[Tihiy]

Windows 7 explorer.exe for Windows 8 (Ex7forW8)
Long story short, i made a wrapper to Windows 7 explorer.exe to run on Windows 8. You can try it now in order to have native Windows 7 desktop experience, without immersive shell bits enabled, saving RAM. New Windows Explorer features like ribbon and file copying are present.

 ex7forw8.png (241.8K)
Number of downloads: 611
You need to have Windows 8 RP or RTM (32-bit or 64-bit) installed. Works with Server 2012 too.
Download: http://tihiy.net/fil...x7forW8_1.0.zip

INSTALLATION
============
Launch Ex7ForW8_setup.exe. Follow instructions. You'll need Windows 7 installation DVD or files ready; keep in mind that they should be same language and bitness.

UNINSTALLATION
==============
Uninstall program from Programs and Features. If you're using portable install, just switch shell to Windows 8 and delete folder

PRECAUTIONS
===========
This program does not modify system files and system protected registry entries.
You can switch back to unaltered Windows 8 UI any time.
Windows 7 shell is enabled only to users which switched to it.
Other users can use Windows 8 shell without any problems.

This post has been edited by Tihiy: 30 September 2012 - 10:50 AM

[Tihiy]

PLEASE READ
THIS PROGRAM IS PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS" AND I'M NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING

LIMITATIONS:
- Metro programs won't run. Metro UI screens won't show as it's not loaded, cannot and won't be.
- You may get more UAC prompts since explorer.exe is not in win8 UAC-approved whitelist.
- You can't add new user. Run netplwiz.exe for that.
- No default language input indicator. Enable language bar via Control Panel->Language->Advanced Settings->Use desktop language bar.
- No multi-monitor taskbars. Maybe more multimon issues.

Several UI bits missing:
- "You have new program to handle this stuff" toasts won't show. You need to use Default programs to change associations.

This post has been edited by Tihiy: 10 September 2012 - 02:56 PM

[Tihiy]

All programs shown in explorer7 has the same shortcuts that explorer8 shows on Start Screen. So the changes you do reflect here and there; better backup desktop.lnk from start menu.

Explorer Ribbon is still there, it's not explorer.exe related!
Using explorer.exe from Windows 8 DP won't give solve many problems, it's shell32 which was cut of start menu features.

This post has been edited by Tihiy: 24 September 2012 - 04:42 AM

[MagicAndre1981]

nice. I'll try it out later

[tomasz86]

Tihiy, on 13 July 2012 - 08:11 AM, said:

grab c:\windows\explorer.exe and c:\windows\en-us\explorer.exe.mui from windows 7 system or installation CD (with 7-zip).

Aren't the files included in Windows 7 SP1? If yes then even people who don't own a Win7 copy can easily download them

Later edit: Then again, an even better solution is decribed below:

tomasz86, on 22 July 2012 - 02:48 PM, said:

Anyway, how about getting Win7 SP1 explorer.exe from this hotfix? KB2444677

x86: http://hotfixv4.micr...tl_i386_zip.exe (1.2 MB)

x64: http://hotfixv4.micr...ntl_x64_zip.exe (1.7 MB)

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Good thinking Tihiy. Looks like another great idea.

Freedom of choice is good. The more mods the better.

[xpclient]

Great (and difficult) job. I wonder if you can port more shell and Explorer functionality removed as mentioned here: http://xpwasmyidea.b...-windows-8.html

[MagicAndre1981]

Tihiy, on 13 July 2012 - 08:12 AM, said:

Issues
- Start menu pin list and MFU list doesn't work. Instead, Start menu always shows "All programs" list.
- Trying to pin app to start menu by drag&drop will pin it to taskbar instead.
- Choosing "Pin to Start" menu item will add item to Start menu All programs list.

- Start menu all programs sometimes don't show.
- Some debug messages are going in background.

I've tested it and works What are the chances that those issue can be fixed?

[Aloha]

Tihiy, on 13 July 2012 - 08:15 AM, said:

No whining or stupid questions allowed.

