60 WAYS TO CUSTOMIZE WINDOWS

OFF-THE-SHELF is good as far as it goes, but there comes a time when you want to put your personal stamp on something, and with Windows, you’ll be surprised by just how much control you can wield over its look and feel.We’ve dug out no fewer than 60 tips to help you customize it to your personal satisfaction.

There’s a reminder of some familiar tips, but we’ve dug deeper to reveal buried settings and little-known techniques that can do more than simply change the background picture or apply a color scheme. Indeed, we open this feature by introducing two free tools that, between them, open up a wide array of customizable options that normally require you to be a maestro at Registry editing. You’ll tackle the desktop and its constituent parts: Start menu, Taskbar, and File Explorer. You’ll also discover how to replace parts of the desktop with more visually appealing (but no less practical) alternatives, transform the way you navigate your filesystem with a handy File Explorer add-on, and even make fundamental changes to the desktop itself, replacing the Windows ‘skin’ with an alternative, offering not just a new coat of paint, but a fresh approach to how you interact with Windows. Come on, let’s get those brushes out….

Desktop, Taskbar, & Start Menu

01 Tools of the Trade

Many of the tips in this feature can be applied with the help of two powerful tweaking tools, so start by downloading both Ultimate Windows Tweaker ( https://bit.ly/uwt-10—you’ll find links to Windows 7 and 8.1 versions here, too) and Winaero Tweaker ( https://winaero.com/download.php?view.1796). Once downloaded, extract the contents of the ZIP files—Ultimate Windows Tweaker runs as a portable app, and Winaero Tweaker gives you the option of installing it in portable form, too.

02 Quickly Access Windows’ Personalization Settings

To start customizing, right-click the desktop and choose “Personalize” to jump straight to “Settings → Personalization → Background.” From here, you can change your background to a picture, a solid color, or a slideshow of photos within a single folder on your PC.

03 Customize Your Desktop Background

If you’re dissatisfied with Windows’ rather meager desktop background offerings, download and install John’s Background Switcher from https://bit.ly/johnbckswtch for more choice—after installation, you’re directed to the “Add” button, where you define sources for your photos. These can include specific folders on your PC as well as various online sources (including Dropbox and OneDrive folders, plus RSS feeds, Instagram, Google, and Flickr).

You’ll see several switching options at the bottom of the main window—pay attention to the “Picture Mode” dropdown, where you can display multiple photos at once in various ways. There’s also a ‘“More” button for fine-tuning all aspects of this clever background tool.

04 Override Color Scheme

Windows automatically changes the color scheme of desktop items to match the background, but you can also force your own choice of color via “Settings → Personalization → Colors.” You can switch between light and dark modes here, too.

05 Create Custom Color Palette

Fed up with having to click “Custom Color” to choose a different one to Windows’ own offerings? Fire up Winaero Tweaker and go to “Appearance → Custom Accents,” where you can define up to eight custom colors of your own. These appear under “Recent Colors” in the “Personalization” dialog box for easy access.

06 Pick a Theme

The quickest way to change your desktop appearance is through the “Themes” section under “Settings → Personalization.” Several are provided, or click “Get More Themes in Microsoft Store” to browse hundreds more—click “Get” followed by “Install” to add one to your collection. Some themes change the mouse pointer and desktop icons—you can prevent them from doing so in Winaero Tweaker under “Appearance → Theme Behavior.”

07 Change Your Account Picture

Open a photo of yourself in an image editor like Paint.NET ( www.getpaint.net), then crop in to a headshot (make the selection tool 1:1 for a perfectly square crop), and save the image. Now navigate to “Start → Settings → Accounts,” and click your current photo under “Your Info” to select the new one. Previous shots are kept, enabling you to switch between them.

08 Set Up a Screensaver

Energy-saving LCD monitors have largely rendered screensavers redundant, but if you’re still hankering after one, head to “Personalization → Lock Screen,” then scroll down and click “Screensaver Settings” to set one up. Download more screensavers from www.screensaversplanet.com (many of which are free)—save the EXE file to your computer, then double-click it to add the screensaver to the available list.

