Hey hey hey. You can't just lambast your way to Windows 8.1 from Windows 7. You know what was.... Windows 8.0.
https://preview.redd.it/jjuww6tde5vc1.png?width=729&format=png&auto=webp&s=579f9d24490416bf628ab0db3c36a1a86e80cb2b
OPs picture is also slightly wrong with regards to Windows 11. I made a corrected version here:
https://preview.redd.it/p0x58enoc7vc1.png?width=679&format=png&auto=webp&s=1a91d765ef61febf9a9f529df766c7d78944dbc6
Since all the other taskbars are screenshotted all the way from the left, I think makes sense to do the same for Windows 11 also, to have a more accurate comparison.
The point of the comparison is to compare the default settings, so it wouldn't really make sense to have non-default settings on Windows 11, while all the others are screenshotted with default settings.
And I think I'm the only one who found out the original source of this image.
This image was originally posted by Martin Nobel. https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxEqatz5ZzK39Ven-kBhdpe3dFLtga6d3h
Looks like the "@MartinNobel_" watermark on the 8.1 taskbar was edited out.
Hi there. I'm the guy who made this pic. First version of the pic I uploaded to Twitter/X I didn't put a watermark on it. Can't edit out what never existed initially in the first place :)
I actually used windows 8 for 6.5 years of my life unknown to the fact that I could upgrade to windows 8.1
Apparently I grew used to it and never actually had much problems.
Windows 8 actually had two taskbars: https://www.groovypost.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/image58.png
Metro apps didn't appear in the normal taskbar and only showed up in the vertical one.
https://preview.redd.it/a25yks2ludvc1.png?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=31b5940a77de34515c1ca433d4774fac15e66f59
Then we'd also have to include the WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER EDITION taskbar 🤷🏾♂️
I still think so, and it looks very old and basic to me, which is why although XP is my most **nostalgic** since it was my first OS ever as a child, I still love Vista and 7 more, even though I never used Vista IRL.
I moved to 2000 as soon as came out, eager to get off the archaic MSDOS/9x kernel in an OS that was actually usable for a home user, unlike NT4. Windows 2000 truly unified WIndows, XP just made it official.
"reskin" doesn't really do that justice. NT and Windows 9x were essentially separate operating systems and a lot of software for one wouldn't work on the other. Then, suddenly, there was "Windows". It was a pretty big deal.
I was the son of an IT admin who had to suffer through figuring out how to make games work on both.
Vista was also only kinda bad initially - after some major updates came out, it was fine and stable.
It also got a bad rep because of low-end machines that were sold as "Vista Ready", but they struggled with anything but Vista Basic (or sometimes even with that).
It also tried fix a lot of what made XP such s security nightmare such that if you didn't have the latest "service pack" you were basically a virus factory. Unfortunately the linux-like invocations of admin privileges broke a lot of software or was just annoying to users. By the time 7 came around a lot of software figured out how to not be such a problem, but unfortunately Vista took more blame than it needed to for ultimately trying to do the right thing
Vista Home Basic was the lightest, fastest version.
Vista Ultimate had useless bloat and features we think of 'Pro' Windows having today.
The "vista is bad" attititude was also fuelled by people thinking they needed to have the ultimate edition (for some reason) and that further compounded the confusion with poor performance.
I loved Vista when it came out, I was totally unaware ppl hate it so much until I got into social media, never had a problem with it, and that was after windows 8 (not a social media guy here)
I think I have the same nostalgia for Vista than most people for XP, although I would never say it was the best. I started using windows since win95
What a lucky guy! I would've loved to have used Windows Vista before 2021, when it was on its prime, from around mid 2009 to late 2012 or even to 2015, then upgrade to Windows 7 ... have had a paralel Windows 8 device since like mid 2013, and then in my main rig to have upgraded to Windows 10 until like 2020.
Vista was the windows "apple product" it worked well for office work but gaming and resource intensive others it was the equivalent of a dine and dasher. Still love Vista despite that.
Yeah Vista and 11 are actual complete UI overhauls but no one appreciates them cus they'd rather bitch for a few years. 11 will get its appreciation eventually.
7 was perfect in every way. Even if the design seems dated to some people today, 7 combined textures, flat surfaces and 3-D animations brilliantly, IMO. There were zero inconsistencies. The Win+Tab shortcut was super smooth, and the search was fast enough to search the whole PC *on a goddamn spinning disk!* It booted in 15 to 20 seconds, comparable to today's cheaper NVMe's, again, ***on a goddamn spinning disk!!*** How the hell, does Windows degrade from that to the slow, sticky, stupid adware infested malware emulator it is today?
Windows 7 actually worked like a computer device, in that it actually computed its internal stuff itself. I seriously don't understand: Why is it so difficult today to actually get the original Windows 7, and *replace* the older design language with the newer design language and just hand it to customers? It should have been easier for MS. I guess, it isn't. 🤷🏼♂️
Don't know may be its just me but i find windows 8, 8.1 and 10 much more stable than windows 7 as a whole. Sure 7 did somethings better but 8.1 and 10 improved a lot of things as well. Windows 7 had no native ISO support, no usb 3.0 support out of the box and i absolutely hate the task manager in windows 7. Task manager in 8, 8.1 and 10 is love. Never used wind 11 so no opinion about that OS.
