M$ Windows buttons & icons

[Tinstaafl]

I've never liked the flat button style introduced with Office 97 & then adopted by M$ ever since. I really dislike having the delay involved with recognition & response time when it it come to locating the button hotspot.

Anyone know if it's possible for force Win 98 & WinXP to use Win95 style raised buttons?


Similarly, I loathe the 'cartoon/modern art' style of WinXP. Many are too similar to readily distinguish from each other, or the detail becomes a blurry smudge at high resolutions

Anyway for force it to use Win95/98 style icons?

Would this extend to programs too? Or can I substitute an Office 95 .DLL into Office 97?

Perhaps by replacing a .DLL with one from an earlier OS, or changing a registry reference to another .DLL?

[Voidhawk]

It is possible to revert to the classic Windows style, and get rid of the horrid rounded XP one, if that's what you're after.

Just right-click on the desktop and choose:

Properties > Appearance

In the box Windows and buttons you can choose Windows classic style.

The Advanced button here lets you change the appearance of menus and buttons too.

[Tinstaafl]

That's not what I meant, but thanks anyway Voidhawk

Those things were done with nano-seconds of the first log in. Unfortunately you can't change the look of the buttons, nor can you change the default icons & buttons back to Win9.x.

WinXP classic style still uses XP icons though. Compare the clarity of those to Win3.1 or Win9.x.

It's most of the icons that I wish to revert to the Win9.x ones, and the button look that I want to force into the pre-Office 97 style of widget. They're much, much clearer.

Since Office 97, M$ have moved all their products into using a 'flat' type of button ie there isn't a visible button boundary that defines its locus - you have to move the mouse to the button then must wait while the system responds & you recognise the response before taking action. The old Win95/Office 95 look had buttons that looked like raised buttons. You didn't have to move the cursor over them to identify the button's hotspot. It was just there.