Tweak windows 11 file explorer.

glasskuter said:

With as many tweaks as you have made, I would be concerned about issues in the future, especially if you start messing around with file explorer.

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It is totally false. This kind of modification hardly modifies system files. I modify File Explorer a lot myself, I don't have any stability problems, and it doesn't interfere with updates.

Hello OrthodoxWin32!

Thank you very much for the suggestion of this forum, I will go and post a similar topic there! At the same time I will go look at the different topics to see if I can find interesting improvements! For now, I still haven't managed to remove this button to sort but I'm sure it's possible!

djaccess2 said:

Hello OrthodoxWin32!

Thank you very much for the suggestion of this forum, I will go and post a similar topic there! At the same time I will go look at the different topics to see if I can find interesting improvements! For now, I still haven't managed to remove this button to sort but I'm sure it's possible!

Click to expand...

I would seriously consider, just actually installing Windows XP.
Microsoft seems to be on a "mission" to alter the way we use Windows.

Numerous times they have literally "blocked" work arounds that Windows users have come up with, and they continue to do so. Microsoft has backdoors into Windows (especially later versions), that users can't seem to discover or block.

I've read through your posts, and am trying to understand why the switch to Windows 11 was ever made, in the first place.
It would be hard enough for a sighted person to deal with the switch from Windows XP to Windows 11.
I can't imagine the difficulties a blind person would have in this situation.

Is there some reason that this computer "must" be switched to Windows 11?
Is there some reason that you couldn't just run XP in a virtual machine (VM) for them?



This is a job for... @jimbo45

Hello,
I have already considered installing Windows XP. I encountered several problems.

First thing: web browser compatibility. To access the modern web, the only compatible browser is a modified version of chrome and can be questionable. It works, but security level I do not have complete confidence.

Then the second problem is the compatibility of windows xp on new hardware. I read that on forums some users had managed to install Windows xp on recent computers but frankly, that is beyond my skills. I could have installed it on a computer with a 3rd or 4th generation intel processor but recovering an old computer did not seem to me the best solution.

We bought a computer for this person with windows 11, I managed to modify it except the file explorer which is not perfect but I am sure that I will be able to obtain something conclusive, I persevere and I remain confident!

djaccess2 said:

Hello,
I have already considered installing Windows XP. I encountered several problems.

First thing: web browser compatibility. To access the modern web, the only compatible browser is a modified version of chrome and can be questionable. It works, but security level I do not have complete confidence.

Then the second problem is the compatibility of windows xp on new hardware. I read that on forums some users had managed to install Windows xp on recent computers but frankly, that is beyond my skills. I could have installed it on a computer with a 3rd or 4th generation intel processor but recovering an old computer did not seem to me the best solution.

We bought a computer for this person with windows 11, I managed to modify it except the file explorer which is not perfect but I am sure that I will be able to obtain something conclusive, I persevere and I remain confident!

Click to expand...

In that case, I would consider installing XP in a virtual machine, running on Windows 11.
For that @jimbo45 is probably the best you'll find. He lives for and loves VMs.
He's from Iceland, so he's probably having his 1st cup of coffee, right about now.
Here... read through some of his topic titles... Topics
Just look for the ones with "VM" in the title.
These are the OSes he's currently running: Windows XP,7,10,11 Linux Arch Linux


I hate the direction modern Windows is taking. I would love a return to the XP days.
I spend all my time tweaking to achieve something like XP on Windows 10 and 11.
It can't be done. Even IF you temporarily succeed, Microsoft will soon break your tweaks.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Regarding the virtual machine, I had already thought about it. The only problem is that since this person is blind, they have to use screen reader software. With virtualization, even under windows xp, the screen reader becomes very slow and very difficult to use when it is under a virtual machine. It's much slower and slower.

djaccess2 said:

Thanks for your suggestions.

Regarding the virtual machine, I had already thought about it. The only problem is that since this person is blind, they have to use screen reader software. With virtualization, even under windows xp, the screen reader becomes very slow and very difficult to use when it is under a virtual machine. It's much slower and slower.

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I sympathize. In just the past year, I've watched MS break tons of tweaks designed to make Windows 11 resemble an older OS.
This is my Win 11 File Explorer, with no 3rd party tweaks. In a few days, weeks (22H2), they are going to break the "ribbon bar" tweak. They've already promised (threatened), that.




All I'm saying is just give @jimbo45 and a few others a chance to see your topic.
There are quite a few of us... rebelling for all we're worth.

