"I love some Stardock products as above, but without requiring a 3rd party program, you can go to control panel > system, then click on advanced system settings.
Click on performance button and click on ""Adjust for best performance"" and your pc should look rather like Windows XP when in basic / no theme mode.
Not as good as Stardock, but it works!
For the other touches, edit the start menu / task bar properties for things like no stacking e.t.c."