Thanks for the response, and yes my question was genuine. My thought on Windows >7 is that 8 and 10 have introduced many desirable improvements in various subs

Thanks for the response, and yes my question was genuine. My thought on Windows >7 is that 8 and 10 have introduced many desirable improvements in various subsystems, but unfortunately one cannot have the old user experience (classic shell) with, say, new core subsystems and core system apps. Thankfully, I don't depend on Windows, so it doesn't affect me directly, though the times I have interacted with Windows 10 on a friend's laptop, I couldn't believe how much it regressed for power users. Simple things like login and logout are totally messed up now, as is the waste of screen real estate and Windows 1.0 style widgets with a flat theme plus low-contrast color palette, large-white regions. To top it off, even if one creates a custom install image with tools like nLite, Microsoft is known to reinstall stuff one absolutely does not want. Finally, the mobile platform inspired data collection services are out of place on the desktop, unless they're opt-in and optionally installed. I once tried to use a Windows 8 tablet when it was new, and I could not figure out how to use the touch interface and there were no indicators, so I concluded that there must be a getting started tutorial one sees on first boot of the device. KDE and GNOME are repeating the same mistakes, by trying to make the desktop something it isn't. It's like trying to turn a PC into an Xbox with a WiiU controller, taking away precise input devices and efficient use of screen space. Making widgets large to suit touch use makes no sense if you control it with a keyboard and mouse.