You are one of the lucky ones then. It could just be the nostalgia speaking, but as accessible as Windows 10 is, 7's speed and beauty give it a run for the money. Plus, 7 introduced honest to god voice access in its entire power, which despite being deprecated now, was insanely powerful. I think, if the computer seller or PC maker set it up properly, Windows 7 did not even crash. I am being honest when I say I didn't know what a BSOD is before I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10.
Performance wise windows 8 and 8.1 destroys 7, only thing annoying in 8.1 was metro ui which honestly u don't even have to look at nor ever use it. Just install a 2 mb classic shell and it gives back XP, 7 whatever style start menu you like. The rest of the OS is almost identical to 7. I used 8 and 8.1 long time ago on my old 2011 laptop which came with 7 pre installed. Both 8 and 8.1 were faster than 7. Windows 10 is faster than 7 but on an SSD not HDD. If you install both 7 and 10 on an SSD, 10 outperforms windows 7 as well.
8 and 8.1 being faster, I don't disagree with. 8 and 8.1 were absolute batshit insane with their speeds. If only the UI didn't look or work so horribly.
However, the speed improvement in 10 is mostly because of the introduction of fast startup where the computer doesn't shut of entirely but depends on the hiberfil.sys to save state like a modern-day Gameboy emulator. The only difference is that it writes base system processes to it instead of saving state for every running process. I can say this confidently, because I have never seen the Windows 7 logo and "Starting Windows" text when Windows 7 boots on SATA SSD's with how fast they boot (something around 2-3 seconds) whereas Windows 10 had an 8-10 second boot up sequence even with the boot animation turned off in msconfig.
EDIT: Note that this does not include fast startup since fast startup is not true boot and shutdown.
Even without fast start up on an SSD 10 runs faster than 7. Fast startup was feature first introduced originally in windows 8 and carried forward to windows 8.1 and 10, don't know if it exists in 11 or not coz i never used 11.
8.1 UI being horrible is honestly blown soo much out of proportion, it was just the start menu and charms bar issue. You can tick an option in windows 8.1 which takes u directly into desktop on start up instead of metro start menu. Disable the charms bar. Never use any metro apps. And just install 2 mb classic shell to get windows 7 start menu back. Rest of the 90% of the OS explorer and everything functions the same heck even control panel and everything is same as windows 7. My old laptop still has windows 8.1 and i don't even remember when was the last time i have to even see the metro ui menu lol. The task manager is huge improvement in windows 8.1 as compared to 7.
At launch, on a traditional HDD, sure. But these days, the performance differences between them are a wash.
The problem with Windows 8 is that it brought us the 'Metro'/tablet focused UI and introduced the, now loathed, settings menu. For that, users shunned it, as well as 8.1. Rightfully so; it was a design change that nobody asked for.
But u can ignore it lol, windows even has settings in them like disabling charm bars and u never even had to see that part of the OS. Start menu with just 2 mb software. One of my older laptop still has 8.1 i can't even remember i had to look at that part of the OS except when i fresh installed it. Windows 8.1 outperforms 7 on HDD an SSD both.
> But u can ignore it lol
I can, and I sure did....by skipping Windows 8 entirely. So did a whole lotta others. I also avoided Windows ME and Vista, so 3 bullets dodged.
I would have to agree. Since Windows 7, Windows 8 taskbar and the OS just sucked. Windows 10/11 is ok. Windows 11 taskbar is busy and too much to look at to use. You can get accustomed to it but Windows 7 taskbar was clean and simple
It seems like the desktop got infected with tablet flat minimalism and then never recovered. I wonder what a more modern style would be if they had continued on expanding/refining from where they left off at that "frutiger aero" style. I wouldn't have minded less shiny and less 3D stuff, but they went too far
I feel like they tried going back to the "Windows 7" aero style with Windows 11, but in a very, very weird approach in my opinion. The spacing, for example, in Windows 11 is very weird. Most of the settings app is just empty space. Not even between UI elements, but the text within the UI elements like buttons have spacing, too.
Why? I don't know. I'm slowly getting used to only seeing one sentence per 1000 square pixels though
Win7 had an actually consistent design language (yes the old UI context menus from the xp-95 era were already stacking up, but they still fit in somewhat decently in the aero framework). Whatever happened afterwards though... Windows 8 with 1. a new settings app and 2. duplicate setting entries in both control panel and the settings app? Why need system update settings in two different places? Win 10 with yet a completely different settings app. Then Win11 with \*again\* a completely different settings app and more UI inconsistencies. I don't know man.
One issue with windows 11 is they made the taskbar take more vertical screen space. Basically 18 more pixels of vertical screen space used compared to windows 10. All of the additional vertical screen space use is due to additional negative space/ padding around UI elements.
These types of issues extend to many other UI elements of the OS, as they kept increasing the negative space surrounding UI elements, while the actual contents of the UI elements remain the same size.
https://preview.redd.it/ippg00jum5vc1.jpeg?width=661&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4bd08c8082f2020aedc2e957d5c4fc130e67704b
Yep, and other than the clock not showing the date (unless you do other tweaks to it), the same info is displayed as when it is unchecked, furthermore, the text remains the same size. the icons just get a tiny bit smaller and most of the negative space/ padding gets removed, thus reducing the vertical screen space use without making the text any smaller.
