EXPERIMENT: Windows NT4's explorer.exe on 7

[DBlake]

I made some edits to Windows NT4's explorer.exe to force it to run on Windows 7. The results are rather amusing.

Desktop:


Winver ran from NT4splorer's Run box:


Explorer window:


NT4's explorer won't load icons in 7 for some reason (not that I was even expecting it to run...).

No, I don't use this every day.

Progman also works.

[BoyLoveGirl]

Well...I was try run Xp 's Explorer.exe on WIN8CP (RP no tried)
It also like you...
But the start menu is not ICON. and cannot open anything in desktop;cannot call taskmgr.exe;cannot shutdown...
Start meun 's property is work normally

[TheWindowsXPGuy]

I did this with XP several years ago. The strange thing is that trying to run anything by double click would open the Find dialog.

[Stannieman]

Vista and upwards can use png icons whereas older versions used bmp. This probably to support higher resolutions, with bmp on high resolutions they would get pretty big (storage space wise).
I think explorer versions prior to vista simply can't read png icons.

So files with .ico extension (for windows icons) can contain both png and bmp images. Try finding an ico file with only png images inside.
Make a simple .net app and ise that icon as icon for the app. You'll see that the exe has your icon on vista and above, xp and below will just show windows' the default exe icon.

[RentedMule]

Not only resolution, but number of colors

[AlexN]

I wasn't aware NT4 had a blue gradient on the title bar like that. Could Windows 7 be interfering?

[spunker88]

I wasn't aware NT4 had a blue gradient on the title bar like that. Could Windows 7 be interfering?

Yeah it does when using 24 bit "true color", just checked my NT4 VM and it matches.

[eggi36]

I've tried this too some time ago but didn't succeed.
Maybe you can list the modifications done to explorer.exe?

[AlphaBeta]

I wasn't aware NT4 had a blue gradient on the title bar like that. Could Windows 7 be interfering?

Do you really think that running some old program would change the window title style? That running Windows 3.1 apps would change the window style to 3.1-ish? Just, NO.

[AlexN]

I wasn't aware NT4 had a blue gradient on the title bar like that. Could Windows 7 be interfering?

Do you really think that running some old program would change the window title style? That running Windows 3.1 apps would change the window style to 3.1-ish? Just, NO.

Yes, in fact I did

[3155ffGd]

It would be awesome if there were a way to port the old Windows 3.1 interface to newer versions of Windows. Unfortunately, it's not quite as easy because so many things depend on shell functions.

[Wheatley]

It would be nice to know what you edited for this to work.

[WinPC]

It would be awesome if there were a way to port the old Windows 3.1 interface to newer versions of Windows. Unfortunately, it's not quite as easy because so many things depend on shell functions.

Program Manager was still contained in the original version of Windows XP, but if I remember correctly, it was deprecated in later versions. However, if it was still fully usable in the original version, then it should work just fine in Service Pack 2 and Service Pack 3, and in Windows Vista and later, if you copied over the correct files.

[3155ffGd]

There's a difference between the Program Manager/File Manager duo and the Windows 3.1 interface. Sure, you can set the Program Manager to be the default shell (even Windows 95 offers you this option), but you still get the new shell - that is, windows being reduced to the title bar when minimized (as opposed to appearing as an icon), the title bar itself, and so on.

[WinPC]

There's a difference between the Program Manager/File Manager duo and the Windows 3.1 interface. Sure, you can set the Program Manager to be the default shell (even Windows 95 offers you this option), but you still get the new shell - that is, windows being reduced to the title bar when minimized (as opposed to appearing as an icon), the title bar itself, and so on.

Except that in Windows 95, choosing the option in Setup will only result in Explorer still being the default shell, and the Program Manager being loaded automatically on startup as an application. If you tried it yourself, you would see what I mean.

However, it is true that it is possible to manually edit the "SHELL=" line to read "SHELL=PROGMAN.EXE", if that was what you wanted.