Transform Windows Vista into Windows 7

Every day, technology is always changing. Software has to be constantly updated to fit with demand. Recently, Microsoft has unveiled a new operating system, called Windows 7. Succeeding Windows Vista, Windows 7 has updates to your favorite programs, such as Internet Explorer, and other elements (i.e. taskbars, boot screens, and the login screen).

If you are strapped for cash for a new operating system or waiting for Windows 7's price to go down, some ways exist to modify your Windows Vista system to appear just like Windows 7. By reading this tutorial you will see some simple steps to make Vista similar to the new Windows 7 and the following programs/features will be modified to match those of Windows 7:

• Window Theme/Visual Style
• Boot Screen
• Login Screen
• Taskbar
• About Windows
• Wallpaper, Sounds, and Icons
• Extra features like Aero Shake, Aero Snap and  Aero Peek

Microsoft has made updates to the taskbar and the start menu. If you are an Apple fan, you may notice some similarities to OS X's display to the new Windows 7. Many themes and schemes exist for your viewing pleasure!

Check out the theme below or Google for some more, you will surely find tons of them online. http://giannisgx89.deviantart.com/art/Windows-7-Style-For-Vista-102269037

For this theme to work you need to patch some windows files to enable 3^rd party themes, you need VistaGlazz.

Then just extract the rar file, and copy/paste the contents of the ’Theme’ folder to C:\Windows\Resources\Themes, then open Windows 7 folder and click on Windows 7.msstyles to apply the theme.

New to Windows 7 is the animated boot screen (while in Vista it is just an empty black screen with just a progress bar). Also, you might have noticed that Windows 7 has a new animated logo.  An almost exact boot screen exists for Windows Vista, but it is not animated, but it’s cool enough.

Download it from here: http://killer7ben.deviantart.com/art/Windows-7-6956-Bootscreen-105756511

You might need 3^rd party software to install and apply this boot screen, there are a lot of softwares out there that can do this for you.

Windows 7's login screen has been altered too, the image was changed, download the new Windows 7 login screen here: http://www.deviantart.com/download/115665545/Win_7_Build_7057_Login_Screen_by_Vishal_Gupta.zip

To apply this logon screen you need to install Stardock LogonStudio for Vista from http://www.stardock.com/products/logonstudio/ this is a freeware.

The taskbar in Windows 7 does not show text near the icon, unlike Windows Vista. To achieve that effect you need to open regedit and find the key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

And find or create “MinWidth” and set the value of 56, and restart your computer, this will set the taskbar items to look just like Windows 7 (showing only the icon)

In addition, the taskbar icons can be placed anywhere on the taskbar, you are free to move them, group them etc, in Vista and older versions of windows the buttons in the taskbar are displayed in the same sequence that you opened them, with the “Taskbar Shuffle” utility, you can move these buttons in whatever way you like, to do so just download this program from http://nerdcave.webs.com/.

5. Download Wallpapers, Sounds, and Icons

With Windows 7, new sound themes are added. Download these themes by clicking the links below.

Windows 7 wallpapers - http://mintywhite.com/tech/wallpaper/official-windows-7-wallpaper-pack-m3-build-6801/

Windows 7 sounds - http://www.intowindows.com/download-windows-7-sounds-for-vista-xp/

Windows 7 icons - http://www.intowindows.com/category/icons/

6. About Windows Box Dialog Box

Since the logo in Windows Vista is not the same as Windows 7, change the bitmap file by downloading some bitmap files from http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?rjny4xcntdt. Later, proceed to the folder labeled "%windir%\Branding\Basebrd\" and search for a file named "basebrd.dll". Soon after you complete this, you need to take ownership of the file, so you will be able to edit it, if you don’t know how to do this a simple Google search will surely tell you how.

After taking ownership, open the “basebrd.dll” file with Resource Hacker, which you can download from http://angusj.com/resourcehacker/ , and later replace these bitmap images with these following files and save.

Bitmap → 100 → 1033*

Bitmap → 101 → 1033*

Bitmap → 110 → 1033**

Bitmap → 111 → 1033**

*This file replaces About_Windows.bmp

**This file replaces About_Windows_Seperator.bmp

7. Extra Features You Might Want:

Windows 7 includes three new manageable actions – Aero Shake, Aero Snap, and Aero Peek.

First, Aero Shake deals with managing sizes of windows. Previously, you had to click the minimize icon on the window's title bar to minimize the window. With Windows 7, instead of minimizing the window using title bar, you just shake the window by moving your mouse and all the other windows will be minimized. In addition, the rest of the windows will be quickly maximized by shaking a maximized window. To get this effect in Vista download and run this application http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/11/Aero_Shake.exe 

Second, Aero Snap is another way to maximize and minimize windows through dragging and dropping the windows to the screen's corners. To achieve this effect you need to download this application http://aerosnap.de/de/download.htm don’t mind the German text, it’s quite straight forward to download it.

Another interesting feature is Aero Peek. Aero Peek is a replacement for the Show Desktop feature in previous Windows operating systems. Aero Peek allows for you to view the windows border after clicking it, it is represented as a small box in the windows 7 taskbar. Download this application to achieve the same effect http://fogelsoft.extra.hu/progs/aeropeek.zip

A classic feature which received a makeover in Windows 7 is the calculator. Download the Windows 7 Calculator from http://www.box.net/shared/y7tdnm9y2a

8. Other features

Additional features exist in Windows 7's desktop menu, which are screen resolution and gadgets. With the screen resolution, you can modify settings for the monitor and resolution.  Also, with the screen resolution, you can see the state of your graphics card.

Through the gadgets feature, install new gadgets in the side bar. Both of these features are available in Vista's desktop context menu.

To add these to your Vista installation open regedit and go to

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell

Create a new Key and name it Screen Resolution now in the new key create a new key (again) and name it command now in the right pane you will see Default, edit the value of that to control desk.cpl,,@display

That will add the Screen Resolution function, now to add the Gadgets one in regedit go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell

Create a new Key and name it Gadgets now in the new key create a new key (again) and name it command now in the right pane you will see Default, edit the value of that to C:\program files\windows sidebar\sidebar.exe /showgadgets

 
Conclusion

This is a tutorial on how to achieve the most common features of Windows 7 in Windows Vista, there are a lot more features in Windows 7 but this will cover you up to have the latest cool Windows 7 GUI features at absolutely no cost, all you need is a little patience and a couple minutes to follow and execute all these steps in this tutorial, just pay attention when editing the files with Resource Hacker and editing the registry with regedit, if you follow properly this tutorial and don’t rush too much you should be fine and with a totally new cool GUI resembling Windows 7 in no time.