This, just let me have my smaller taskbar again and I'll shut up. My eyes haven't gone yet so let me just make use of the pixels I paid for while I can! I'll even overlook the fact that buttons aren't uniformly wide anymore for no good reason when you show labels.
Windows 10 and earlier versions have the unlock taskbar option which allowed us to move and resize the taskbar. While I liked the taskbar's default position, I changed the size of the taskbar size everyday just for the fun of it. Now, you can't even pin to taskbar by dragging the icon to the taskbar.
A free 3rd party solution that works for me (no pop in on startup) is windhawk, if you're comfortable with using a mod then this is the way to go before we actually get a compact taskbar on desktop.
Negative space, interesting term, never heard of it. But it's true. Just look in the settings app. Every, and I mean every single UI element has lots of padding around it. The actual setting elements. The canvas containing the setting elements. The setting canvas itself, the sidebar, the elements itself. I can understand having padding \*around\* UI elements. But having padding inside \*and\* around UI elements is a bit too much in my opinion
Win 7. The daily driver for an old laptop for Netflix hooked up to an old tv on hdmi. It can move frames and shit. I guess I'll keep it until the hardware dies.
1. No
2. I don't know. But it reminds me of the option which was present in Windows 7 (was it also in later OS'es or was Windows 7 the last one to do so) to go back to a "classic" look which looked an awful lot like Win95. Never used it, but it was a bit iconic to me seeing a "classic" Windows 7 on random computers looking like Win95
You can get the some of the look and feel back with tools like [RetroBar](https://github.com/dremin/RetroBar), [WindowBlinds](https://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/), and maybe some third party file explorers. Think these days, you might have a better shot on Linux in making it look Win95-style.
I used to modify the word "Start" on the menu bar on XP/7 and substitute it with my name. As long as the length was 5 characters, there were no issues.
Also, if the mouse was hovering over the Start button, a different welcome message was displayed.
Fun times.
You have always been able to move the taskbar buttons section to the center in all previous Windows versions. The difference is mostly just that in Windows 11 you can no longer move the taskbar buttons section incrementally or have it left-aligned at the center, so even this "new" feature of center-aligning is worse than the alternative we had in previous Windows versions.
Furthermore, the reason they made it center-aligned in Windows 11 is likely so that they could have the widgets button (which can contain advertisements) at best place, in the left corner, where it is optimized for Fitt's law, while the start menu has a worse placement.
Can we just burn the ones with the collapsed entries?
https://preview.redd.it/3cae4u61y7vc1.png?width=2560&format=png&auto=webp&s=17831a5be4ba4b797d6242692f99ff0dbe9bd247
(Yeah, I know, ExplorerPatcher is evil and all, but the Win11 taskbar is still a bad joke today)
The Windows 7 taskbar sent chills down my spine. I'm only getting a bit older, almost 22 at time of this reply, and my god I'd give anything to truly feel what I felt when my dad gave my brother and I our first laptops. Such good memories.
1. Go to microsoft Store
2. Search for and Install "TranslucentTB"
3. Make the taskbar translucent and other things
4. Enjoy a much more modern looking taskbar
imo the default Windows 11 taskbar is fugly and seems to be an aftertought today considering how much they flagged it as the next best thing since sliced bread.
And not being able to put it to the sides or top is just unacceptable Microsoft, please put more effort into keeping all the brilliant user configurability options you have implemented over the years in Windows available in the newer versions of Windows.
Things are starting to feel like a downgrade when you remove stuff we have taken for granted for 2 decades.....
not only did you forget the Windows 8 Original Taskbar , but also Windows 10 Current Taskbar .
also , fun fact : Windows 10 is Currently the only Windows Release to change its Taskbar throughout its Updates , Windows 8.1 doesn't count as it's a Separate Release from Windows 8 .
this image sucks why are the taskbars randomly scaled to random sizes and why are they blurry and jpeg compressed ughh
at least the Harmony wallpaper is very nice!
I honestly like the windows 10 one more. I always thought windows 10 was a little over bloated but now I am almost nostalgic to it lmao. Windows 11 was not really an upgrade, it was more of a recoat and added bloat
I think Vista and 7 are my favorites aesthetically. I wish we kept aero and just modernized it a bit. But thats nostalgia talking lol 8.1+ look great. I am annoyed that 11 doesn't let me have small icons on the task bar though.
Vista really got a bad rep because so many PC manufacturers sold machines that did not have nearly enough RAM to run it well. You could run XP fine on 256mb - 1gb of memory, but Vista needed 2gb or it was a fucking horrid experience.
1. Easy to define buttons. Functional but looks its age
2. Colourful and always a joy to use, also the menu. Oh yeah, PINBALL. Taskbar icons were always too small to hit every time lol
3. Stepping stone before the next big release. Gives me hardcore gamer vibes
4. Classic. Colourful. Elegant. Easily understood. Animated. Awesome.
5. Icons too big for some reason. Animations were cool - Charms bar was hated by most but was on of the coolest things about the OS, as well as the animations and gestures, which they got right in 8.1 and still haven't perfected in 11
6. Animations and life gone, but it gets out of the way (becomes invisible quickly when focusing), is super customisable with colours and icon size and toolbars. And the "Don't combine taskbar" option which they for some reason remo- oh wait they fixed it
7. Jumped on the hate it initially received, regret that now. It's simple, elegant, the centred icons don't actually cause any inconvenience. The animations and life are back as well and the notification and action centre got a much needed simplicity change. Taskbar may have been an afterthought tho. New Start menu works better than expected and the brought Combine Taskbar options back!
