Windows 8

[Dirge Inferno]

The only fundamental desktop UI differences between Windows 95 and Windows 7 are how programs are seen in the task manager

Heh, no. Everybody knows the UI is heaps different. Not to mention the features that were simplified or removed.

The desktop icons can be easily turned back on, icon sizes can be set back to 32x32 just by ctrl-mwheel scrolling.
For a similarily vintage web surfing experience that's modern you could install Seamonkey with Seazilla to imitate Netscape Communicator 4 a bit more

I already knew that.

and FYI I use an accurate 95 theme as much as I could for 7.

Even the classic theme for Windows 7 is different from 95.

[mh]

The only fundamental desktop UI differences between Windows 95 and Windows 7 are how programs are seen in the task manager

Aero peek is awesome and a genuine usability improvement. I'm a huge fan of the two-pane start menu too - at least once you clean out all the default junk and start pinning your own items to it - been so since XP. It's great for servers too - just pin all your management and monitoring tools there, and you've instant access to the stuff you need. Crap like "show window contents while dragging" can rightfully go die in a fire.

[leileilol]

Even the classic theme for Windows 7 is different from 95.

That's because "Classic" just has a Windows 2000 scheme. I had to export a Plus! theme of the original colors from W95 and rework the theme file itself to work on 7.