Windows EXPERIENCE Freestyle Update is a free mod that does a fantastic job for those who want to use a modern operating system like Windows 10, but with the aesthetics of a mythical version like Windows XP.
Here we are not talking about a proof of concept, but about a fully functional version available to download and use. After several test and review versions, its author travis#2800 says that this version will be the last “unless there are new discoveries to make Windows 10 more faithful to Windows XP”.
The truth is that it will be difficult to improve this release because it is the best we have seen to modify a Windows 10 and convert it to XP. Naturally, there are known issues in this development. Like changing the official ‘Luna’ theme to any other which can make the screen go black and take the user off the desktop or any kind of DPI scaling above 100% can’t be applied.
There are quite a few more errors that have no solution. Obviously, not intended for use on production equipment, due to the errors mentioned and because it is not an official version of Windows, which always has its problems. But if you want to try it on an older machine or a VM, you can reminisce about the simplicity and singular aesthetics of Windows XP.
Windows EXPERIENCE Freestyle Update is freely available from the Internet Archive. It installs in the same way as an official version like Windows 10 22H2 after downloading a 3.2 GB ISO image and preparing bootable media. You can also install it in a virtual machine; an ideal method for testing this type of development since it does not affect the main system that acts as a host.