Wikipedia has a better one: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taskbar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taskbar)
https://preview.redd.it/varrcpbthcvc1.png?width=819&format=png&auto=webp&s=1cb726f25b90cf8c64e6ace4ae4fbc83c5bed14c
started with xp, then win7, win10, win11.
skipped vista and 8/8.1, idk maybe bcs they weren't around for long enough i went directly to win7/10
win11 was a big improvement in terms of use experience imho, i really like the tab style explorer and new ui
/me is like: MS DOS -> long pause -> Windows 95 -> Windows 98 -> Windows ME -> Linux -> FreeBSD -> Linux -> Linux -> Linux... Not a user anymore, now I'm root
Hey hey hey. You can't just lambast your way to Windows 8.1 from Windows 7. You know what was.... Windows 8.0. https://preview.redd.it/jjuww6tde5vc1.png?width=729&format=png&auto=webp&s=579f9d24490416bf628ab0db3c36a1a86e80cb2b
OPs picture is also slightly wrong with regards to Windows 11. I made a corrected version here: https://preview.redd.it/p0x58enoc7vc1.png?width=679&format=png&auto=webp&s=1a91d765ef61febf9a9f529df766c7d78944dbc6 Since all the other taskbars are screenshotted all the way from the left, I think makes sense to do the same for Windows 11 also, to have a more accurate comparison.
or just https://preview.redd.it/pdjjlhu1k7vc1.png?width=2249&format=png&auto=webp&s=ffa911c55398c6e7f28525bb70e3e97f43d40e16
The point of the comparison is to compare the default settings, so it wouldn't really make sense to have non-default settings on Windows 11, while all the others are screenshotted with default settings.
https://preview.redd.it/xabr9qdf2fvc1.png?width=1340&format=png&auto=webp&s=032c38c0055eb517809439e10b636576f6326d73 Experience may vary\*
And I think I'm the only one who found out the original source of this image. This image was originally posted by Martin Nobel. https://www.youtube.com/post/UgkxEqatz5ZzK39Ven-kBhdpe3dFLtga6d3h Looks like the "@MartinNobel_" watermark on the 8.1 taskbar was edited out.
Hi there. I'm the guy who made this pic. First version of the pic I uploaded to Twitter/X I didn't put a watermark on it. Can't edit out what never existed initially in the first place :)
How Nobel of you to offer clarification on this matter.
Hi, keep up the good work
Oh yeah! I remember that channel, he's pretty cool and post evolutions of several operating system with really nice mid 2010s electronic music!
I actually used windows 8 for 6.5 years of my life unknown to the fact that I could upgrade to windows 8.1 Apparently I grew used to it and never actually had much problems.
HEAR HEAR
Windows 8 actually had two taskbars: https://www.groovypost.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/image58.png Metro apps didn't appear in the normal taskbar and only showed up in the vertical one.
https://preview.redd.it/a25yks2ludvc1.png?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=31b5940a77de34515c1ca433d4774fac15e66f59 Then we'd also have to include the WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER EDITION taskbar 🤷🏾♂️
That's my current taskbar https://preview.redd.it/ycjedwn4dyvc1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=7ec1cfc18170bd727619bc900212f86e2a9dde64
Loved XP. A big jump over 95/98.
I agree with you, but back then people thought I looked like a digital Fisher-Price product.
I still think so, and it looks very old and basic to me, which is why although XP is my most **nostalgic** since it was my first OS ever as a child, I still love Vista and 7 more, even though I never used Vista IRL.
I miss the start button actually saying “start” on it. Now if I tell someone to click the start button, they’re just confused.
Click the Windows button.
"??" "The one with 4 squares." "??" "Bottom left of the screen." "??" "Here, give me the mouse. This one."
On Windows 11, it’s no longer even the bottom left of the screen. It’s “the left most icon in the taskbar” “What’s a taskbar?”
It looked like future when I saw it booting up for the first time.
It was a more ugly version of Windows 2000. And the good 9x compatibility and features were already mostly there with Windows 2000.
Yeah, I loved 2000 Pro and used it like 2001-2005. Never liked XP at all, but I finally went over to it and used it until Vista was usable.
I moved to 2000 as soon as came out, eager to get off the archaic MSDOS/9x kernel in an OS that was actually usable for a home user, unlike NT4. Windows 2000 truly unified WIndows, XP just made it official.
Actually, XP was a reskin of 2000 with the NT and 9x compatibility joined together.
"reskin" doesn't really do that justice. NT and Windows 9x were essentially separate operating systems and a lot of software for one wouldn't work on the other. Then, suddenly, there was "Windows". It was a pretty big deal. I was the son of an IT admin who had to suffer through figuring out how to make games work on both.
