Is it possible to use Windows XP's explorer.exe in Windows 7?

By WinClassicFan
in Tips, Tweaks & Customization

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Grand Master

Fraud OS 11

Posted
Posted
Is there anyway to get he [+] boxes back next to Folders without any other changes?

That same addon, Classic Shell has an option in Classic Explorer Settings button "Enable classic tree style". That will give you +/- boxes. If that's what you mean by "without any other changes". You can't do it OOTB.

Grand Master

Xerxes

Posted
Posted
Why do people upgrade if all they are going to do is want to revert to the older versions of parts of the OS?
My theory is this: if they didn't upgrade, they wouldn't have anything to rant about on forums. I mean really, how many responses would you get if you created a new topic with the theme: Well, I'm stilling running XP. Probably not many.
Seriously? You prefer the old explorer file browser with its useless task pane to the Windows 7 browser? Wow...

To each their own I suppose.

It's called choice, same reason why people customize their PC/iPhone/Car etc. We aren't all mindless clones, everyone has their own opinion ;) I don't see why you guys have your undies in a twist, your acting like it's you that's getting forced to use it.

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Salty Wagyu

Posted
Posted

I hope Microsoft include file sizes on the status bar on the bottom in a future service pack when looking at a number of files in a folder, e.g rars., it's one of those annoyances and requires extra effort to select all files and click properties instead to see.

Not a lot of information shown really :/ As shown in screenshot:

post-250813-1261267741.png

Grand Master

Xerxes

Posted
Posted
I hope Microsoft include file sizes on the status bar on the bottom in a future service pack when looking at a number of files in a folder, e.g rars., it's one of those annoyances and requires extra effort to select all files and click properties instead to see.

Not a lot of information shown really :/ As shown in screenshot:

What are you smoking mate? it's right there already!

EDIT: Although if you include a folder in the selection the total size field disappears, but for just groups of files it works just fine as shown below.

post-44573-1261271693_thumb.png

  • 2 weeks later...
Veteran

Owen W Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

Posts like this are ridiculous, you need to embrace change, not stay stuck in the past. These are small improvements which actually make life easier/usually have a viable/better alternative thats why it was originally changed.

Stick with XP.

Grand Master

TCA

Posted
Posted
Kind of reminds me when I was a kid and tried to copy the programs from one computer to my computer, but basically put the shortcuts on a floppy. My dad told me I was stupid.

Hahahaha.

lol wow and to the OP if you don't like the explorer with win7 then stay with xp. if you don't want to do that then i suggest you get over it and use win7 as it. i have win7 and i don't mind the explorer shell at all. (bc i came off of windows s**tsta

Guest xiphi

Posted
Posted
So removing manual arranging for example AND forcing auto sort/refresh is an improvement?

I actually like the auto sort/refresh, and I never used manual arrangments. The explorer in Vista/7 have features that I consider valuable to me: breadcrumb, search bar, a simpler commandbar, editing metadata straight from explorer's detail pane, and improved file copy operations.

Grand Master

notuptome2004

Posted
Posted

because of a classic grey theme wow 1 thing stopping you from switching to windows 7 and that is a damn classic look theme color omg that is pathetic may as well go back to windows 98se then cause oh it has a grey theme .

sorry but yea 1 thing like that no now if it was some harsh incompatibility with software or hardware then i would go oh ok oh and sorry to sound rude but ya know

Proficient

Madoshi

Posted
Posted
because of a classic grey theme wow 1 thing stopping you from switching to windows 7 and that is a damn classic look theme color omg that is pathetic may as well go back to windows 98se then cause oh it has a grey theme .

sorry but yea 1 thing like that no now if it was some harsh incompatibility with software or hardware then i would go oh ok oh and sorry to sound rude but ya know

yeah, there is a harsh incompatibility with Windows 7: me

i am not ready to learn a new OS on my 24/7 box

Grand Master

notuptome2004

Posted
Posted
yeah, there is a harsh incompatibility with Windows 7: me

i am not ready to learn a new OS on my 24/7 box

then what is the incompatibility and it cant be because ya have to learn the new OS cause that is simple windows 7 is fast and easy to learn .

