How to Make Windows Vista Look and Behave More Like Windows XP

For people who have become accustomed to using Windows XP, there are a few annoyances in how Windows Vista looks and acts which can cause confusion or irritation. These steps will help you make a few changes in Vista so some of its basic functionality will more closely resemble Windows XP.

These are changes I have made for several friends and acquaintances who purchased new computers that came with Vista, and all found these changes helpful.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A computer running Windows Vista

1. In the Windows Welcome Center which launches automatically at startup, locate the checkbox ("Run at Startup") in the lower-left corner of the window and uncheck it. Close the Windows Welcome Center.

2. 
   Windows Sidebar icon

   In the "system tray" -- the lower-right area of the screen where the clock is -- hover over each icon to locate the "Windows Sidebar" icon.

3. Right click the Windows Sidebar icon and choose Exit.

4. 
   Windows Sidebar dialog box

   When prompted, uncheck the checkbox for "Start Sidebar when Windows starts" and click the Exit Sidebar button.

5. Right click on a blank area of the taskbar at the bottom of the screen and choose Properties.

6. 
   Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box

   Select the Start Menu tab, and click the radio button for "Classic Start menu".

7. Click OK to close the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box.

8. Click the Start button and navigate to Settings --> Control Panel.

9. 
   Control Panel window

   In the left-hand area, click "Classic View".

10. Scroll down if necessary and double-click on the "User Accounts" icon.

11. Click "Turn User Account Control on or off"

12. A prompt will appear stating that Windows needs your permission to continue. Click the "Continue" button.

13. 

    Uncheck the checkbox for "Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer" and click OK.

14. You may receive a prompt to restart your computer. Close any open programs, and click the "Restart Now" button.

15. After the computer restarts, click the Start button and navigate to Settings - Control Panel.

16. In the Control Panel window, double-click the Security Center icon.

17. 

    In the left-hand area of the dialog box, click the link for "Change the way Security Center alerts me".

18. 

    Click the option "Don't notify me and don't display the icon (not recommended)".

19. Click the X in the upper-right hand corner of the Windows Security Center dialog box to close it.

20. Back in the Control Panel window, double-click the "Folder Options" icon.

21. On the General tab, click the radio button for "Use Windows classic folders".

22. 

    On the View tab, checkmark the following options: "Always show menus" and "Display the full path in the title bar".

23. On the View tab, remove the checkmark from "Hide extensions for known file types".

24. Click OK to apply the changes and close the Folder Options dialog box.

25. Close the Control Panel window.

26. Double-click the book icon in the upper-left corner labeled with your user name.

27. Click the View menu, and select Details.

28. 
    Show folders.

    In the lower-left corner of the Computer window, click the word "Folders" to show the folder display.

29. Click the Tools menu, and select Folder Options.

30. On the View tab, click the "Apply to Folders" button.

31. If prompted "Do you want all folders of this type to match this folder's view settings?", click Yes.

32. Click OK to exit the Folder Options dialog box.

33. You're done!

Tips & Warnings

• These steps assume you are starting from a 'clean', fresh out-of-the-box installation of Windows Vista.
• Of all these steps--which I have performed for many friends and acquaintances--the one that everyone finds most useful is changing the Start menu back to its Windows XP appearance.
• Step 13 - User Account Control (UAC) is intended to protect your computer by notifying you when something is attempting to perform an "administrator"-type action. In theory, this is good; in practice, however, Vista raises UAC prompts so often about perfectly harmless things that it will drive you crazy. While there is some risk to turning it off, in my opinion it is equally likely that if left on, a user will become so inured to the constant UAC prompts that the UAC dialog boxes will be dismissed without being read.
• Step 17 - If you turn off UAC to get rid of its annoying prompts, Windows Security Center will then give you its own annoying prompts that UAC is turned off. This step gets rid of these Windows Security Center prompts. Note that Windows Security Center will also alert you to other more useful things -- such as not having an anti-virus program installed. So be sure to install anti-virus software, anti-spyware software, etc., and keep them up-to-date.