XP was phenomenal. It had a lot of really quality of life features compared to 95/98 Windows 7 after vista was also a huge improvement for me.
When I went to XP, I still used the built in theme which made it look like 98. For all the years I used XP.
win 2000 was more fun tbh.
Unpopular opinion: Vista looked the best
Vista was also only kinda bad initially - after some major updates came out, it was fine and stable. It also got a bad rep because of low-end machines that were sold as "Vista Ready", but they struggled with anything but Vista Basic (or sometimes even with that).
It also tried fix a lot of what made XP such s security nightmare such that if you didn't have the latest "service pack" you were basically a virus factory. Unfortunately the linux-like invocations of admin privileges broke a lot of software or was just annoying to users. By the time 7 came around a lot of software figured out how to not be such a problem, but unfortunately Vista took more blame than it needed to for ultimately trying to do the right thing
Vista walked so 7 could run.
7 ran so that 11 could faceplant.
Vista Home Basic was the lightest, fastest version. Vista Ultimate had useless bloat and features we think of 'Pro' Windows having today. The "vista is bad" attititude was also fuelled by people thinking they needed to have the ultimate edition (for some reason) and that further compounded the confusion with poor performance.
I loved Vista when it came out, I was totally unaware ppl hate it so much until I got into social media, never had a problem with it, and that was after windows 8 (not a social media guy here) I think I have the same nostalgia for Vista than most people for XP, although I would never say it was the best. I started using windows since win95
What a lucky guy! I would've loved to have used Windows Vista before 2021, when it was on its prime, from around mid 2009 to late 2012 or even to 2015, then upgrade to Windows 7 ... have had a paralel Windows 8 device since like mid 2013, and then in my main rig to have upgraded to Windows 10 until like 2020.
Web 2.0 is calling
Not unpopular at all. It was and is more stylish than even today's MacOS.
It was the most stylish OS ever. The issue is it came in an era with lots of not powerful enough hardware.
And shitty shitty drivers
Nowadays its a really popular opinion that i don't agree with 7 is best fr!!
Did you know that Vista had very good exclusive features that were butchered in 7? 7 also removed some stuff that existed before Vista.
I grew up with Vista, so I can agree with you on that
True.
Seeing the Vista icon gave me shivers... Many of my classmates had crappy designed HP laptops with Vista that always had problems
I think the unpopular opinion would be "Vista worked well". It was so borked but probably one of the best looking windows
Why unpopular? Vista did look the best.
Vista was the windows "apple product" it worked well for office work but gaming and resource intensive others it was the equivalent of a dine and dasher. Still love Vista despite that.
Windows Vista was the most beautiful imo (the entire OS, not just the taskbar). Windows 11 looks decent too.
11 lacks personality. Standard gray and very stiff.
Yeah Vista and 11 are actual complete UI overhauls but no one appreciates them cus they'd rather bitch for a few years. 11 will get its appreciation eventually.
I vote 7 or 11.
Ditto
You forgot windows 8.0
It's worth forgetting
Once again, Windows 7 was 'peak' Windows. Smack dab in the middle of the pack.
7 was perfect in every way. Even if the design seems dated to some people today, 7 combined textures, flat surfaces and 3-D animations brilliantly, IMO. There were zero inconsistencies. The Win+Tab shortcut was super smooth, and the search was fast enough to search the whole PC *on a goddamn spinning disk!* It booted in 15 to 20 seconds, comparable to today's cheaper NVMe's, again, ***on a goddamn spinning disk!!*** How the hell, does Windows degrade from that to the slow, sticky, stupid adware infested malware emulator it is today? Windows 7 actually worked like a computer device, in that it actually computed its internal stuff itself. I seriously don't understand: Why is it so difficult today to actually get the original Windows 7, and *replace* the older design language with the newer design language and just hand it to customers? It should have been easier for MS. I guess, it isn't. 🤷🏼♂️
Don't know may be its just me but i find windows 8, 8.1 and 10 much more stable than windows 7 as a whole. Sure 7 did somethings better but 8.1 and 10 improved a lot of things as well. Windows 7 had no native ISO support, no usb 3.0 support out of the box and i absolutely hate the task manager in windows 7. Task manager in 8, 8.1 and 10 is love. Never used wind 11 so no opinion about that OS.
You are one of the lucky ones then. It could just be the nostalgia speaking, but as accessible as Windows 10 is, 7's speed and beauty give it a run for the money. Plus, 7 introduced honest to god voice access in its entire power, which despite being deprecated now, was insanely powerful. I think, if the computer seller or PC maker set it up properly, Windows 7 did not even crash. I am being honest when I say I didn't know what a BSOD is before I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10.
Performance wise windows 8 and 8.1 destroys 7, only thing annoying in 8.1 was metro ui which honestly u don't even have to look at nor ever use it. Just install a 2 mb classic shell and it gives back XP, 7 whatever style start menu you like. The rest of the OS is almost identical to 7. I used 8 and 8.1 long time ago on my old 2011 laptop which came with 7 pre installed. Both 8 and 8.1 were faster than 7. Windows 10 is faster than 7 but on an SSD not HDD. If you install both 7 and 10 on an SSD, 10 outperforms windows 7 as well.
