Getting Windows 7 To Look Like 95, 98 or 2000

I gotta hand it to Microsoft, because the theme can be modified out-of-the-box to look just like 2000 or 95/98 very easily. This is cool because for old-school users like me there are times when you want 7's stability but the look of an older Windows.

Check this out:

That is Windows 7 you're seeing. It's got the old Start button, the familiar gray bar colors, taskbar icons, labeled running programs and so on. It's all possible.

To get it to look this way, do the following:

1. Click the Start logo, type theme, and click Change the theme from the search results.
2. Choose the theme Windows Classic and apply it.
3. Click the Start button, type taskbar, and click Taskbar and Start menu from the search results.
4. On the Taskbar tab, check Use small icons, and for the Taskbar buttons drop-down menu on the same tab, choose Never combine. Then click Apply then OK.

That's all there is to it.

Published 2009 Oct 23