There's a poem, written in the past, that seems to tell the story of our attempts to battle Microsoft in this...
The Charge of the Light Brigade

Thanks ! If I can make a suggestion to you, so that the tweaks are not broken, I suggest that you completely disable windows update. This is what I did for my personal computer under windows 10 which is well tweaked and since I disabled the updates 2 years ago, I am still on windows 10 1903 and nothing is broken. I did the same thing on my blind friend's windows 11 computer and everything works fine too. Updates do absolutely nothing. The best element in security anyway, is ourselves. Don't mess with your computer, don't click on any dubious links, have a good ad blocker and you'll be fine.

djaccess2 said:

Thanks ! If I can make a suggestion to you, so that the tweaks are not broken, I suggest that you completely disable windows update.

Click to expand...

Sort of like this... ?


Sisyphus


I'm honestly on you side with this. I hope some of our regulars can solve this for you.
I just want you to understand that even if you find a solution today... MS will probably break it sooner or later.
With or without "blocked updates".

Don't give up by any means. But by the same token... "don't bet the farm" on this.

Ghot said:

In that case, I would consider installing XP in a virtual machine, running on Windows 11.
For that @jimbo45 is probably the best you'll find. He lives for and loves VMs.
He's from Iceland, so he's probably having his 1st cup of coffee, right about now.
Here... read through some of his topic titles... Topics
Just look for the ones with "VM" in the title.
These are the OSes he's currently running: Windows XP,7,10,11 Linux Arch Linux


I hate the direction modern Windows is taking. I would love a return to the XP days.
I spend all my time tweaking to achieve something like XP on Windows 10 and 11.
It can't be done. Even IF you temporarily succeed, Microsoft will soon break your tweaks.

Click to expand...

Hi there

XP is very installable on a modern machine - -- if you use KVM/QEMU on any linux distro -- you don't need any TPM stuff and it runs very easily on even a modest machine.


@djaccess2


As far as screen reading software for Blind / visually handicapped people I'm sure there's plenty of "Screen readers" around that you could use on the host which would also "map" the Virtual screen if you were working in Windowed mode.

I think one of the best is JAWS but it's not cheap -- around 750 EUR but the blind person might qualify for a local authority grant as this is definitely considered "Educational and work aid" material for people with sight impairment. At least here -- and I'm sure in other enlightened democracies too.

I can't test this myself but I gather reading around that it's fast and does the job excellently.

As far as a working browser for XP -- Firefox-esr still runs -- but I'm not sure you'd need a browser on XP. For file transfers etc Filezilla on both host and guest work and samba on the host (if running Linux).


The other thing is getting 2 and 4K UHD full screen resolution on the guest -- this is where Linux comes in a treat as you can download from the fedora site (now owned by Red Hat and IBM so no malware etc -- perfectly legit) the winvirtio iso which has the guest drivers for Windows including a load for XP so you can run full video, networking etc. Note though XP has no USB3 support so USB2 will need to be emulated and in the VM you'll need to set the boot HDD to boot in BIOS (MBR) mode.


I'm sttill running some legacy hardware in XP -- a VINYL record cutter, a professional Minidisc recorder (the ones that don't put DRM on digital minidiscs) an old HP blue print machine etc.

Ill come back to this post and post my XP machines config file for those that want to have a go with this. Install though any decent Linux distro - with a GUI as it's easier controlling the VM's rather than having to do it all from the command line. Fedora, Debian, and possibly UBUNTU might be the best for beginners -- although ubuntu irritates me by getting bloated and wanting to install things I never use like SNAP etc.

I use Arch Linux - which can be super slim but definitely not recommended for beginners -- my choice here would be the bog standard install of Debian Bullseye as documentation is good, not too much bloat and plenty of good examples on setting up XP as a VM.


Cheers
jimbo

Hi folks

@djaccess2
@Ghot

as promised :

VM XP running very sweetly with firefox-esr still able to connect to BBC. Google etc BBC etc etc and access shared HDD's on LAN.

You'll get a one time message that firefox is out of date but just ignore it. I doubt in any case if people still want to use XP for Internet browsing - but it's still possible in late 2022. !!!

The Virtual Nic is from the virtio iso as is the video driver etc.

Running on an older HP envy laptop

Here's the HOST details



Here's the VM itself with Luna Black theme and a costa rican Leopard as wall paper connected to LAN with firefox-esr with https internet access



Here's the VM config (XML file) on KVM/QEMU. I used the GUI (virt machine manager so the file is generated but for those who like command lines the config is shown below. You can still use the GUI just open it up and paste the XML file into the XML tab.

Alter for your own specific hardware. It's an example of a working running VM.




