General support for Windows 7 has ended and there are no more updates for this eight-year-old operating system. In short: it is no longer safe. But luckily, you can still upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 Fall Creators Update for free. Possibly partly while retaining the classic interface of Windows 7.
Windows 7 is therefore no longer supported by Microsoft. If you have problems with this operating system, you can still get support for a fee. But why choose that when you can upgrade to Windows 10 Fall Creators Update for free? You can still do that, but you have to be quick.
Curious about the new features and capabilities in the Fall Creators Update? Be sure to read this article.
Supporting Technologies
Since the launch of Windows 10, Microsoft offers the possibility to upgrade to this new version from Windows 7 for free. This was officially only possible in the first year that Windows 10 came on the market, but in another article earlier we wrote that it even after that first year it was still possible to run the free update. Through the so-called Upgrade for users of assistive technologies, you can download a tool with which you can directly upgrade your Windows 7 installation to Windows 10. That tool has now been updated, so that you can also upgrade to the Fall Creators Update. That only works with the Home and Professional versions of Windows 7, not the Enterprise version. You can read how to perform this upgrade in this How-to.
Windows 10 with Windows 7 interface
The majority of computer users who continue to use Windows 7 do so because they don't like the Windows 10 interface: too confusing, inconsistent, or just not pretty. But Windows 10 is much more than just a 'slick' interface, because the system runs faster in the background and is more secure than Windows 7. But why not choose a combination? With Classic Shell you can give Windows 10 (for a large part) the appearance of Windows 7.
Classic Shell
The name of the tool actually says it all: a classic peel. Because that's what Classic Shell does: it puts a solid, 'old-fashioned' shell around the Modern UI shell of Windows 10. You can download Classic Shell here. During setup, opt for a full installation, so that you can provide all Windows 10 components with a Windows 7 shell.
After installing Classic Shell and launching it for the first time, you can directly choose the look and feel from the start menu. The Windows 10 start menu, with its large icons and extra drop-down menus and live tiles, is not for everyone. With Classic Shell you can give the start menu a Windows 7 look again. You can choose from three types of menus: The Classic Style, The Classic Style with two columns and the 'real' Windows 7 menu. Please note: this remains a counterfeit start menu - it is not a 'stolen' part from Windows 7 - but at the same time it is hardly distinguishable from the real thing.
extra options
Classic Shell offers many more options than just customizing the start menu. You can also change the start button itself, if you want. It is a pity that you cannot choose from the standard round Windows 7 button. In the settings screen of Classic Shell, click the box at the top at Show All Settings, then numerous additional setting options are added. For example, options for the taskbar, with which you can also give it a different look than the standard Windows 10 look.
Other parts
Although you can adjust many options with Classic Shell, it is not possible to convert the entire interface of Windows 10 to the appearance of Windows 7 in one go. However, you can tackle different parts. Classic Shell actually consists of three parts: the start menu part (which is actually the main program), the Classic Explorer part (which allows you to customize Windows Explorer separately), and Classic IE Settings for customizing Internet Explorer. Do you want to customize the Explorer? Then you have to start Classic Shell Explorer. The icon for this can be found in the start menu itself.
Finally
With a little experimentation and switching options on and off, you can come a long way in making Windows 10 look like Windows 7, but not quite: most parts in Windows 10 can't just be 'classified', that applies to all apps from Windows 10, but also the various configuration and settings parts of Windows 10 will always be displayed in the renewed interface.
But since Microsoft will continue to move in this direction in the future, including with the Fluent design, it might be time to get used to this new look. For the time being, programs like Classic Shell are supported, but who knows if that will still be the case in a few years.
