Transforming Vista into XP

[Steven Edwards]

With death, comes rebirth.

Unfortunately, reincarnation isn't always pretty. You leave one life as XP, only to enter the next as Vista.

Rebirth is harsh.

Long story short, my old laptop crapped out on me a few months back and (with a few days in bed in the near future at risk) I broke down and purchased a new one yesterday. (For those who care: 1.7 or 1.8ghz AMD Turion 64 X2, 3GB DDR RAM, 160GB SATA, $499 + $50 MIR.)

The new laptop came with Vista Home Premium pre-installed and no free downgrade option available, per the (surprisingly knowledgeable) Office Depot sales guy. My first thought was "format the drive and install Ubuntu," but I decided to give Vista a shot.

I only use the laptop in bed, so I spent about two hours on it this morning after setting up an account yesterday afternoon. I then began an ongoing transformation process, hoping to transform Vista's Aero into the XP interface I know and ... well, tolerate.

Steps so far
Start->Control Panel->Classic View
Start->Control Panel->Ease of Access->Turn Sticky Keys On (http://www.microsoft.com/enable/training/windowsvista/stickykeys.aspx)
Install Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/)
Install Prism 0.9 (http://wiki.mozilla.org/Prism), Google Mail, and Google Reader
Add Keyboard shortcuts for Google Mail (Ctrl+Alt+M) and Google Reader (Ctrl+Alt+R)
Install Mouse Emulator (http://readmesoft.com/keymouse.htm)
Right-click Wallpaper->Personalize (http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/vista/vista_aero_windows.htm)->Open classic appearance properties for more color options->Windows Standard
Start->Control Panel->Windows Sidebar->[disable at startup]
Start->Control Panel->Taskbar and Start Menu->Start Menu->Classic Start Menu (http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-6150810.html) So far, partially good. The Classic View Start Menu isn't like XP's two-column layout, so I hate it.

My next steps include figuring out how to get the two-column Start Menu without the Search box at the bottom (under non-Classic Start Menu->Customize, I'm sure), sync Firefox with OPIE (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6152), and disabling the Confirm/Allow nuisance when installing programs.

With that, I'm hoping Vista will behave similarly to XP and save me a few grey hairs.

Has anyone done this with their system and come away happy? If so, can you offer any advice or tell me if I'm missing any steps? Am I wasting my time? :)

[Andy]

I'd give the aero/vista a chance. I'm finding I like the gadgets on the side of the screen and the screen previews on the bottom bar. Get a good SSD or never shut it down, only use standby and it works great, lol. I've been considering putting Vista on my super duper machine even.

[PN]

Am I wasting my time? :)
I think so. However, you are the one who has to live with this machine. Congratulations on the new laptop. What kind of battery life are you getting and have you watched any movies on it?

[Steven Edwards]

At the default power level, I got about 4 hours over two days. I'm going to try the power saving mode next and see how long that lasts.

I haven't watched any movies yet, but I did watch part 1 of the 2008 Creative Commons Technical Summit (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7ku6r3lW2A) this morning.

Andy, I like Aero's look and feel, but the Alt+Tab changes in Aero kill me. I would give it another shot if I could get XP-like Alt+Tab and Start Menu functionality with it.

Sadly, OPIE didn't work for me. I'm installing the extensions one at a time as I need them. ReminderFox (with a networked reminder file) is next.

[jon 0]

i liked aero's alt tab, but aero uses resources and i don't care about shiney if it eats battery. i've been rocking the win 95 look since well.. 95. i hated aero's start menu programs.