Full Windows 10 to 7 conversion kit 1909

Some extras to supplement the other things:

a. This will disable the gigantic search box and restore the search box that was used in Explorer from Vista to Windows 10 1903. This will not work in 2004+. For 2004+, see this thread on how to get the former search functionality (not look) here: www.winclassic.net/thread/635/restoring-classic-address-before-1909 (second post). This will make the inbulit explorer search function work in Classic Theme as well.

Get mach2.exe: github.com/riverar/mach2/releases

Go to the directory where mach2.exe is placed and run this command as administrator: mach2 disable 18755234

Restart explorer (maybe) and you are done. Mileage may vary. I would recommend creating a scheduled task or a auto-elevated batch file at logon. If you have Group Policy, you could also have it be a script (batch file) to run it directly at startup.

b. This will let the system identify itself as "Windows 7". This will not break programs, as they ALWAYS check for the NT number (which will always be 10.0), but sometimes will check for Windows 10 version number in registry as well, where if you modify it it will break some programs.

Part 1: Modifying version string

1. Get ExecTI: winaero.com/execti/

2. Open Resource Hacker with it. The path is "C:\Program Files (x86)\Resource Hacker\resourcehacker.exe"

3. Open C:\Windows\Branding\basebrd\en-US\basebrd.dll.mui

4. Navigate through the "String Table" and look for your version of Windows there (Windows 10 Home, Pro, etc.) and replace it with Windows 7 xxx (XXX could be Ultimate, Professional, Home Basic, etc. It does not have to match your version.) This could really be anything you want, for example it could be Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, etc.

5. After you have replaced the string, save it. it will automatically create a backup.

Part 2: Modifying winver dialog

1. Get Windows 7 (any version) basebrd.dll. You will have to extract it from whatever version you want it to be, for example if you want your system to identify as Windows 7 Ultimate you will need to get a Windows 7 Ultimate ISO.

2. Extract the bitmaps.

3. Open C:\Windows\Branding\basebrd\basebrd.dll

4. Modify corresponding bitmaps based on DPI. If you have normal DPI, it is bitmap 123. For medium dpi, it is 1123. For higher dpi, you will need 2123. I'm pretty sure Windows 7's basebrd.dll has the same layout as well, or at least 3 different dpi levels in basebrd.dll.

5. Save it.

Part 3: Modifying Control Panel branding

1. Get Windows 7 shellbrd.dll (again, any version, this time it doesn't matter)

2. Extract the bitmaps.

3. Open C:\Windows\Branding\shellbrd\shellbrd.dll

4. Replace corresponding bitmaps, again with corresponding DPI. The black and pink "Windows 10" logo should be replaced with the Classic-Looking blue monitor logo with the pink background (Basically, the same logo as if you were running Windows XP in 16 colours). The bitmaps for the DPIs are 1100, 2100, and 3100. The black and pink logos are the normal logos +10 (1110, 2110, 3110).

5. Done

Part 4: Registry

1. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Sortware\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion.

2. Modify the string with your version (Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro, etc.)

3. (OPTIONAL) You can modify the build strings as well as the version number (1909, 1903, 1607, etc.) to have it show up on winver, but it's not recommended, as build strings will reset and version number can break certain programs (for example, task scheduler will think you're running Windows 7).

c. Enable Vista boot screen (MBR/Legacy boot or hybrid UEFI/CSM boot). This may prevent chkdsk from working at boot, so you might need a "Recovery Partition" with WinPE on it to chkdsk. This will only display a black screen if you don't have CSM enabled.

1. Run this command: bcdedit /set graphicsmodedisabled yes

2. Done.

Any future modifications will be posted here.