Question

Make 2008 explorer look like XP ?

Asked by: td_miles

I was wondering if there is any way of making the Windows Explorer interface in 2008 Server look like Windows XP/2000 ?

To explain further, I am experimenting with using the published application feature in Windows 2008 Server (RC1). It works fine, but when you use any of the file options for the remote application (eg. file/open, file/save) the interface to find/name the file is the Windows 2008 (and I suppose Vista) Explorer interface. I'm wanting to publish the applications to a userbase that is using Windows XP and will most likely get confused by this new fancy interface. This is why I want the file dialog boxes to look like Windows XP ones currently do.

Does anyone know of a way to achieve this ? It would need to be via GPO as well, as logging on as each user and tick/untick settings is not a viable option.

I've googled and there is stacks of stuff on making XP looks like Vista (ie. installing Aero interface), but not much on the other way around. I've looked at a couple of article that show how to revert the task bar & menus , but haven't been able to find anything for Explorer.

Thanks.

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2008-02-17 at 21:45:02ID23170645
Tags

Microsoft

,

Server

,

2008

,

RC1

Topics

Windows 2003 Server

,

Windows XP Operating System

,

Remote Desktop/Terminal Services

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
10

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. How to force Aero on vista RTM
    Hi every one , from the topic i tried different registery setting from different vista beta version and RC1 & RC2, Is there is a way to enable aero on my notebook ? i hope there i have notebook with intel 915 gm/gms graphic card . Thanks Very Much.
  2. Aero Disabled in RC2 After Vista Release?
    Running the Vista RC2 and I Aero was gone one day. I can't find it, or figure out how to re-enable it. I've tried everything under Control Panel\Personalization and System Properties\Advanced\Performance Options\Visual Effects. Nothing works...any clues? Did MS disable Aero i...
  3. Detect Aero
    How can i detect if the computer my application is running on is using the aero interface? I need to make some graphical changes to deal with the glitches it causes.

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: itsluyPosted on 2008-02-17 at 21:56:13ID: 20917877

You can just tap the Alt key whenever you want to access the menu bar and it'll pop up until you click elsewhere.

On the other hand, if you want it back permanently, just click the Organize button, then go to Layout, select Menu Bar, and voilà! Similarly, in Internet Explorer you can bring it back by going to Tools -> Menu Bar

 

by: td_milesPosted on 2008-02-17 at 23:04:58ID: 20918060

I know about that, I don't just want the toolbars back, I want the whole explorer interface to look like it does/did in XP/2000. It's a fair bit different and I just know the users are going to have issues with it.

 

by: itsluyPosted on 2008-02-18 at 12:09:27ID: 20923015

I'm not sure you can do this completely. The first thing is to change the theme back to windows classic.
Right click on desktop, click Personalize and go to themes. There you can switch back to what XP looked like for the most part.

 

by: td_milesPosted on 2008-02-18 at 12:51:39ID: 20923326

Done all that, but the windows file open/save interface still looks radically different.

 

by: itsluyPosted on 2008-02-19 at 23:36:25ID: 20935731

there is one last trick up my sleeve td_miles:

Go to Run...

Type in iexplore C:\

this should open up IE7 in File mode which will give you an interface similar to win NT

Also you could try running explorer with a different name like pexplorer.exe. This way, pexplorer.exe checks if it is the shell. Because it is named pexplorer.exe, it is not the shell, so pexplorer.exe starts in browse mode.

Start a Command Prompt
Change the current directory to the Windows directory
Execute command: copy explorer.exe pexplorer.exe
Close the Command Prompt
Repeat steps 1 to 4 for each machine
Add an application with title "Windows Explorer" and command line "pexplorer.exe"
Test the application

 

by: td_milesPosted on 2008-02-20 at 15:35:09ID: 20943262

They're very nice suggestions, but if you re-read my question, won't help with what I'm trying to achieve.

---
when you use any of the file options for the remote application (eg. file/open, file/save) the interface to find/name the file is the Windows 2008 (and I suppose Vista) Explorer interface.
---

Using "iexplore C:\" makes no difference.

I don't think Windows is fooled by changing the name of the file. I do this and when I run pexplorer.exe it just does nothing.

I'm going to have to give this up as a lost cause and put up with user complaints, you get the points for trying :)

 

by: itsluyPosted on 2008-02-22 at 13:16:43ID: 20961510

Alternate solution is to switch to Windows Server 2003 :)

Thanks for the points.

 

by: itsluyPosted on 2008-02-24 at 12:30:41ID: 20971201

never did get those points, change your mind? :)

 

by: td_milesPosted on 2008-02-29 at 02:48:11ID: 31431714

Nope, life got in the way, here's the points. Looks likely we'll go back to 2k3 TS for now.

 

by: itsluyPosted on 2008-03-18 at 10:40:30ID: 21153698

Haha, yeah I'd say it's your best bet! Good luck!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...