ViGlance & Other Tweaks To Make XP Or Vista Look Like Windows 7

ViGlance: Windows-7 Style Toolbar

If you’re not familiar with with the Windows 7 toolbar, it’s actually pretty cool. Like the old Windows toolbar, it sits comfortably between the Start menu and the system tray, showing you which windows are currently open. Like the Dock in OSX, it allo
ws you to “pin” programs, meaning the programs you use most will remain on the toolbar whether the program is open or not. Finally, hovering over any open program’s icon will show you a thumbnail of what’s happening in the program right now, as well as a list of all open windows or tabs. Some media players even allow you to control playback from this thumbnail.
Microsoft claims this new toolbar comes with a huge productivity bonus, and it’s not hard to see why: it combines the strengths of Mac’s dock with the familiarity of Window’s old taskbar. It’s also a greatly improved way to launch and switch between programs than the taskbar introduced 15 years ago with Windows 95.
Sadly, it only comes by default with Windows 7. Download ViGlance, however, and you can have it right now from within Windows Vista and XP. Well, basically, anyway.
As you can see, ViGlance gives you the most important part of the Windows 7 t
oolbar: one pinnable icon for each program. ViGlance willl also give thumbnails of any open window when you hover over its icon. What ViGlance will not do, so far as I can tell, is allow you to control media players.
Go ahead and download ViGlance here. You don’t need to install the program to use it – just run the program and you’ll be able to try out your new toolbar – it’s a great way to make Vista or XP look like Windows 7. If you like it you can set it to start

ViStart: Vista-style Start Menu

Of course, the Windows 7 Toolbar isn’t the only feature Windows XP users might want. The Windows Vista Start Menu is an improvement over XP’s in several ways, and is basically unaltered in Windows 7.
ViStart is Lee-soft’s answer to this.

While it doesn’t replicate the look of the Vista/7 start menu perfectly, it does replicate what for me is the most logical feature: instant search of your programs.
Let me explain a little. I’m a Windows user by necessity, but a Linux user whenever possible. One of the things I’ve always loved about using Linux is the ability to press “Alt” and “F2″ to bring up a “launch” window, where I can type the command of the program I want to run.
The Windows Vista start m
enu essentially gives me this in Windows. I press the Windows button, then I start typing the name of the program I want to run. As soon as I see it at the top of the list I can hit “enter” to launch it. This is a lot faster than fumbling with the mouse once you get used to it.
ViStart does this perfectly in Windows XP, and for this reason I’ve taken to using it in the last couple of days.
Check it out: download ViStart here. Like ViGlance, you don’t need to install anything to try it out, so there’s no reason not to.

ViSplore: Vista-style File Manager

This one’s the most gimmicky of all, in my opinion. You can replace the Windows Explorer file manager with one that resembles the Vista/7 file manager, complete with Aero effects. Since the rest of your system theme doesn’t match the Aero look, however, this mostly just looks out of place.

Still, it’s worth checking out if you like the look and the simplified interface. Download ViSplore here.