How Far Do you Go ???

Old habits, and Bruce Willis, as they say, die hard.
After making my own skin for WinXP, changing all the system icons to my own designs, renaming and redirecting folders etc. etc. I just can't stop.
Now I've moved up to 7 I still can't resist the urge.
I now have a Quick Launch toolbar to replace what I would call the XP style "All Programs".
I only ever hit the "Start" button if I want to shut down/restart Win7.
The Win7 search has long been dumped, I don't need a search engine (first removal on install!!) to tell me where what I know is there, I'm looking for something that tells me about what I don't know about, hence the name, search.
The "library" has long ceased to be, now contains only a long list of favourites plus (My)Computer (Elmers 'puter).
I'd rather be dropping a file in a real** folder, not a virtual one.
** OK, OK, we all know there's actually nothing real about this, in fact, I'm talking to myself here., Ha Ha, years ago I'd have been cast as a heretic (shut up mother, eat ye porridge).
Imageres.dll looks nothing like M$ intended it to. But it's just how I like it.
Sadly when I visit my daughter down Brum and hear the dreaded words "Can you have a look at my lappy 'cos....." I'm lost!! I can't find my way round a "straight" Win7 set up anymore! Where's my Elmers 'puter? My Toons? Skin Flix? (), Ahem, sorry, Artistic Vids?
So, if Fred Bloggs, the well known computer snarker, walked into your humble abode, do you think he'd be able to find his way round your PC and actually open a file/web page???

I belong to the exreme customiser club.
I am addicted. Everything that comes along, hints;hacks, name it, I try out. I often finish up disabling or uninstalling.
But. I have three Windows 7 versions on my computer (XP is in the waste bin).
One is virgin with basic third party software installed. I keep this for the sole purpose of trying to help on sites such as this.
The second is the normal installation one would expect. It has most of my software on it but has only been screwed around from normal, mostly MS, sources. You could call this my daily OS.
The third is more active. Absolutely all my software installed, and heavily customised to my requirements. I could not begin to provide help from this one. Most built in items, such as the Stsrt Menu, notification area etc, have been altered or adjusted. Windos and Intrnet explorer with most defaults altered etc etc..

I keep Acronis images running for the last two!!
Crazy? My hobby, my life.

All the way ... but only if she buys me dinner first.

Elmer if you want to hide libraries from showing in the Windows Explorer window there is a reghack for that (and one to remove Favorites as well).
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/0...ws-7-explorer/

To hide Favorites follow the same steps as the article above but:
1) regkey: [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{323CA680-C24D-4099-B94D-446DD2D7249E}\ShellFolder]
2) In "ShellFolder"s 'Attributes' change the value from a0900100 to a0400100.

Thank you MyDigitalLife and DeathAngel, it looks so much nicer this way

Cheers TM, I'll just add that if you're running 64-bit you also have to modify the corresponding registry keys in [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Classes\CLSID\{MY CLASS ID NUMBER HERE}\ShellFolder]

I am running 64bit and I didn't change the other, I'm guessing Windows Explorer I run is 32bit app.

I am all about customization. I know there are things you can do in terms of customizing Windows, but it's still nothing compared to Gnome.

Definitely all the way , from cursor to skins to icons to menus ... everything !, love customising !