How to Get the Good Bits of Windows 8 on 7
Tiles
Metro Tiles are the most prominent feature in Microsoft’s new operating system, being the main form of navigation on the start screen. There are many applications that add this feature to other Windows versions as it is very popular.
Omnimo UI is a free RainMeter skin with an additional premium pack. There are hundreds of tiles and several expansion packs for you to add, customise, and use on your Windows installation. Unlike Windows 8, these tiles sit on your desktop, instead of having their own separate start screen.
Stardock Tiles display live tiles of your software in a sidebar on your desktop. It doesn’t have many features other than this, so won’t be a suitable full replacement for Microsoft’s own tiles.
Mosaic is another alternative that adds several live tiles to a start screen of its own. Although there far less tiles in Mosaic than some similar applications, it still runs very well and gives Metro’s experience proficiently.
Newgen offers you the ability to display information from both your computer and websites such as FaceBook in the form of Tiles, replacing your Aero desktop.
Metro 7 lets you scroll through the few tiles it has and install more from its store, and includes the Windows 8 lock screen in the installation too.
Charm Bar
The Charm Bar introduced in Windows 8 is the universal toolbar that you can access from both the Metro and Desktop. This allows you search your device much like you can from the Start Menu in Windows 7, share information through social networks, open the Start Menu, view and configure peripherals, and get to the Control Panel.
Using a custom RocketDock skin, you can have a dock that looks exactly like Windows 8′s Charm Bar and replicate its functions, or even customise it to do what you require that RocketDock can. You can download the skin here.
Alternatively, you can use a RainMeter skin, giving you the same design and features as the Windows 8 Charm Bar, but far less customisability than the RocketDock counterpart. Download it here.
The Metro Start Menu is a different approach – it replaces the default start menu with a much cut-down version, leaving only functions from the Charm Bar.
Boot Screen
While it’s not something you’d look at for long or possibly even care about, the new boot screen no longer has the colourful Windows flag we’re used to, or the fancy animation found in Vista and 7. There are a few boot menu tweaks that can be used to emulate this, such as these three here.
Task Manager
The new Task Manager has a redesigned UI and far more features, compared to the one found in previous versions of Windows. You can do xxx.
While it doesn’t give the full Windows 8 application’s experience, this Metro styled Task Manager gives the compact view that only allows you to end processes and restart explorer.exe. This is a separate application, it doesn’t tweak the original Task Manager.
Quick Access Menu
Windows 8 has a quick access menu which you can bring up with the hotkeys WIN+X. This context menu has several buttons which you can use to navigate to the control panel, task manager, and many other computer management applications built into Windows. This shortcut on previous versions of Windows brings up the Mobility Center.
WinPlusX replicates this feature for previous versions of Windows, and even allows you to add/remove your own buttons so you can customise the menu the way you like it.
Lock/Login Screen
The Metro Lock Screen is a minimalistic screen that shows when an account is locked or the device has just been booted. It displays a picture for the background, as well as the date and time. It can also display calendar events and icons to show battery, connectivity, and notifications. Flicking this up will reveal a similar login screen.
WinLockPro is a tool that allows you to have this functionality on Windows 7, along with customising it easily.
There is a RTM logon theme on deviantArt that allows you to achieve the Metro logon screen’s styling, although it has no additional features.
If all you want is the Metro Clock on your lock screen, there’s a tool that does just that, too!
Explorer
As Explorer is the process you’re probably using most in Windows, it goes without saying that it should also have some form of Metro styling applied to it, even though Microsoft’s own Explorer design is pretty poor for Metro in the release preview.
There are already hundreds of these released, a lot of which can be obtained through a simple search on deviantArt. Here I’ll list some of the more uniquely styled ones I quite like.
- Windows8 ribbon UI for styler
- Windows 8 RTM Theme for Windows 7
- Windows 8 VS for Win7
- Windows 8 themes in Windows 7
- Windows 8 theme for windows 7
- Windows 8 Aero Metro Style for Windows 7
- Windows 8 Release Preview Kit Final
Other
There are tons of other small tweaks made in Windows 8 that have been ported to other versions of the OS, and even more that developers think should have been in it.
ViGlance is a redesigned, minimalistic Start Orb button, and it’s not the only one. While Microsoft removed the trusty Start button in Windows 8, if it were kept it would be sure to look like one of these.
There are a host of minimalistic Metro-inspired wallpapers on the internet, while the official wallpapers are also available to download.
You can even get your profile picture to show up in the taskbar with Laushung’s UserTile Program or Stealth2010′s that does the same, as found in Windows 8.
What if you want Aero to take the same colours as your current background, like Metro’s auto- colourisation ? There are multiple tweaks for that too, including Dejco’s and another of Stealth2010′s.
ClassicShell lets you bring Windows 8′s up/down buttons to previous versions of Windows.