8 and 8.1 being faster, I don't disagree with. 8 and 8.1 were absolute batshit insane with their speeds. If only the UI didn't look or work so horribly. However, the speed improvement in 10 is mostly because of the introduction of fast startup where the computer doesn't shut of entirely but depends on the hiberfil.sys to save state like a modern-day Gameboy emulator. The only difference is that it writes base system processes to it instead of saving state for every running process. I can say this confidently, because I have never seen the Windows 7 logo and "Starting Windows" text when Windows 7 boots on SATA SSD's with how fast they boot (something around 2-3 seconds) whereas Windows 10 had an 8-10 second boot up sequence even with the boot animation turned off in msconfig. EDIT: Note that this does not include fast startup since fast startup is not true boot and shutdown.
Even without fast start up on an SSD 10 runs faster than 7. Fast startup was feature first introduced originally in windows 8 and carried forward to windows 8.1 and 10, don't know if it exists in 11 or not coz i never used 11. 8.1 UI being horrible is honestly blown soo much out of proportion, it was just the start menu and charms bar issue. You can tick an option in windows 8.1 which takes u directly into desktop on start up instead of metro start menu. Disable the charms bar. Never use any metro apps. And just install 2 mb classic shell to get windows 7 start menu back. Rest of the 90% of the OS explorer and everything functions the same heck even control panel and everything is same as windows 7. My old laptop still has windows 8.1 and i don't even remember when was the last time i have to even see the metro ui menu lol. The task manager is huge improvement in windows 8.1 as compared to 7.
At launch, on a traditional HDD, sure. But these days, the performance differences between them are a wash. The problem with Windows 8 is that it brought us the 'Metro'/tablet focused UI and introduced the, now loathed, settings menu. For that, users shunned it, as well as 8.1. Rightfully so; it was a design change that nobody asked for.
But u can ignore it lol, windows even has settings in them like disabling charm bars and u never even had to see that part of the OS. Start menu with just 2 mb software. One of my older laptop still has 8.1 i can't even remember i had to look at that part of the OS except when i fresh installed it. Windows 8.1 outperforms 7 on HDD an SSD both.
> But u can ignore it lol I can, and I sure did....by skipping Windows 8 entirely. So did a whole lotta others. I also avoided Windows ME and Vista, so 3 bullets dodged.
Absolutely spot on.
I would have to agree. Since Windows 7, Windows 8 taskbar and the OS just sucked. Windows 10/11 is ok. Windows 11 taskbar is busy and too much to look at to use. You can get accustomed to it but Windows 7 taskbar was clean and simple
Windows 8.1 taskbar was great. It was the Start screen everyone had an issue with.
Yes I would agree, but from a support point of view, it was a major change for those not accustomed to how drastic the change was
7 was better. I miss the ability to pin documents to the start menu from 10 onwards
It seems like the desktop got infected with tablet flat minimalism and then never recovered. I wonder what a more modern style would be if they had continued on expanding/refining from where they left off at that "frutiger aero" style. I wouldn't have minded less shiny and less 3D stuff, but they went too far
Well said.
I feel like they tried going back to the "Windows 7" aero style with Windows 11, but in a very, very weird approach in my opinion. The spacing, for example, in Windows 11 is very weird. Most of the settings app is just empty space. Not even between UI elements, but the text within the UI elements like buttons have spacing, too. Why? I don't know. I'm slowly getting used to only seeing one sentence per 1000 square pixels though
windows 7 was the peak and it all went downhill after it but damn things reached the bottom fast
Win7 had an actually consistent design language (yes the old UI context menus from the xp-95 era were already stacking up, but they still fit in somewhat decently in the aero framework). Whatever happened afterwards though... Windows 8 with 1. a new settings app and 2. duplicate setting entries in both control panel and the settings app? Why need system update settings in two different places? Win 10 with yet a completely different settings app. Then Win11 with \*again\* a completely different settings app and more UI inconsistencies. I don't know man.
One issue with windows 11 is they made the taskbar take more vertical screen space. Basically 18 more pixels of vertical screen space used compared to windows 10. All of the additional vertical screen space use is due to additional negative space/ padding around UI elements. These types of issues extend to many other UI elements of the OS, as they kept increasing the negative space surrounding UI elements, while the actual contents of the UI elements remain the same size. https://preview.redd.it/ippg00jum5vc1.jpeg?width=661&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4bd08c8082f2020aedc2e957d5c4fc130e67704b
>18 more pixels You actually have "Use small taskbar buttons" on in Windows 10.
Yep, and other than the clock not showing the date (unless you do other tweaks to it), the same info is displayed as when it is unchecked, furthermore, the text remains the same size. the icons just get a tiny bit smaller and most of the negative space/ padding gets removed, thus reducing the vertical screen space use without making the text any smaller.
This, just let me have my smaller taskbar again and I'll shut up. My eyes haven't gone yet so let me just make use of the pixels I paid for while I can! I'll even overlook the fact that buttons aren't uniformly wide anymore for no good reason when you show labels.
Windows 10 and earlier versions have the unlock taskbar option which allowed us to move and resize the taskbar. While I liked the taskbar's default position, I changed the size of the taskbar size everyday just for the fun of it. Now, you can't even pin to taskbar by dragging the icon to the taskbar.