How about cursing? At least allow people to curse in case their computers crash after they run the patch!
W8 is working so fine for me that I am a little afraid of trying this. Any suggestion, Tihiy? I'm downloading the patch now!

As for the poll, why there isn't a "No" only, I can't choose the two weird "No" choices above! A new OS should have something new and different from the old one. I wouldn't call it W8 if it looked just the same as W7.

---------------------------------
Andre,
You begin to like W8, huh?

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Aloha, on 15 July 2012 - 09:25 AM, said:

A new OS should have something new and different from the old one. I wouldn't call it W8 if it looked just the same as W7.

Well, why call it W8 anyway?

Maybe we should just call them by their real names which might reset expectations accordingly ...

Real Name ---- Marketing
Windows 5.0 ... Windows 2000
Windows 5.1 ... Windows XP
Windows 5.2 ... Windows XP-64
Windows 6.0 ... Windows Vista
Windows 6.1 ... Windows 7
Windows 6.2 ... Windows 8 ... or even better: ... W8 for 9 ... W849! (patent pending)

Perhaps Microsoft is merely performing some rudimentary arithmetic ...

Windows 6.1 ... 6 + 1 = 7
Windows 6.2 ... 6 + 2 = 8

.. for those customers that require things simple and easy?

EDIT: typo!
EDIT2: just thought of a better name for it!
EDIT3: and better yet.

This post has been edited by CharlotteTheHarlot: 16 July 2012 - 04:47 AM

[MagicAndre1981]

the memory usage of Windows 8 with your patched Explorer is fantastic:

 Win8_Core_Build_8400_Memory_usage.png (496.98K)
Number of downloads: 340

[vinifera]

totally worth it
8 explorer is crap

[awergh]

I tried installing in a vm (fresh install) and real computer with a whole lot of stuff installed but I only seem to get a black screen with a mouse cursor and explorer never starts.

[Tihiy]

Quote

the memory usage of Windows 8 with your patched Explorer is fantastic:

Yes, not loading Metro may save dozens MB of RAM.

Quote

I only seem to get a black screen with a mouse cursor and explorer never starts.

This happens if mui file isn't loaded; ensure you placed explorer.exe.mui file to the proper xx-XX subdir (where xx-XX is same language win8 has or en-US).

This post has been edited by Tihiy: 16 July 2012 - 02:38 AM

[awergh]

All good now guess I failed at reading the instructions.
Is another issue not being able to log off or switch user from the start menu (not that I need this) just wondering.

[Aloha]

CharlotteTheHarlot, on 15 July 2012 - 12:36 PM, said:

Well, why call it W8 anyway?

Not sure, perhaps after 7 we must shout 8 immediately, just like when we were young we learnt how to count numbers!!! Btw, I even don't know why they call W7 as W7!

Quote

Perhaps Microsoft is merely performing some rudimentary arithmetic ...

Windows 6.1 ... 6 + 1 = 7
Windows 6.2 ... 6 + 2 = 8

Then: Windows 5.2 ... 5 + 2 = 7 >>> Windows XP-64 = Win 7!!?

------------------
Tihiy,
The patch works fine but I change it back to W8 already. This Explorer makes Start Menu look nicer than the start menu when we use Classic Shell, but it doesn't works as good as the Classic Shell. And I don't like it when I can't customize the notifications!

[Aloha]

There are 12 downloads but not all come to give feedback.

Are you going to update this patch to make a better explorer, Tihiy? I don't mind testing it again.

And, why Charlotte keeps editing his post? Is there anything wrong?

[tomasz86]

@CharlotteTheHarlot

NT 5.2 is originally just Windows 2003 Server (both x86 and x64)

This post has been edited by tomasz86: 16 July 2012 - 01:09 PM

[Tripredacus]

Aloha, on 16 July 2012 - 09:51 AM, said:

And, why Charlotte keeps editing his post? Is there anything wrong?

Seems he comes up with more math to try out.

[Shane]

Any chance this will have full X64 support at any point in the future, and does it also disable the explorer ribbon?