This is an ISO intended to succeed the "Vista7" archive. All of the legwork is done out of the box. Merely install Windows 7 as you normally would!
Note: This project is released as-is with no warranties, and no guaranteed support. Use at your own discretion! It was made primarily for my own personal use.
- Win7 Business Compress_tinypng.png (387.88 KiB) Viewed 2285 times
- Win7 Business Compress_tinypng.png (387.88 KiB) Viewed 2285 times
Full resolution boxart
BlackoM2 differs from the preceding archive in a number of ways. Many visual aspects, including the default theme are borrowed from Windows 7 Build 6608. While similar to pre-release 7, BlackoM2 is not intended to be a perfect recreation of Vista, nor any particular 7 build, but rather a compilation of my favorite aspects of both pre-release 7 and Vista. I wanted to restore what was lost from Vista, without negatively impacting features introduced in Windows 7. As a result, it falls somewhere in between the two.
The ISO is sourced from @oamd's 2023.10 ISO. Some of the features inherited include built-in USB3 drivers (Ryzen users, see below), support for M.2 drives, as well as ESU updates through October 2023.
Unlike the ISO this is based on, BlackoM2 is NOT multi-edition. I have chosen Professional for this project; rebranded to Business. 7 Pro keys are plentiful and relatively inexpensive, and Pro has all desired features for this project. The Business edition name is also more reminiscent of Vista.
Fear not! Media Center, Dreamscene, and the games (standard and Ultimate Extras) are still included!
* Other languages may or may not work. No effort has been made at this time to localize BlackoM2 to other languages. If you would like to contribute to localizing BlackoM2 to your language, please reach out to me.
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- Mirrors2X.png (34.63 KiB) Viewed 2163 times
- Mirrors2X.png (34.63 KiB) Viewed 2163 times
Get the ISO here (x64 only):
MEGA Mirror
Internet Archive Mirror
Torrent
Image is roughly 6 GB in size. It is recommended to burn it to a USB flash drive using the Stick Formatter. If you wish to burn this to optical media, a dual layer DVD is required.
- business box.png (50.01 KiB) Viewed 2333 times
- business box.png (50.01 KiB) Viewed 2333 times
Download patched weather gadget here:
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Highlights:
- Includes Windows Aero themes from Windows 7 Build 6608 and Windows Vista. Additionally, LumenVS and the Vista Beta 1 theme are also included
- Includes patched Explorer with Vista taskbar button highlight color
- Includes logonui and authui from Windows Server 2008 Build 6003: Real Vista logon screen and startup orb
- Features Windows 7 RTM boot splash
- Features Windows Vista-styled installer with tweaked artwork and WinSAT
- Includes Windows Vista logon background - AI noise-filtered for enhanced scaling on larger displays
- Includes "Opaque Maximize" from Windows Vista
- Includes REAL classic Winver with system memory shown on the bottom
- Includes Control Panel shellpane graphic from Windows 7 Beta (see shell32.dll_bak to restore Vista's)
- Includes modified Control Panel with left side shellpane bar
- Restores hidden Control Panel items (eg. joy.cpl)
- Includes Vista-like Personalization pane by default
- Includes Windows Sidebar from Windows Vista
- Restores applications removed from Windows 7 RTM
- Includes all screensavers from Windows 7 and Windows Vista
- Includes all Windows 7 and Vista wallpapers and Sample contents. Many non-widesceeen images are remastered in 1920x1200
- Includes all Windows 7 and Vista User Account Pictures
- Includes Windows Dreamscene with dozens of video wallpapers from Microsoft and 3rd parties
- Includes Ultimate Extras Games from Vista, in addition to 3-D Space Cadet Pinball
- Includes beta verssions of Paint (6519), Calculator (6568), and Sticky Notes (6801)
- Includes enhanced versions of Snipping Tool and Notepad, backported from Windows 10
- Features Help and Support contents from Windows 7 Build 6608: Vista's contents with Windows 7 branding
- Includes tweaked version of WMP12 with WMP11 styling
- Includes tweaked version of WMC with Vista sounds
- Includes Vista-like Welcome Center
- Includes Windows Feedback application (non-functional)
3rd Party Additions:
- 7+ Taskbar tweaker
- OpenShell
- Everything Search
- Notepad3 (fork of Notepad2-mod) v4.18. Replaces Windows Notepad by default
- Tobin Stick Formatter: Rufus-fork optimized for legacy Windows
- Windows Media Player Plus!