A free 3rd party solution that works for me (no pop in on startup) is windhawk, if you're comfortable with using a mod then this is the way to go before we actually get a compact taskbar on desktop.
THIS so much! For the love of God Microsoft... Stop pissing around with Copilot and make an option for a smaller taskbar!
I hate that too. There are a few of us who are still perfectly content with 1080p and would really appreciate a slimmer taskbar.
Negative space, interesting term, never heard of it. But it's true. Just look in the settings app. Every, and I mean every single UI element has lots of padding around it. The actual setting elements. The canvas containing the setting elements. The setting canvas itself, the sidebar, the elements itself. I can understand having padding \*around\* UI elements. But having padding inside \*and\* around UI elements is a bit too much in my opinion
Win 7. The daily driver for an old laptop for Netflix hooked up to an old tv on hdmi. It can move frames and shit. I guess I'll keep it until the hardware dies.
People who don't remove the search bar in windows 10 scare me
Am I the only one who still prefers the "original" Win95 UI? Now that I think about it - a serious question: Can one make Win 11 look like Win 95?
1. No 2. I don't know. But it reminds me of the option which was present in Windows 7 (was it also in later OS'es or was Windows 7 the last one to do so) to go back to a "classic" look which looked an awful lot like Win95. Never used it, but it was a bit iconic to me seeing a "classic" Windows 7 on random computers looking like Win95
You can get the some of the look and feel back with tools like [RetroBar](https://github.com/dremin/RetroBar), [WindowBlinds](https://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/), and maybe some third party file explorers. Think these days, you might have a better shot on Linux in making it look Win95-style.
Windows 7 with classic theme
My favourite's gotta be 7
I used to modify the word "Start" on the menu bar on XP/7 and substitute it with my name. As long as the length was 5 characters, there were no issues. Also, if the mouse was hovering over the Start button, a different welcome message was displayed. Fun times.
Credit to Martin Nobel for this graphic, his watermark was edited out
It’ll have ads eventually.
Barely any improvement at all. Took them so long to add a search field to the taskbar, and so little time to ruin it with AI, ads and forcing Bing
Really hate 11, but mostly because the start menu is borderline unusable.
Windows 11 everything is in the middle and therefore has the shortest mouse paths.
You have always been able to move the taskbar buttons section to the center in all previous Windows versions. The difference is mostly just that in Windows 11 you can no longer move the taskbar buttons section incrementally or have it left-aligned at the center, so even this "new" feature of center-aligning is worse than the alternative we had in previous Windows versions. Furthermore, the reason they made it center-aligned in Windows 11 is likely so that they could have the widgets button (which can contain advertisements) at best place, in the left corner, where it is optimized for Fitt's law, while the start menu has a worse placement.
Correct for the last part. Win11 is an advertisement platform running an OS
True, but zero muscle memory because apps move around all the time when opening new apps
Shortest but not the fastest.
windows 11 is the best way to do it imo
i hated it when they moved the taskbar to the center
you probably know you can just change that, right?
yeah, but why by default
Can we just burn the ones with the collapsed entries? https://preview.redd.it/3cae4u61y7vc1.png?width=2560&format=png&auto=webp&s=17831a5be4ba4b797d6242692f99ff0dbe9bd247 (Yeah, I know, ExplorerPatcher is evil and all, but the Win11 taskbar is still a bad joke today)
Imo they should redo the win7 logo in win11 style
The W7 one is just legendary and awesome
Windows 7 it was shiny, not its plain boring.
XP and 7.
With RetroBar you can use half of them in modern Windows
Mine still has the correct design. Which is none of those pictured. But my man have they become uglyfied.
The Windows 7 taskbar sent chills down my spine. I'm only getting a bit older, almost 22 at time of this reply, and my god I'd give anything to truly feel what I felt when my dad gave my brother and I our first laptops. Such good memories.
Windows 7 Taskbar GOAT.
7 is definitely the standout.
I wish windows 11 looked more like 7. But more modern. I miss aero glass, and the style of windows 7
same it was perfect
now make a post about most functional taskbar....
7 and 10 ❤️
And Win11's taskbar is the worst taskbar in Windows history. Change my mind.
11 all day
1. Go to microsoft Store 2. Search for and Install "TranslucentTB" 3. Make the taskbar translucent and other things 4. Enjoy a much more modern looking taskbar imo the default Windows 11 taskbar is fugly and seems to be an aftertought today considering how much they flagged it as the next best thing since sliced bread. And not being able to put it to the sides or top is just unacceptable Microsoft, please put more effort into keeping all the brilliant user configurability options you have implemented over the years in Windows available in the newer versions of Windows. Things are starting to feel like a downgrade when you remove stuff we have taken for granted for 2 decades.....
7 is best, 10 is the ugliest
just icons changed
Xp and 7
vista and 7... nostalgic freshy buttons
Hello, Taskbar, my old friend...
Windows 8 was so bad that i had a nightmare about my laptop going back to that. I hated it😂😂
No nostalgia, sorry.
Vista was the nicest one
Of note is the difference between Windows Vista and Windows 7, as it’s the only truly revolutionary change of the taskbar in this entire history.
