Dead simple way to make Windows 8 UI into Windows 7 UI?

[fuzzybabybunny]

My dad who is 65 recently bought a Lenovo Yoga. He is desperately frustrated with the Windows 8 UI and can barely use his computer. The change is simply too much and too heavy-handed for him to handle.

I don't have Windows 8.

Is there a super easy way to revert the Windows 8 UI *completely* to Windows 7? No Metro anywhere? He would need to install all this himself, as I'm not around to install anything for him.

 

[crashtestdummy]

Start8 is probably your best bet.

 

[Elixer]

The only way to 100% remove metro is to install win 7 on his device...

While start8 is a option, metro is still there...
He should call up Lenovo and ask them to send win 7 instead, from what I read, they can do that (if you contact the correct person).

 

[Iron Woode]

My dad who is 65 recently bought a Lenovo Yoga. He is desperately frustrated with the Windows 8 UI and can barely use his computer. The change is simply too much and too heavy-handed for him to handle.

I don't have Windows 8.

Is there a super easy way to revert the Windows 8 UI *completely* to Windows 7? No Metro anywhere? He would need to install all this himself, as I'm not around to install anything for him.

this looks like the best solution:

http://blog.laptopmag.com/make-windows-8-like-windows-7

it uses start8 and goes from there with step-by-step instructions.

 

[bbhaag]

Did your father try this Yoga out before he bought it or did he purchase it online site unseen?

 

[schmuckley]

Install Winders7?

 

[Berryracer]

Start8 is probably your best bet.

Negative, I have a license for Start8, while it is good, Stardock will blacklist your key after 5 activations even if it is on the same pc, not good for people who reinstall a lot.

StartIsBack is the best for me because it is the easiest to configure and don't impose any limits on activation, also, the license is cheaper, only $2 USD for a licnese

 

[Ben90]

While I understand change being hard on old people, I'm surprised at all the people on a tech forum resisting Windows 8. I go back to 7 on a couple of VMs and everything is just so clunky.
I'll agree the start screen is horrible, but fortunately you don't ever need to see it.

 

[ViRGE]

not good for people who reinstall a lot.

Who said anything about reinstalling a lot?

Start8 is going to be the best option for what he wants to do.

 

[glugglug]

While I understand change being hard on old people, I'm surprised at all the people on a tech forum resisting Windows 8. I go back to 7 on a couple of VMs and everything is just so clunky.
I'll agree the start screen is horrible, but fortunately you don't ever need to see it.

Anandtech has been around since before '98, so I think you could dig through old messages if you really want to see....

There was almost no resistance to '95, as this was a clear, dramatic upgrade.
There was no resistance to '98, since it was basically just a better looking version of Win95, with FAT32 to start with (FAT32 was inroduced in Win95 OSR2).

There was little resistance to XP, other than it breaking some DOS/9x games, which could be handled by dual booting if you kept a FAT32 partition around.

There was very little resistance to 7, as this was a clear improvement to both Vista and XP, once you figured out how to pin things to the taskbar instead of the quick launch, and fix the setting to make it only combine taskbar entries when full so running apps aren't restricted to the icon.

Even Vista had far less resistance than 8. It has nothing to do with "old people". It's because the previous OSes weren't such a [mess].

No profanity in the tech forums, please.
-ViRGE

 

[Maximilian]

Start8 has options to disable all the stupid metro garbage, but it costs $5 i think.

Classic start is now on par with start8 in terms of features, its free. Make sure you just install classic start and the update for it otherwise it adds extra BS you may not need.

 

[Maximilian]

Anandtech has been around since before '98, so I think you could dig through old messages if you really want to see....

There was almost no resistance to '95, as this was a clear, dramatic upgrade.
There was no resistance to '98, since it was basically just a better looking version of Win95, with FAT32 to start with (FAT32 was inroduced in Win95 OSR2).

There was little resistance to XP, other than it breaking some DOS/9x games, which could be handled by dual booting if you kept a FAT32 partition around.

There was very little resistance to 7, as this was a clear improvement to both Vista and XP, once you figured out how to pin things to the taskbar instead of the quick launch, and fix the setting to make it only combine taskbar entries when full so running apps aren't restricted to the icon.

Even Vista had far less resistance than 8. It has nothing to do with "old people". It's because the previous OSes weren't such a [mess].

Yeah, this. Its a shame but 8 is the only one of the OSes thats bad by design. It was never intended for windows millenium to be a crash happy failure or for vista to have driver issues and run dog slow on older hardware but 8 is actually meant to be this way, that's the worst part about it IMO.

