I'm with you - there are a bunch of luddites out there who will not be happy until they can make their pc look like Windows 7.
It's not being Luddites, it's mostly about basic functionality, and/or customisation. That's what "Personalisation" is all about.
We are generally Power Users that refuse to accept inferior products/design, and will find a way to make it run better for us.
My use case is personal, applies to nobody but me, but I know exactly why/when I want to tweak things.
Neither W10, or W11 Provide me with the functional UI my needs demand
Some features were/are better (for me) in XP, Vista, W7, W10, and W11.
I'm running on W11 Pro 22H2 v22622.440, so hardly a Luddite that wants W7, I can do that, by using W7
Many do, some are still using XP, if anything it's anybodies a Luddite, it's those people.
The Luddites were MS with the awful "Windows Phone on Desktop attitude of the only Windows I never tried W8.
An abomination from the Start rightly rejected out of hand, even Vista had good parts, but ran like crap, so a close second.
I have hated the dumbed down "Do you guys not have phones (for Desktops)", that evolved from the W8 abomination, to what's now in Windows 11.
It's simply not fit for (My) purpose. Plus I detest the flat as a pancake so called "Modern" Icons.
Don't get me wrong "Default" settings are fine, that's where the Dev Vision should start, but more importantly end
As long as I can reject that default, and make my own choices, I'm happy, but all to often these days MS makes their "Default", the only choice, taking away customisation option we've always had, in a deliberate policy of trying to give users no choice at all.
The new context menu has nice features, for instance, the Recycle Bin Icon, click to zap, that's a great addition, but it's been utterly ruined by being a NEW context menu, hiding the old one power users like me require all the time, for all the things we add to give us the functions we use the most.
That new feature, should have been added to the existing context menu, and just like with the Start Menu debacle with W8, that single choice more than anything else, has turned most users off from W11, and just Like with W8, it will be considered a failure, and skipped over for the fast approaching W12
On the bright side?, maybe we're now on a odd version bad, even version good, but only because MS skipped W9, in reality it's the same old cycle, MS gets it new version badly wrong, rushes out a corrected version, that fixes what was so bad most users wouldn't touch it.
Fact is every Major Windows release has had good new parts, mostly unchanged parts, and some downright awful parts.
It's those of you that meekly accept the downright awful, and do nothing to make it better for your own use case, that need a kick up the ass, because, no Windows is perfect, and sometimes the old way was far better than the stupid new way MS tried to push.
What parts we think are the awful ones, varies with each of our use case,s and I can only talk of mine.
The Taskbar, and Start Menu, are an awful, and unusable pile of dogpoop on my setup.
Monitor(s):
3 × [2013-04-03] Dell U2711 A12 – 27” IPS, 1440p @ 60Hz
Now one is a backup, gaming centre one
[2021-07-07] ASUS ROG Swift PG329Q Gaming Monitor – 32” Fast IPS, 1440p @ 165 Hz, G-Sync Compatible
Cascading Start Menu
I have over 600 games installed ready to play, many old, that require Full Screen functionality for best experience.
I multi task often, and mod games a lot, I have many game Specific utilities, all in a carefully arranged folder structure.
I require an All Programs menu, that preserves my folder structure.
When accessed by a Cascading mouse over menus, that was working fine in W7.
With Windows 10, these were put on one level, that's 1000s of my programs and games, all thrown together in a jumbled mess.
I know exactly where I put every one of them, (Installed outside Windows Drive to keep MSs grubby hands well away from them).
With the cascading on mouse over all Programs menu, I can find them fast just by moving my mouse, I don't really use the Stat Menu for any other reason, except to shutdown my PC
Resizable Taskbar
I must have the taskbar on the left hand Screen, it is my go to for startup use, But I also must have the Quick Launch Folder for just one main reason, I can use the Recycle Bin from that folder, but not the Taskbar. It even shows the Full/Empty icon correctly.
I have a lot of Programs, Either pinned to Taskbar, or the Quick Launch folder.
Open-Shell-Menu, gives me what I need, Explorer Patcher was needed for W11.
I use 7+ Taskbar Tweaker for one feature, the Large Icons, with so much of the Taskbars features obscured behind undocumented single bit, toggle switches in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StuckRects3
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StuckRectsLegacy
Using 7+ Taskbar Tweaker is just easier
Here's a Pic of what Open-Shell can do, gives me just what I need, and gets rid of all the crap I don't want, or use.
Arrow, starts the cascading All programs menu on mouse over, and a shutdown button., that's all I use.
This is a new Install, so not repopulated my Auto hidden Taskbar Fully yet, I'll likely have three rows full of Icons, and that keeps System Tray from getting too wide, as pretty much everything that is running from the System Tray, gets shown to me.
On the Desktop Stardock Fences has similar On Mouse Over Drop Down functions for the 600+ games and even more Mod tools I use for them. Note I have 11 versions of VTMB installed, even with 3 screens, without fences I would have to use small Icons to get it all to fit
So for me it's about functionality first, then looks come second.
Taskbar, and Start Menu, are unusable in my setup, and I use Desktop until screen is in use, and only switch to the start Menu for less commonly used stuff. Most things, that have the functionality get added to the Context Menus for easy use.
Others choose look first, and nothing beats Open-Shell-Menu with Classic Explorer for customising the entire Destkop in one harmonious design, and with these people, getting back to W7 layout is just the first step on the long road to making their own unique looking Windows Shell.
Again, even with these it's more that the functionality of Classic Explorer, allows total customisation of the entire Shell, that drives them, than simply making it look just like W7 did, their is an entire subculture of tools to do this, StarDock Object Desktop Suite, Rainmeter, etc, and huge parts of Deviant Art were dedicated to this Windows customisation effort.
I've never really gone down the looks route that much, Using Fences is more about the Functionality for me, but it's just one of many customisation programs in the Object Desktop Suite.
This is the entire reason "Personalization" exists, and it's been largely crippled since W7,.
If we were "Luddites", we would still be using XP, and W7, Not W11, the build I'm using isn't even publicly released yet.
github.com
