Four ways to restore Windows XP on Windows 10

Microsoft no longer uses Windows XP, an operating system launched 20 years ago. Although Windows 10 is now the latest and best, for some people, XP is invincible. Therefore, we will show you how to restore Windows XP on Windows 10.

Whether you bring back XP functions such as the quick launch bar to make Windows 10 look like its little brother, or go all out and run XP in a virtual machine, there will definitely be something that will explode in the past.

1. Run XP software and games

Software and games are designed to be compatible with specific operating systems. If the program is newer or still updating, that's great, but if you still want to run something built for the XP era, there's a problem. This may be something like traditional enterprise software or retro games.

Windows is very good at backward compatibility, but you may need to make some adjustments to make XP work. As a simple solution, Right click Program and select Run as administrator .

On XP, the user is usually an administrator by default, so this option is not required. Windows 10 has more stringent security measures, so you may find that this simple operation will make the program run.

If this doesn't work, you can try the compatibility troubleshooter:

1. Right click This procedure.
2. click characteristic .
3. Switch to compatibility label.
4. click Run Compatibility Troubleshooter . This will attempt to automatically detect and resolve problems.
5. choice Try recommended settings next Test procedure Check whether the program starts normally.
6. The troubleshooting program will ask if the repair was successful. Select one of them Yes, save these settings for this program And close troubleshooting, or select No, please try again with other settings Solve a series of problems and proposed solutions.

If this still doesn't get you anywhere, you can manually apply some compatibility settings:

1. Right click This procedure.
2. click characteristic .
3. Switch to compatibility label.
4. see Run this program in compatibility mode .
5. Windows XP is no longer available in this drop-down menu, so please select the oldest operating system, Windows Vista.
6. use set up Section to try different options, such as reducing the color mode, reducing the resolution, or overwriting DPI scaling. It's worth trying all of these settings, because it can be tried again and again.

Anyone who remembers Windows XP may first think of the famous blue color scheme. You can use the program named to restore some of them Shell opening (formerly classic shells).

After installation, start Open Shell settings:

1. go to Start Menu Style label.
2. Select one of them Classic style perhaps Classic two columns , depending on your preference.
3. click Select skin below.
4. use skin Drop down selection Windows XP Luna .
5. use Skin Options Further customize the skin, such as changing the start menu color, icon and font size, and whether to display user pictures.

We are trying to get the XP look, but we can do more. go Venaro And download the Classic Shell XP suite. This is a ZIP file that contains some images for further customization. After downloading, unzip the file.

Back to Open Shell settings:

1. go to Start Menu Style label.
2. see Replace the start button .
3. choice customs > Select Picture .
4. Browse to the extracted folder and select XPButton.png .
5. If the Start button is not the correct size, click Advanced Button Options>Button Size And input zero .
6. Tick Show all settings Then go taskbar label.
7. see Customize Taskbar , click Taskbar texture , and then click Three horizontal points .
8. Browse to the extracted folder and select xp_bg.png .
9. hereunder Horizontal Stretch , Select tile .

Finally, open the extracted folder, Right click this Bliss-600dpi-624 × 501.jpg Documents and Set as desktop background .

Dada! It's like you are running Windows XP but have all the features of Windows 10.

3. Revive XP function

Do you remember the Quick Launch toolbar in the taskbar? It is the main Windows function from 95 to XP, and it seems to have disappeared since then. But you can actually take it back to Windows 10.

Do it in this way.

1. Right click Taskbar.
2. linger toolbar .
3. click new toolbar .
4. Enter this into folder Field and press return Key twice:

 %userprofile%AppDataRoamingMicrosoftInternet ExplorerQuick Launch

Next, it is time to adjust the appearance of Quick Launch:

1. Right click Taskbar and uncheck Lock the taskbar .
2. Left click and drag Expand the Quick Launch toolbar from the left.
3. Right click Quick launch and uncheck Show Text and show heading Make it look like it did on XP.

Finally, to customize the icons on the Quick Launch bar, press Win+R , enter the folder path above, and press return . You can then place shortcuts to files, folders, and programs here so that they appear on the taskbar.

Once you're done, Right click Taskbar and click Lock the taskbar .

4. Run the virtual machine

There are many reasons to run virtual machines. If you are looking for a real Windows XP experience, this is the only way out. Virtualization means that you acquire computer resources and divide them into multiple blocks to read as separate systems.

Therefore, although you actually mainly run Windows 10, you can create a virtual machine running Windows XP. It will not only give you a truly complete XP experience, but will not affect your main Windows 10 installation. Everything you do in virtualization will remain there.

The process of setting it is not as simple or fast as some of the techniques listed above, so please see our guide on how to set up Windows XP virtual machines. It details all the software you need and how to obtain a legal copy of Windows XP from Microsoft.

Windows XP is now a security risk

From a security perspective, Microsoft no longer supports Windows XP. Although some modern programs can only be used with Windows XP, we do not recommend that you actually run them as the main operating system.

However, bringing some of its features and designs back to Windows 10 certainly has no harm.