 

[Pardus]

Classic Shell can make Windows 8.0 and 8.1 look and feel like Windows 7. I boot to my desktop and never see Metro unless I need/want to and have a fully customized start menu. Best of all, it's free.

http://www.classicshell.net/

Before:

After:

 

[crashtestdummy]

Anandtech has been around since before '98, so I think you could dig through old messages if you really want to see....

There was almost no resistance to '95, as this was a clear, dramatic upgrade.
There was no resistance to '98, since it was basically just a better looking version of Win95, with FAT32 to start with (FAT32 was inroduced in Win95 OSR2).

There was little resistance to XP, other than it breaking some DOS/9x games, which could be handled by dual booting if you kept a FAT32 partition around.

There was very little resistance to 7, as this was a clear improvement to both Vista and XP, once you figured out how to pin things to the taskbar instead of the quick launch, and fix the setting to make it only combine taskbar entries when full so running apps aren't restricted to the icon.

Even Vista had far less resistance than 8. It has nothing to do with "old people". It's because the previous OSes weren't such a [mess].

No profanity in the tech forums, please.
-ViRGE

The thing that drives me absolutely batty is that the PR problem would be so easily fixable. All you need is a "classic mode" that looks just like Windows 7, and you're set. It wouldn't be hard for them to implement. People resistant to change could stay on the old way. As they eventually get curious and start playing with the start screen, they get used to it and switch. The fact that Start8 and Classic Shell showed up so quickly tells you that this wouldn't be a difficult fix to implement.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

The thing that drives me absolutely batty is that the PR problem would be so easily fixable. All you need is a "classic mode" that looks just like Windows 7, and you're set. It wouldn't be hard for them to implement. People resistant to change could stay on the old way. As they eventually get curious and start playing with the start screen, they get used to it and switch. The fact that Start8 and Classic Shell showed up so quickly tells you that this wouldn't be a difficult fix to implement.

I'm one of those people that actually enjoys metro on something with a keyboard - because I type everything. I just quickly type Photosh- and hit enter and it runs. I type Calc and up pops the calculator. I like having a single 'store' to download all the apps from. I like having an OS brought together with universal search since that's how I use the internet anyway.

But like many would agree, the implementation is awful and way too heavy handed. The new UI is a night and day difference from the old one, and MS is forcing people to adapt with no choice in the matter. I feel sorry for the people who are less computer literate and less adaptable and I don't blame them one bit for hating the change. I had even hoped that 8.1 would have introduced a Windows 7 Only mode, but it didn't.

 

[Sheep221]

I'm one of those people that actually enjoys metro on something with a keyboard - because I type everything. I just quickly type Photosh- and hit enter and it runs. I type Calc and up pops the calculator. I like having a single 'store' to download all the apps from. I like having an OS brought together with universal search since that's how I use the internet anyway.

But like many would agree, the implementation is awful and way too heavy handed. The new UI is a night and day difference from the old one, and MS is forcing people to adapt with no choice in the matter. I feel sorry for the people who are less computer literate and less adaptable and I don't blame them one bit for hating the change. I had even hoped that 8.1 would have introduced a Windows 7 Only mode, but it didn't.

The programs you use all the time you either pin to taskbar directly or setup a quick launch for them. The typing for something you use on daily basis was never my thing, as the less important programs I just find manually in the start menu/metro screen or just minimize everything and run it via desktop icon.

 

[ninaholic37]

While I understand change being hard on old people, I'm surprised at all the people on a tech forum resisting Windows 8. I go back to 7 on a couple of VMs and everything is just so clunky.

In a (Windows 8) VM? With an OS that allows you freedom to have things like Aero theme? Wow, amazing.

I think your "testing method" is very short-sighted. Windows 7 is smooth and works great on my Atom netbook.

 

[daveybrat]

Classic Shell can make Windows 8.0 and 8.1 look and feel like Windows 7. I boot to my desktop and never see Metro unless I need/want to and have a fully customized start menu. Best of all, it's free.

http://www.classicshell.net/

Before:

After:

Agree 100%. We install Classic Shell on all of our customer's Windows 8 laptops and desktops. They love it.

 

[TeknoBug]

Start8 is probably your best bet.

2nd that, well worth the $5, and you can eliminate a few nagging features of Win 8 with Start8 (like the charms, taskbar transparency, etc).

Negative, I have a license for Start8, while it is good, Stardock will blacklist your key after 5 activations even if it is on the same pc, not good for people who reinstall a lot.

StartIsBack is the best for me because it is the easiest to configure and don't impose any limits on activation, also, the license is cheaper, only $2 USD for a licnese

That's weird, hasn't happened to me yet, I know I've installed Start8 (and Objectdock and ModernMix) more than 5 times across a few PC's.

 

[postmark]

Don't listen to berryracer about start 8. He just had a bone to pick. I've reinstalled probably 10 easily across 3 hardware configurations with no issues.