Previous discussion:
8 months ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25601650
A CSS framework to recreate Windows 7 GUI
21–30 of 129 posts
Re: A CSS framework to recreate Windows 7 GUI
#22I'm beginning to have the feeling Windows 7 is the last Microsoft OS I'll ever feel good about installing.
I've been feeling that way, but I can't tell if it's rational. Windows XP and 7 were the versions of the OS I used the most growing up. Nostalgia? Ever since Windows 8, the OS has felt a lot slower and the UI isn't consistent. I was running something the other day that needed privilege escalation and I had this realization that I would have no idea if a particular UI was cobbled-together-Microsoft-UI or if it was cob…
I doubt it's nostalgia. Ive used windows 10 more than I used XP. I'm 28.
XP just felt robust - almost like it was hardware itself.
Re: A CSS framework to recreate Windows 7 GUI
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been feeling that way, but I can't tell if it's rational. Windows XP and 7 were the versions of the OS I used the most growing up. Nostalgia? Ever since Windows 8, the OS has felt a lot slower and the UI isn't consistent. I was running something the other day that needed privilege escalation and I had this realization that I would have no idea if a particular UI was cobbled-together-Microsoft-UI or if it was cob…
I held out on "upgrading" to 10 until support was dropped last year. 7 was a huge step forward, with better performance than Vista and all kinds of QOL improvements (Windows Search, DX11 being some big ones). 10 also has some amazing improvements (automatic driver installs via Windows Update being the first thing that springs to mind[1]), but they've unfortunately let ads and anti-features (Bing, Cortana, App "Sugges…
I’ve been using Windows 10 Pro since release and honestly none of this stuff has ever been a real issue for me. It’s stolen like 30 mins from my life overall in the last 5 years disabling the stuff that I don’t care for.
On initial install there were some Windows Store apps I didn’t care for (like Candy Crush) I just normally uninstalled and they never came back and no new apps ever installed themselves.
I disabled Cortana and other widgets I didn’t care for using the standard UI once ever and they never tried coming back on their own.
On feature updates it sometimes has a two minute wizard asking questions.
Maybe it’s because I live in South Africa, but I’ve never seen these Windows 10 adverts people keep complaining about. Maybe that little bit of clickable text on the login screen is what people are referring to? But before clicking I wouldn’t say for sure they’re adverts, they seem like very mild click bait. If they are adverts then inexcusable yes, but doesn’t bother me enough to get upset about.
I don’t mind telemetry in principle but it does bother me that like once every 2-4 weeks when it scans or something it’s a huge resource hog when doing so.
Otherwise, I feel Windows 10 is more performant (although does need SSD, which I would have had regardless) than Windows 7 and definitely has a more useful task manager.
Windows 10 really “just works” for me and I find myself spending minuscule to no time configuring it which means that I’m always doing what I want to actually be doing, working or playing games.
Re: A CSS framework to recreate Windows 7 GUI
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been feeling that way, but I can't tell if it's rational. Windows XP and 7 were the versions of the OS I used the most growing up. Nostalgia? Ever since Windows 8, the OS has felt a lot slower and the UI isn't consistent. I was running something the other day that needed privilege escalation and I had this realization that I would have no idea if a particular UI was cobbled-together-Microsoft-UI or if it was cob…
I doubt it's nostalgia. Ive used windows 10 more than I used XP. I'm 28. XP just felt robust - almost like it was hardware itself.
I would say your problem is you haven’t used XP enough to hate it.
Re: A CSS framework to recreate Windows 7 GUI
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been feeling that way, but I can't tell if it's rational. Windows XP and 7 were the versions of the OS I used the most growing up. Nostalgia? Ever since Windows 8, the OS has felt a lot slower and the UI isn't consistent. I was running something the other day that needed privilege escalation and I had this realization that I would have no idea if a particular UI was cobbled-together-Microsoft-UI or if it was cob…
Windows 7 had a very professional feel to me that subsequent versions lack. Probably has to do with attempting to create a unified tablet / phone / desktop experience.
