I wanted to change the way my mouse looked in Windows 11, to see if I could get a legacy-styled mouse. I knew there had to be a way, from going through the pre-installed cursor files to booting up my VM. I clicked Browse... while selecting a cursor icon to find, not the original cursors, but no, something that intrigued me much, MUCH more. A Windows XP browse fly-out.
Take a look, top is XP and bottom is 11:
And yes, it kept the icons, too. Heck, forget the browse fly-out! The ENTIRE mouse properties window was first stabilized in Windows 95, and was really last updated way back in XP! Anyways, I found out that switching to the (None) style made the mouse turn back into the pre-Aero mouse cursor. Here's a tip: Enable the pointer shadow. It looks nice and makes it feel like it has more depth. Also really good if you are going for a pre-Aero look, because the option was enabled by default in XP, if I'm correct. If you ever get to the boot options, you will also notice these settings are put on automatically.
Endermanch's two YouTube videos The State of Windows and The old Secrets of Windows 11 are pretty iconic to me, because they show old things still in Windows today. Did you know that you can connect a modem to your computer and use dialer.exe, you can dial people. It's literally a dialer. Unless you love to dial people, this serves no use to you, especially since it probably doesn't work anymore. The best part is, if you connect your phone to your computer with your regular USB-C to USB-A, it- it doesn't do anything. The last time dialer.exe was even updated? 1995. Windows. 95. Oh, and if you are using an older version of Windows 11, such as 21H2, you will notice the volume slider layout is from Windows 8, because Windows 10 used it.
Ok, I'll stop jibber-jabbering about dialer.exe, and instead things like Offline Web Pages. Another remnant of Windows 9x. Feel like that's boring? Don't worry, you have winhlp32.exe, which used to show help topics and stuff, was discontinued in Windows 10 and is now a useless shortcut to this, which pretty much tells you to install a Windows 8 version of it. Oh, don't forget the infamous explorer! Just by launching Control Panel (which is built directly off of explorer) and hitting the "Go Up one Directory" button will give you the Windows 10 ribbon UI.
My favorite part of finding this stuff is when you see the old icons. I really don't get the Windows 11 UI design, it just doesn't work. The Computer Management application is a goldmine for Vista icons, moderately including its UI. I also love the boot time comparisons. Open Photos (Windows 11 version) and open an image, and then go to Photos Legacy (Windows 10 version) and open the same image. Get Photos Legacy on the Microsoft Store. Probably the only time in my life I will ever tell somebody to get something off of the Microsoft Store (other than Paint 3D, if you really want it), because Photos Legacy is pretty fast and good.
Well, that's all from me. And remember: Windows 11 was originally just a UI design skin with some added features
Take a look, top is XP and bottom is 11:
And yes, it kept the icons, too. Heck, forget the browse fly-out! The ENTIRE mouse properties window was first stabilized in Windows 95, and was really last updated way back in XP! Anyways, I found out that switching to the (None) style made the mouse turn back into the pre-Aero mouse cursor. Here's a tip: Enable the pointer shadow. It looks nice and makes it feel like it has more depth. Also really good if you are going for a pre-Aero look, because the option was enabled by default in XP, if I'm correct. If you ever get to the boot options, you will also notice these settings are put on automatically.
Endermanch's two YouTube videos The State of Windows and The old Secrets of Windows 11 are pretty iconic to me, because they show old things still in Windows today. Did you know that you can connect a modem to your computer and use dialer.exe, you can dial people. It's literally a dialer. Unless you love to dial people, this serves no use to you, especially since it probably doesn't work anymore. The best part is, if you connect your phone to your computer with your regular USB-C to USB-A, it- it doesn't do anything. The last time dialer.exe was even updated? 1995. Windows. 95. Oh, and if you are using an older version of Windows 11, such as 21H2, you will notice the volume slider layout is from Windows 8, because Windows 10 used it.
Ok, I'll stop jibber-jabbering about dialer.exe, and instead things like Offline Web Pages. Another remnant of Windows 9x. Feel like that's boring? Don't worry, you have winhlp32.exe, which used to show help topics and stuff, was discontinued in Windows 10 and is now a useless shortcut to this, which pretty much tells you to install a Windows 8 version of it. Oh, don't forget the infamous explorer! Just by launching Control Panel (which is built directly off of explorer) and hitting the "Go Up one Directory" button will give you the Windows 10 ribbon UI.
My favorite part of finding this stuff is when you see the old icons. I really don't get the Windows 11 UI design, it just doesn't work. The Computer Management application is a goldmine for Vista icons, moderately including its UI. I also love the boot time comparisons. Open Photos (Windows 11 version) and open an image, and then go to Photos Legacy (Windows 10 version) and open the same image. Get Photos Legacy on the Microsoft Store. Probably the only time in my life I will ever tell somebody to get something off of the Microsoft Store (other than Paint 3D, if you really want it), because Photos Legacy is pretty fast and good.
Well, that's all from me. And remember: Windows 11 was originally just a UI design skin with some added features