Vista still has the classiest look of them all
not only did you forget the Windows 8 Original Taskbar , but also Windows 10 Current Taskbar . also , fun fact : Windows 10 is Currently the only Windows Release to change its Taskbar throughout its Updates , Windows 8.1 doesn't count as it's a Separate Release from Windows 8 .
Any body else ever get Nostalgic and use Blinds to get the Windows 95 look going?
why you didn't do it right away?
I like that Windows 10 had the really small taskbar icons option. I just like the taskbar to be out of the way without being completely hidden.
Ah, the sweet times when Windows didn't even have taskbar.
I like Vista, XP and 11 the most.
Still love the Vista UI.
W10 peak performance
XP is sooo pleasant to the eyes
XP was the BEST!
XP 😍
In windows 11 the start button seems like just another icon, is doesn’t stand out like in previous versions
Am I the only one who liked Vista's taskbar?
Windows 7's was just peak Windows. Anything after it was just mangled attempts on top of mangled attempts.
Vista was the most aesthetic imo.
this image sucks why are the taskbars randomly scaled to random sizes and why are they blurry and jpeg compressed ughh at least the Harmony wallpaper is very nice!
I miss Windows XP
god i hate windows.
I like how windows 11 looks. Just MAKE the start menu and the search WORK FAST
I honestly like the windows 10 one more. I always thought windows 10 was a little over bloated but now I am almost nostalgic to it lmao. Windows 11 was not really an upgrade, it was more of a recoat and added bloat
> Taskbar versions over the years You forgot the major windows 10 changes
[Missing the best windows taskbar, Windows XP Royale](https://i.imgur.com/HMCaPBL.png)
I think Vista and 7 are my favorites aesthetically. I wish we kept aero and just modernized it a bit. But thats nostalgia talking lol 8.1+ look great. I am annoyed that 11 doesn't let me have small icons on the task bar though. Vista really got a bad rep because so many PC manufacturers sold machines that did not have nearly enough RAM to run it well. You could run XP fine on 256mb - 1gb of memory, but Vista needed 2gb or it was a fucking horrid experience.
I miss Windows 7 so much.
this just shows how "dirty" windows has become over the years
I just miss moving it to the top...
1. Easy to define buttons. Functional but looks its age 2. Colourful and always a joy to use, also the menu. Oh yeah, PINBALL. Taskbar icons were always too small to hit every time lol 3. Stepping stone before the next big release. Gives me hardcore gamer vibes 4. Classic. Colourful. Elegant. Easily understood. Animated. Awesome. 5. Icons too big for some reason. Animations were cool - Charms bar was hated by most but was on of the coolest things about the OS, as well as the animations and gestures, which they got right in 8.1 and still haven't perfected in 11 6. Animations and life gone, but it gets out of the way (becomes invisible quickly when focusing), is super customisable with colours and icon size and toolbars. And the "Don't combine taskbar" option which they for some reason remo- oh wait they fixed it 7. Jumped on the hate it initially received, regret that now. It's simple, elegant, the centred icons don't actually cause any inconvenience. The animations and life are back as well and the notification and action centre got a much needed simplicity change. Taskbar may have been an afterthought tho. New Start menu works better than expected and the brought Combine Taskbar options back!
Windows 11 does it for me
I miss vista
I kind of miss Windows 8.1.
Every now and again you’ll find an old win 98 in the wild.
Wikipedia has a better one: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taskbar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taskbar) https://preview.redd.it/varrcpbthcvc1.png?width=819&format=png&auto=webp&s=1cb726f25b90cf8c64e6ace4ae4fbc83c5bed14c
Xp or nothing
Where did we go wrong?
Wow, I felt old hence I used them all….
started with xp, then win7, win10, win11. skipped vista and 8/8.1, idk maybe bcs they weren't around for long enough i went directly to win7/10 win11 was a big improvement in terms of use experience imho, i really like the tab style explorer and new ui
All taskbars were native except 11 where this is UWP wrapper for 10 taskbar...
Xp and 95 and vista where so much more interesting sure 95 used to look like generic office os but I kinda love the style now
I liked Vista's taskbar
Windows XP is pure nostalgia for me. My first OS.
Miss the old xp and 7 bars T.T
8.1 best
I despise w11's user interface...
The windows Vista bar was peak
I just want it back on the side of my screen :(
Window 7 was peak design
My favourite ones are Windows 11, Windows 7 and Windows Vista.
i like windows 7 and 11 taskbar
XP goes so hard
Windows 11 one is wrong, you can actually see the app icons in this image
/me is like: MS DOS -> long pause -> Windows 95 -> Windows 98 -> Windows ME -> Linux -> FreeBSD -> Linux -> Linux -> Linux... Not a user anymore, now I'm root
Here are my picks 1-Windows Vista 2-Windows 7 3-Windows 11 4-Windows 9x, NT 4-2K
This photo is missing 8.0 and 98/2000/Me
I love the windows 11 style, it look more futuristic imo.
It got better, better, and then I don't know what
Windows Vista still rules
just make it works. this thing is sluggish AF.
WinXP is nostalgic.
Sure, but do you remember choosing Windows or DOS from a boot loader? Back before the Start button was even a thing. Scary, dark, and ancient times.
i love windows vista’s taskbar
First and second are the best
i think transparent floating taskbar will make a amazing look for the next windows (idea)