I had been using Windows since 3.0:
Windows 2000 was that stable, professional sweet spot for me, even at times NT 4. Zero fluff, relatively consistent experience, and little visible intergenerational technology accretion. The 2000 scheduler felt reasonably predictable and crisp, like how BSD on a workstation did compared to Linux, for the longest time. Unpredictable interface latency is a dealbreaker for me.
I never noticed too much of a stability difference between 2000 and XP, but I really disliked the fluffy chrome overlaid on the XP user shell.
As long as we are talking nostalgia, yes, I do miss some extremely consistent UI paradigms from Windows 3.X days (being able to productively drive the shell with a keyboard only though the ALT key accessors). Interface elements were extremely differentiated visually. (Seeing my father trip up on a high-investment hallmark of a touchscreen phone app, because the native widgets were flat and lacking visual differentiation this week was beyond painful. I do not like the direction of modern interface design is heading.)
Re: A CSS framework to recreate Windows 7 GUI
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
I held out on "upgrading" to 10 until support was dropped last year. 7 was a huge step forward, with better performance than Vista and all kinds of QOL improvements (Windows Search, DX11 being some big ones). 10 also has some amazing improvements (automatic driver installs via Windows Update being the first thing that springs to mind[1]), but they've unfortunately let ads and anti-features (Bing, Cortana, App "Sugges…
I’ve been using Windows 10 Pro since release and honestly none of this stuff has ever been a real issue for me. It’s stolen like 30 mins from my life overall in the last 5 years disabling the stuff that I don’t care for. On initial install there were some Windows Store apps I didn’t care for (like Candy Crush) I just normally uninstalled and they never came back and no new apps ever installed themselves. I disabled C…
I don't think either myself or GP was complaining about time lost due to getting rid of bullshit. It's just rude and ugly, like cookie banners or autoplaying videos.
Re: A CSS framework to recreate Windows 7 GUI
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
I doubt it's nostalgia. Ive used windows 10 more than I used XP. I'm 28. XP just felt robust - almost like it was hardware itself.
I would say your problem is you haven’t used XP enough to hate it.
There wasn't much to hate about SP3 Windows XP.
It was a solid OS, limited mostly by lack of mainstream 64-bit version and hard capped at DirectX 9.0, meaning modern games no longer worked. Later on, lack of TRIM support for SSDs.
Basically between SP3 release in 2008 and XP's end of support in 2014, you could have used a very stable OS if you didn't need to play the latest games or run the absolute latest hardware.
Re: A CSS framework to recreate Windows 7 GUI
#28What I love about these old designs is how obvious everything is. You just can't miss the button or the tabs.
Now after all this skeuomorphic design revolution it's so hard to tell, is it a button, text, link etc. It probably looks better but it is at the cost of extra thinking for the user.
Re: A CSS framework to recreate Windows 7 GUI
#29I'm beginning to have the feeling Windows 7 is the last Microsoft OS I'll ever feel good about installing.
I recall distrusting XP when it was new.
Re: A CSS framework to recreate Windows 7 GUI
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been feeling that way, but I can't tell if it's rational. Windows XP and 7 were the versions of the OS I used the most growing up. Nostalgia? Ever since Windows 8, the OS has felt a lot slower and the UI isn't consistent. I was running something the other day that needed privilege escalation and I had this realization that I would have no idea if a particular UI was cobbled-together-Microsoft-UI or if it was cob…
Windows 7 had a very professional feel to me that subsequent versions lack. Probably has to do with attempting to create a unified tablet / phone / desktop experience.
That might be the original motivation, but post-7 Windows UI is anything but unified or consistent. New and legacy UI toolkits are mixed in the system shell itself. There are still parts of the good old Control Panel that haven’t been ported to the new “immersive settings” app. Already in a clean Win 10 installation, you can spot at least 3 different styles of context menu, depending on which part of the desktop you right-click.