Proficient

Madoshi

Posted
Posted
then what is the incompatibility and it cant be because ya have to learn the new OS cause that is simple windows 7 is fast and easy to learn .

i am currently trying out Windows 7 on my Panasonic ToughBook because of it's huge 1600x1200 LCD. it works perfectly fine. no, it is not "fast and easy to learn". it works well considering the hardware and what i do on that machine. i will probably leave it on there.

moving to a newer OS on my 24/7 box would slow me down too much. not to mention Win 7's UI, which does not fit very well on two 1024x768 LCDs side by side.

before you say or ask: no, i will not upgrade my monitors either. i don't have extra money for that type of stuff, what i have is plenty good for me.

you know, i remember having this type of discussion back when Vista first came out. people couldn't understand why i still ran 2000 Pro.

does it really matter? why do some people always attack me with their "Win 7 is win" garbage? I AM WELL AWARE OF WINDOWS SEVEN THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Grand Master

notuptome2004

Posted
Posted
i am currently trying out Windows 7 on my Panasonic ToughBook because of it's huge 1600x1200 LCD. it works perfectly fine. no, it is not "fast and easy to learn". it works well considering the hardware and what i do on that machine. i will probably leave it on there.

moving to a newer OS on my 24/7 box would slow me down too much. not to mention Win 7's UI, which does not fit very well on two 1024x768 LCDs side by side.

before you say or ask: no, i will not upgrade my monitors either. i don't have extra money for that type of stuff, what i have is plenty good for me.

you know, i remember having this type of discussion back when Vista first came out. people couldn't understand why i still ran 2000 Pro.

does it really matter? why do some people always attack me with their "Win 7 is win" garbage? I AM WELL AWARE OF WINDOWS SEVEN THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

ok well my mother witch is computer illiterate and has only used XP for 3 years now has windows 7 on her machine her used machin with 1.5gb of ram AMD athlon XP 2200+ and a 17" CRT screen and she did not have to ask me what to do in 7 she very quickly understood how things worked .

Now as far as your 2x 1024 screens go i understand i dont have the cnage myself but you can get now days but it always hits the wrong time of month for me 20" screens 20" wides for 140 or less way way less a friend of mine just got a 23" Asus for $99 on -sale it was a 2 day thing not sure where he got it but he got it fast and it is 1920x1080 rez.

Community Regular

ShamRocker1

Posted
Posted
I'm not a big fan of the new Windows Explorer. I'm one of those people trying to migrate from XP to 7, having never gone through Vista and there are a couple of things about 7's explorer that bother me.

So I was wondering, would it be possible to just use Windows XP's explorer.exe in Windows 7? I already used that "method" to deal with a few other problems, for instance the new Calculator looks pretty horrible in Classic theme and after I changed the fonts in the registry to get rid of Segoe UI it became basically unusable so I've just been using calc.exe from Windows XP which works fine.

Now, I have Windows 7 x64, so I tried doing the same thing with explorer.exe - copied it from XP and tried it in 7, but it doesn't work. I get this message: "The application was unable to start correctly (0xc0000142)". My question is - is this because my XP is 32-bit and explorer.exe as a 32-bit application cannot run in windows 7, being much more "complicated" than the calc, or is it because it's simply incompatible. If it's the former, then if I found a copy of Windows XP 64-bit Edition's explorer.exe would that run on 7 or should I not bother at all...

Alternatively, the main things that bother me in the new Windows Explorer are:

1) Status bar does not show available free space or anything else besides number of items selected

2) The + signs on the navigation side disappear if the cursor is not in that section, which is mighty annoying.

3) The bar that starts with "Organize" looks dreadful in classic mode and is really useless when you have the standard menu and I would give anything to get rid of it.

If anyone knows a way to fix anyone of those things I would be eternally grateful!

Are u serious? Billy get a clue. LOL

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