Windows XP to 2000 Tutorial

[XoRn]

(The narrative is a little long but I had fun writing it, and I hope you enjoy reading just as much. And yes, this is a true story)

Let’s face it, some people just like to live in the past. I know I’m one of those people. Moving on to a new OS can be a major change for those who pine for nostalgia. For several of my developing teen years (when I really began taking an interest in PCs) every PC I used had Windows 2000 installed on it. To me, it felt like the most user friendly platform Microsoft had produced (and at the time it was) but alas! For all my years working with 2000, Microsoft was spending them developing the next step. XP.

It was my dad, he who forced me to take that awful step, and with out my consent, hoodwinked me into going to the movies so he could destroy my beautiful 2000 and replace it with its evil younger sister.

I remember turning on my PC that night and seeing the alien load screen, the horrifying “XP” daunting me, and the colors! Oh, God the Fisher-Price colors! I tried to navigate, but there was no My Computer. I tried to run, but there was no Network Connections, I wanted to start, but that Start Menu, just wasn’t for me. A green field and blue sky of emptiness was all that existed to receive my total and udder resentment for Windows XP (and the Recycling Bin, which was the first thing I checked while trying to find My Computer).

After several hours of dillydallying I began to understand that it was not XP that I hated, but the way it looked. Noting felt like the humble 2000 I had known and loved. Fortunately, with patience and lots of free time, I began de-evolve this detestable illusion of tranquility. Here are the steps to resurrect 2000 within the XP shell.

Part A. The Field of Lament.
Perhaps the first noticeable difference from XP to 2000 is the “Bliss” background and matching color scheme. Killing it is a fun and simple process to bring back that 2000 feel along with its style!


Step 1. Right click the desktop and select “Properties”.



Step 2. Select the “Themes” Tab from the top of the menu. You should see the window displayed below.


Step 3. You will notice that the current Theme is set to Windows XP. Click on the dropdown menu, and select “Classic”. Select Apply and you should end up with this:



What a difference huh? So, what did you just do? Well, you changed Windows back to the 2000 color scheme for all pop up menus, your background, and the task bar!

Step 4. Leaving the Display Properties open, select the Desktop Tab and move on to Part B.


Part B. Next is to get your icons back and looking classic again!

Step 1. If you followed directions then your Display Properties window is still open. If you closed it then you can access it again by following Steps 1 and 2 in Part A. With the Display Properties open and the Desktop tab selected, select “Customize Desktop”. You should see the window displayed below.

(Note that we will be concentrating on the top half of this picture, the Desktop Cleanup has nothing to do with this tutorial)

Step 2. You’ve probably noticed that all your desktop consisted of was the Recycling Bin (and maybe Internet Explorer which if that is the case, deselect it from this menu immediately and download a third party browser and continue on with this article). Simply put a check in the My Computer, My Documents, and My Network Places boxes.

Step 3. If you’re content with getting the above selections back on your desktop then just skip to Step 6. However, if you want to give the icons a classic feel then continue on. First click on the “My Computer” icon and select “Change Icon…”.

Step 4. Once again, a new screen has popped up. This screen will allow you to select a new Icon to represent your “My Computer” selection. Although, I can’t vogue that these icons are identical to Windows 2000 (or previous versions) they do give them a more classic feel then the more colorful XP icons. For “My Computer” I selected this icon:


Step 5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 with My Network Places, Recycle Bin (Full), and Recycle Bin (Empty), choose which ever icon you feel is appropriate. Now, for what every reason, there are no new icons for My Documents. In order to get a wider selection copy and paste (sans quotes) “C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\shell32.dll” into the “Look for icons in this file” bar. Once again, select the icon you wish to use. Here are the rest that I selected:


Step 6. Click “OK” at the bottom of the Desktop Items to go back to the “Display Properties” menu. Select “Apply” and close the “Display Properties” window.


Part C. Now its time for the nitty-gritty. The Start Menu.

Step 1. Ok, this is incredibly simple. Right-click on the Start Menu and select Properties.


Step 2. You should be looking at the following menu:


Simply select hte “Classic Start menu” bubble. You should now get this screen:


Step 3. You should notice, that even though the menu now has the 2000 style, it still has the words "Windows XP Home Edition" in big daunting letters on the left side. We can change that. Click on "Customize..." and you will see:


Step 4. As shown in the picture, scroll down the bar and place a check next to "Show Small Icons in Start menu", the select "OK"

Step 5. Click "Apply" in the Start Menu options. Now, I have to point out that this isn’t a total conversion from the XP Start menu to the Windows 2000 menu. The two major differences being the flag displayed on the Start menu, and the icons in front of the text. In order to remove these characteristics you have to download a third party binary file editor and go though several complex steps and modifications. In the end, though this will change your Start menu to the 2000 version completely (actually, you can change it to anything you like such as “Stop” or “Poop”) but you will also compromise your Search tool, and it does not work with Service Pack 2. For these reasons, we will leave the menu as is.

Part D. The Control Panel was changed from 2000 to XP. Fortunately reverting it perhaps the easiest process of all.

Step 1. Clicking on your new (old) Start menu go to the “Settings” bar and select “Control Panel”.


Step 2. Take a quick peek around. Do you see it? Click on “Switch to Classic View” in the top left corner.


Tada!
That's it! This isn’t a hardcore transformation as the icons of most of you folders will remain the same, however, it is more then enough to fool the every day user, as my dad though I had uninstalled XP and gone back to 2000.


Final Result:


For those who would like to take it 1 step further, go back to the Display Properties and click on the Settings Tab. From here lower your resolution to a pitiful size and change the color settings to 256 colors, or 16bit if 256 is not available. For the final test, ask someone to look at your desktop and guess what OS your using. 9 times out of 10, you'll fool 'em!



-XoRn