======>start

<domain type="kvm">
<name>winxp</name>
<uuid>2e787f66-8398-4c31-8a6d-5bd75996823c</uuid>
<metadata>
<libosinfo:libosinfo xmlns:libosinfo="http://libosinfo.org/xmlns/libvirt/domain/1.0">
<libosinfos id="http://microsoft.com/win/xp"/>
</libosinfo:libosinfo>
</metadata>
<memory unit="KiB">1048576</memory>
<currentMemory unit="KiB">1048576</currentMemory>
<vcpu placement="static">2</vcpu>
<os>
<type arch="x86_64" machine="pc-i440fx-7.0">hvm</type>
<boot dev="hd"/>
</os>
<features>
<acpi/>
<apic/>
<hyperv mode="custom">
<relaxed state="on"/>
<vapic state="on"/>
<spinlocks state="on" retries="8191"/>
</hyperv>
<vmport state="off"/>
</features>
<cpu mode="host-model" check="partial"/>
<clock offset="localtime">
<timer name="rtc" tickpolicy="catchup"/>
<timer name="pit" tickpolicy="delay"/>
<timer name="hpet" present="no"/>
<timer name="hypervclock" present="yes"/>
</clock>
<on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
<on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
<on_crash>destroy</on_crash>
<pm>
<suspend-to-mem enabled="no"/>
<suspend-to-disk enabled="no"/>
</pm>
<devices>
<emulator>/usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64</emulator>
<disk type="file" device="disk">
<driver name="qemu" type="qcow2"/>
<source file="/mnt/DV1/XPVIO"/>
<target dev="hda" bus="ide"/>
<address type="drive" controller="0" bus="0" target="0" unit="0"/>
</disk>
<disk type="file" device="cdrom">
<driver name="qemu" type="raw"/>
<source file="/home/hrafn/Downloads/virtio-win-0.1.215.iso"/>
<target dev="hdb" bus="ide"/>
<readonly/>
<address type="drive" controller="0" bus="0" target="0" unit="1"/>
</disk>
<controller type="usb" index="0" model="ich9-ehci1">
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x06" function="0x7"/>
</controller>
<controller type="usb" index="0" model="ich9-uhci1">
<master startport="0"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x06" function="0x0" multifunction="on"/>
</controller>
<controller type="usb" index="0" model="ich9-uhci2">
<master startport="2"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x06" function="0x1"/>
</controller>
<controller type="usb" index="0" model="ich9-uhci3">
<master startport="4"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x06" function="0x2"/>
</controller>
<controller type="pci" index="0" model="pci-root"/>
<controller type="ide" index="0">
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x01" function="0x1"/>
</controller>
<controller type="virtio-serial" index="0">
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x07" function="0x0"/>
</controller>
<interface type="network">
<mac address="52:54:00:3c:04:2f"/>
<source network="isolated"/>
<model type="virtio"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x03" function="0x0"/>
</interface>
<interface type="direct">
<mac address="52:54:00:9f:3e:1d"/>
<source dev="enx00e09c100da3" mode="bridge"/>
<model type="virtio"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x04" function="0x0"/>
</interface>
<serial type="pty">
<target type="isa-serial" port="0">
<model name="isa-serial"/>
</target>
</serial>
<console type="pty">
<target type="serial" port="0"/>
</console>
<channel type="spicevmc">
<target type="virtio" name="com.redhat.spice.0"/>
<address type="virtio-serial" controller="0" bus="0" port="1"/>
</channel>
<input type="tablet" bus="usb">
<address type="usb" bus="0" port="1"/>
</input>
<input type="mouse" bus="ps2"/>
<input type="keyboard" bus="ps2"/>
<graphics type="spice" autoport="yes">
<listen type="address"/>
<image compression="off"/>
</graphics>
<sound model="ich6">
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x05" function="0x0"/>
</sound>
<audio id="1" type="spice"/>
<video>
<model type="qxl" ram="65536" vram="65536" vgamem="16384" heads="1" primary="yes"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x02" function="0x0"/>
</video>
<redirdev bus="usb" type="spicevmc">
<address type="usb" bus="0" port="2"/>
</redirdev>
<redirdev bus="usb" type="spicevmc">
<address type="usb" bus="0" port="3"/>
</redirdev>
<memballoon model="virtio">
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x08" function="0x0"/>
</memballoon>
</devices>
</domain>

======> end

You need to source your own XP ISO disk of course -- you'll need Service pack 3 to have been installed.

Have fun

cheers
jimbo

Hello,
Thank you very much for this suggestion. I'll take it into account if I can't get the system to work under windows 11 as I want.
For now, I have to do some tests but I may have a solution.