If you thought default XP was dumb, you're in for a world of hurt in Vista. Let's see what we can do.

All steps in this guide are optional and make Vista act like 2k/XP as much as possible. Pick and choose the changes that suit you.

OH MY GOD WELCOME TO VISTA HERE ARE 500 USELESS BUTTONS NOBODY WANTS

• Uncheck "Run at startup" at the bottom
• Close

• Right click sidebar, close
• Right click the sidebar icon in system tray (which should have a "help" bubble now), Exit
• In dialog, uncheck "Start sidebar when Windows starts"; "Exit sidebar"

• Start | Control panel
• "Classic view" on left
• Press Alt to bring up the ever-elusive menu bar
• View | Details
• View | Status bar
• Tools | Folder options
  • "Use Windows classic folders"
  • View tab
    • "Always show menus" → On (THANK GOD)
    • "Display simple folder view in Navigation pane" → Off
    • "Display the full path in the title bar" → On
    • "Show hidden files and folers" → On
    • "Hide extensions of known file types" → Off
    • "Hide protected operating system files" → Off; Yes to dumb dialog box
    • "Remember each folder's view settings" → Off

This, like all steps in this document, is optional; you can leave UAC on if you like the added security.

• Start | Control panel | User Accounts
• "Turn User Account Control on or off"
• Uncheck, OK, Reboot

• Start | Control panel | Security Center (or click one of the complaints)
• "Change the way Security Center alerts me" on the left
• "Don't notify me and don't display the icon"

• Right click taskbar, properties
• "Taskbar" tab
  • "Group similar taskbar buttons" → Off
• "Start Menu" tab
  • "Classic Start menu" → On, "Customize"
    • At bottom of "Advanced Start menu options", "Use personalized menus" → Off
• "Notification Area" tab
  • "Hide inactive icons" → Off
• OK

• Press Win+Pause or right click "My Computer" and choose "Properties"
• Giant "fake" system properties appears. Click "System protection" on the left to bring up real system properties.
• "Advanced" tab
  • Performance "Settings"
    • "Adjust for best performance", then enable what you want
      • Disabling "Use visual styles on windows and buttons" gives classic Windows 2000 look
      • Move swap file via "Advanced" dialog if desired
  • Startup and Recovery "Settings"
    • "Automatically restart" → Off
  • Environment variables if needed

• Right click the desktop, "Properties"
• "Desktop background"; whatever
• "Sound"
  • Find "Start Navigation" and set it to "(None)" to turn off that clicking sound
• "Mouse", "Pointers" tab, → "3D-Bronze" (or whatever)
• "Display Settings"; whatever

• turn off desktop cleanup wizard
• unhide underlined letters
• error reporting → disable

• Right click the recycle bin, "Properties"
• "Do not move files to the Recycle Bin" → On

• Tools button| Menu Bar
• Tools | Internet Options
• Homepage → Anything but MSN (google?)

1. Click Start, click Run, and type "control userpasswords2". This is a shortcut instead of having to click on Start → Control Panel → User Accounts.
2. Uncheck the "Users must enter a username and password to use this computer" check box.
3. Click Apply.
4. Enter the user name and password you wish to automatically log on with, and then click OK.
5. Click OK again and you're all done.

(from http://8help.osu.edu/2063.html)

• alerter → stop and set to manual
• automatic updates → stop and set to manual
• themes → stop and set to manual

• hit Win+F or click "Search" in explorer to bring up find dialog
• retarded dog appears.
• "change preferences", "without an animated character"
• "change preferences", "change file and folder search behavior", → "advanced", [Ok]

• sounds tab, pick "start navigation" from program events, set sound to "(None)" – this kills that annoying click every time you open a folder

• pointer scheme → 3d bronze (or manually switch just the animated hourglasses)

To completely disable all forms of autorun/autoplay:

• Start | Run | "GPEDIT.MSC"
• On left panel, "Computer Configuration" | "Administrative Templates" | "System"
• In right panel, Set "Turn autoplay off" to enabled with either "CD-ROM drives" or "All drives" (USB keys, etc.)

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

• tools, options, → "always ask me where to save files"

http://windizupdate.com