the file in use.
At this point, it's time to turn off some of the default system effects and set the Windows NT-era mouse pointer.
It's very easy to perform, I don't think there's any need for me to explain.
But for, so to speak, "extremes" the archive contains a folder called Extras with additional DLL-files for changing the branding pictures in the "About" window and some mouse pointer from Windows 98 - if you want to play around with it.
At this point, we need to check if the classic theme is actually running. For this, reboot your PC.
Perfect. It all works the way it was supposed to. The whole process was worth the effort. We can move to the next step now.
We'll bring back the classic theme color schemes that were in older Windows versions: you know, the "Classic", "Rainy Day", "Lilac", "Plum", the list goes on.
For this, run the registry file and open the "deskn.cpl", a file that contains the old "Appearance" tab design.
And voilà, now you have the classic color schemes. As a bonus, not only the standard ones are available here, but also some custom ones.
Next, let's bring back the 3D borders for the lists - by also running the .reg file.
The next program on the list is AutoHotKey.
It can do anything you want with the system interface, starting from disabling the "minimize" button or the ability to resize the window to completely changing the buttons' positions or creating new functions altogether.
The only thing you need to know is how to program these functions, which requires you to know programming in general.
Luckily, though, we won't have to write our own code for the classic theme in this video, as we already have some ready-to-use scripts for that!
Therefore, download the latest version from the official site, install AutoHotKey, open the "To your startup folder" directory and drop all the files from this folder into our startup one.
Now we have to work with the explorer and the toolbar. As you see, we don't have any third-party toolbars here, while the standard ones were dropped a long time ago or were deeply hidden.
So in case you have the same problem with the panels as I do in the video, then open the registry editor, go to the path you see on the screen, just put 0 in the "ShowedToolbar" value there and save it.
If you open any "Explorer" window, the value will instantly change to 1 and the toolbar will appear in front of you.
Because this toolbar is a part of Open-Shell, and hence we have already imported all the necessary settings from a file, let's go straight to returning the address bar.
The Quero Toolbar program will help us with this.
After installing it and after setting it in the Explorer, you will see this program in the toolbar list - turn it on and there you have it, the address bar.
And not just any ordinary address bar: any search query can be entered there directly from Explorer and it will immediately open one of the search engines you selected in the settings.
But all we need to do is hide the navigation buttons and set a theme that just replaces the toolbar logo with the Address label, making it look like a Windows 2000 style bar.
Actually, the basic redesign can be called complete.
The next thing is just some minor explorer tweaks, such as setting the desktop background, bringing back the old account sign-out window, and so on and so forth for those who are curious and won't stop at just the redesign.
I even wanted to test it all on a real PC for fun - how it would work under, shall we say, some real conditions.
But does it work on real hardware? That's what we're about to find out. (redhotsonic intensifies)
In order to do this, I asked my Ryzen 5 2600 mate to boot Windows 11 with the classic theme installed.
And what did you think, the system booted up very quickly: the classic theme applied right away.
The Start Menu works, Explorer does not crash like Nokia when dropped, so in general, with built-in software everything was okay, moreover, Windows managed to install the GPU driver while the system was up.
Although I originally installed it in a virtual machine...
All the software that my brother ran in this sort of classic Windows 11 operated without any problems at all.
Edge, Firefox, Audacity, AIMP, and even some exotic software like Bawami for MIDI playback also worked without graphical glitches or problems at all.
That is why I don't think there are any major problems with the actual hardware. I can confidently say that you can use your system with this design without any problems whatsoever.
And despite the classic theme, the overall graphical performance has not decreased at all.
In fact, Windows still uses DWM to draw its windows. Although, it's in the classic style now, but still.
In other words, you won't catch any graphical glitches in the form of window dashes or slowly appearing windows.
And because of this, the UWP applications still work fine on the system - as if they had never been touched.
Speaking of the usefulness of the classic theme, it's up to your taste.
It looks nice, yes, the programs do not conflict with it at all, and it is impossible to notice the performance decrease.
Unlike replacing the bootscreen picture, this does not modify the system kernel at all, which means that it will work with some, shall we say, anti-cheats or cryptographic programs.
But whether you need it or not is up to you to determine.
And that's about it. Give me a big thumbs up if you liked this video.
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Thank you for watching. Until we meet again!~