Hate how Windows 11 looks? Windows 2000 mod (with Clippy) brings the nostalgia

Date:
Mon, 06 Mar 2023 14:14:24 +0000

Description:
Want Windows 11 to look like Windows 2000? Well, your (rather odd) prayers have been answered.

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Windows 11 is all about modernizing the desktop environment compared to Windows 10 , but what if you wanted to go the other way and travel back in time?

You can turn back the clock with various mods, naturally, but a new effort transforms your Windows 11 installation to look like Windows 2000, complete with some functioning legacy apps and interface elements such as Clippy . (Yes, the famous paperclip assistant with a bad habit of interfering with
your work when it wasnt needed).

There are, however, some sizeable caveats as you might expect

Windows Central reported on this project, which was undertaken by Redditor ExoGeniVI . The main point to be aware of is that it requires the
installation of StarDock WindowBlinds, a third-party app for customizing Windows in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways.

It uses a Windows 2000 theme (created by prozad94, a couple of years back) to bring back that OS in all its glory or gray drabness, rather and goes further than this with a bunch of other tweaking under the hood of Windows to add some past software versions into the mix (plus some nostalgic icons, too like Fallout).

On the app front, were talking Internet Explorer 5.5 and Microsoft Office 2000, with the latter boasting a working Clippy, albeit with some slight visual glitches (the assistants transparency effect doesnt render properly, being turned into a pink square background instead). (Image credit: Microsoft / ExoGeniVI / prozad94) Analysis: Windows 11 Gray Mode

The sheer effort involved in getting all this stuff working is impressive,
and as ExoGeniVI points out in the Reddit thread showing off the project, these apps actually work. Internet Explorer 5.5 loads some websites just
fine, for example. However, it isnt recommended for serious use (naturally, given how ancient it is the security holes in IE 5.5 are wide enough for a busload of cybercriminals to be driven through, no doubt).

Indeed, this project is one of those firmly in the category of showing it can be done rather than anything with any real practical application. As one person asked: Why though? To which ExoGeniVI replied: Too much time on my hands.

Fair enough, and with having to restore their PC twice during the process of completing this endeavor, ExoGeniVI also shows why you very probably dont
want to get involved in this level of tweaking.

The safe thing to do, if you want Windows 11 to simply look like Windows
2000, is just to use StarDock WindowBlinds to apply prozad94s classic skin with no ancient apps involved and leave it like that. Even if youre so inclined, we cant imagine youd want to live in such a bland, gray, Windows environment for all that long. Would you?

Via Review Geek



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/hate-how-windows-11-looks-windows-2000-mod-with -clippy-brings-the-nostalgia


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