- Winaero Tweaker
- VistaSwitcher: Alt+Tab enhancement (disabled by default)
- UltraMon: extends native taskbar across multiple screens and allows per-display wallpapers
- Resource Hacker
- Windows 7 Logon Background Changer
- AquaSnap
- Vista Shortcut Manager
- CCleaner "Classic" v3.28 with enhanced winapi.dll: detects many applications, new and old alike
- Defraggler
- Recuva
- WizTree v4.08
- COMODO Cleaning Essentials: portable scanning solution and Task Monitor
- CrystalDiskInfo + CrystalDiskMark
- SumatraPDF
- qBittorrent v3.3.16: Most optimized Windows build of qBt
- 7-Zip
- WinRAR
- Clean Flash Player v34: Pale Moon recommended for Flash content
- Escargot/WLM 2009 + Messenger Plus! 5
- Unchecky
- WinCDEmu
Credits:
- Microsoft
- @oamd for the best 7 ISO to date
- Themes by Marda and AthenaRa
- Project name suggested by CosmicEternity1993/Rhapsody2612
- Winver branding by @Ximonite and myself
- Winver patches by Vruh and @anx
- WinSAT graphic by @Ximonite
- Hot Tracking removal patch by sha605
- Remastered wallpapers packaged by WindowsAesthetics
- NotepadEx and Snipping ToolEx by vxiiduu
- Various contributions from WinClient5270, xereunion160, myself, and others
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Some notes:
A few settings are not set by default. A Post-install Tweaks folder is created on the desktop by default for all users containing the Open Shell config files, 7+TT settings, ShellFolderFix settings, and WMP color fix reg.
Enabling, and switching between Aero themes will render incorrect color and stripe intensity. colors.bat must be run to inject the proper settings.
If you wish to use the small taskbar, navigate to Open Shell Menu settings and disable "Align to corner of screen" under Advanced Button Options. Change the start orb image to the Vista orb.
The M2 theme defaults to size 19 for caption buttons. If you wish to increase it to size 21 (the Windows 7 default) as shown in the demo screenshots, you may change the button sizes via Advanced appearance settings.
It is recommended to disable the following:
- "Animate controls and elements inside windows"
- "Enable Aero Peek"
- "Animations in the Taskbar and Start Menu"
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Known issues:
- 3-D Space Cadet Pinball does not have a shortcut by default
- Night Mode (f.lux) does not have a shortcut by default
- WLM (Escargot-powered) must be run in Vista Compatibility Mode
- Weather gadget is missing. See download above to obtain it
- WMP Taskbar Toolbar (wmpband) is not available at this time
- Windows Picture and Fax Viewer from XP is included for GIF playback, but the file association is not set by default
- Feedback application has a duplicate shortcut in the Start Menu
- A tweaked version of Windows Live Photo Gallery 2008 is included, but the file associations are not set by default
- Desktop icon labels are unreadable after applying a Dreamscene wallpaper. To fix this, enable the black solid color wallpaper, then apply the Dreamscene of your choosing
- The OOBE lacks Aero theme styling
- The logon screen displays a second, blank user if no password is set. First logon after the OOBE will prompt you to enter your username if no password is set
- Control Panel has row scaling issues at certain window sizes when set to Classic View
- The Windows Logo screensaver says "Windows Vista"
- Winver only shows system memory on the bottom if run directly via winver.exe
- Additional caption buttons may appear. These can be disabled in UltraMon
A note about Ryzen:
The built-in USB3 drivers may cause Ryzen systems to freeze at startup. This may be alleviated by disabling the built-in USB controller in your BIOS. A PCI-E add-in card will be required.
- intel inside 2x.png (17.97 KiB) Viewed 2176 times
- intel inside 2x.png (17.97 KiB) Viewed 2176 times
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Tools used:
- NTLite 2.1.1
- WinToolkit
- VMware Workstation 12
- Dism++
