ISSUE387|COMPUTER SHOPPER|MAY2020 103
I
fyou’ve just been made to upgrade to
Windows 10 away fromWindows 7, you
may find the new operating systemtoo
much of adeparturefromwhatyou know and
love. Fortunately,things don’t have to be this
way,and thereare some steps thatyou can
taketomakethe new operating systemact
morelikethe old one.
CHANGE THESTART MENU
Yo udon’t have to be stuck with the Windows
10 Startmenu, as you can makeitlook and act
likethe one in Windows 7. To do this,
download and installthe free Open Shell
(tinyurl.com/openshell–link starts a
download). Once done, the Open Shell
preferences screen will open. Fromhere, you
can select Windows 7style as the option to
get amorefamiliar look.
If you prefer,you can also use the Replace
Startbutton option to give your computer an
older look, although we have to say thatthe
old-style button can look abit out of place.
GET RID OF THE SEARCH BAR
Windows 10 puts agiantsearchbar next to
the Startmenu button, but you can get rid of
this and stick to the search featureinthe Start
menu. To do this, right-click the taskbar and
select Search, Hidden. Yo ucan also right-click
the taskbar and remove the tick fromthe
Show Cortana button option if you don’t
want access to Microsoft’svoice assistant.
RESTORE WINDOWS EXPLORER
If you’renot getting along with Windows
10’snew Explorer for managing files, the
good news is thatyou can download the
OldNewExplorer to restorethe look and feel
thatWindows 7introduced. To do this, you
need to download OldNewExplorer from
tinyurl.com/oldnewexplorer.This will
download a.RAR file, so you’ll need an
application such as 7Zip to extract it (7Zip
can be installed via Ninite following the
instructions on page 99).
Once extracted, run OldNewExplorerCfg.
First, click Install next to Shell extension.
Now you can use the tickboxestoget your
Explorer back to how it usedtolook. We
recommend using ‘Use classical drive
grouping in This PC’,and ‘Use command bar
instead of Ribbon’.Thiswill get you pretty
close to whatWindows 7offered. Note that
existing Explorer windows won’t update, and
you need to closethemdown and reopen
themto see the changes.
ADD THE OLD PERSONALISATION
SHORTCUT
If you right-click theWindows 10 desktop and
select Personalise, you get the new,restricted
menu for choosinghow the operating system
looksand feels. Yo ucan add ashortcut to the
old-style menu that you’refamiliar with from
Windows 7bydoing this. Right-click your
Desktop and select New,Folder. Enter the
folder’s name asPersonalisation.{ED834ED6-
4B5A-4bfe-8F11-A626DCB6A921}andhit
Enter.The new folder will change to an icon of
aPC. Double-click this and you’ll get the larger
ABOVE:If youdon’t likethe new Startmenu, you can replace it menu for changing how your PC looks.
ABOVE:Youcan get rid of the Windows 10
search bar if you don’t likeit
ABOVE:Youcan undo the Windows 10
‘improvements’ to Explorer
MAKEWINDOWS10
ACTLIKEWINDOWS 7