09 Start Menu Precautions

Before making major changes to your Start menu, navigate to “Desktop and Taskbar → Backup/Restore Start Menu Layout” in Winaero Tweaker to export the current layout—just in case.

10 Customize the Start Menu

Use the “Personalization → Start” section of “Settings” to configure certain aspects of the Start menu. Tiles can be added by right-clicking items and choosing “Pin to Start Menu.” You can then click and drag items around to rearrange them, or click and drag items on top of each other to group them in a folder.

11 Lock the Start Menu

After you’ve set up the tiles to your satisfaction, open Ultimate Windows Tweaker and navigate to “Customization → Universal UI,” then check “Lock Start Tiles” to prevent accidentally rearranging them in future.

12 Ditch the Start Menu

Still hankering after the Windows 7 Start menu? Our old favorite alternative Start menu—Classic Start—has been resurrected under a new name, and updated to work with the latest version of Windows 10. Download and install Open-Shell from https://open-shell.github.io/Open-Shell-Menu—during installation, click “Classic Explorer” and “Classic IE,” and choose “Entire feature will be unavailable” to avoid installing them.

13 Customize the Quick Access Menu

Press Win-X to access the alternative Start menu. You can choose which options appear on it by downloading and running the portable Win + X Menu Editor ( https://winaero.com/download.php?view.21).

14 Restore Desktop Gadgets

Do you miss the old Windows 7 gadgets that provide extra functionality on the desktop? Visit http://win10widgets.com to download Win10 Widgets, a customized version of Rainmeter ( www.rainmeter.net), with the gadgets preinstalled and running.

15 Organize Your Desktop Icons

A INSTALL ICONS

Download and install Vi-Pad ( http://lee-soft.com/vipad)—if the SmartScreen filter appears, click “More” and unblock the program. During installation, click “Yes” when prompted to copy all existing desktop icons to the Vi-Pad window, which will happen in real time as you watch.

B ORGANIZE ICONS

All shortcut apps appear in a single tab—“New Tab”—spread over multiple pages. Right-click “New Tab” to rename it, or use the “+” button to create additional tabs, so that you can organize your apps into more categories. Once that’s done, right-click an app icon to move it to that tab.

C ADD NEW ICONS

You can drag new shortcuts into any tab from the desktop or from File Explorer. Right-click the program’s Taskbar notification area, and choose “Settings.” Uncheck “Use Windows DWM” to make it translucent. You can also make the icons larger or smaller, using the slider at the top of the menu.

Taskbar and Notifications

16 Make Use of the Taskbar

The Taskbar is the best location for any, and all, shortcuts that you need. Right-click your existing desktop or Start menu shortcuts, and choose “Pin to Taskbar” to add them. You can then drag and drop icons within the bar to order them logically.

17 Minimize the Search Box

Does the new search bar take up too much room on your Taskbar? Rightclick an empty part of the Taskbar, and choose “Cortana → Show Cortana Icon” to replace it with a clickable icon; or choose “Cortana → Hidden” if you never use it.

18 Resize the Taskbar

Running out of space for shortcut icons? Make them smaller by rightclicking the Taskbar, choosing “Taskbar Settings,” and flicking the “Use Small Taskbar Buttons” switch to “On.” Or rightclick the Taskbar and uncheck “Lock the Taskbar.” Click the top edge of the Taskbar and drag up to add space for an extra row.

19 Move the Taskbar

While it’s unlocked, you can also click and drag the Taskbar to a different edge of the screen—pin it left or right for a vertical list, or at the top if it suits your way of working better.

20 Show Labels

If you only have a handful of icons on the Taskbar, open Taskbar settings, scroll down, and change “Combine Taskbar Buttons” to “When the Taskbar is Full” or “Never” to view a label, which helps you to easily view—and switch between—open documents within the same application.

21 Add Toolbars

Right-click the Taskbar and you’ll see a Toolbars menu, enabling you to add extra features to it—you can select “Address” to add a URL bar for opening websites in your default web browser, for example. To add easy access to your entire PC, choose “Toolbars → New Toolbar.” Select “This PC” and click “Select Folder.” From here, click “>>” next to “This PC” to access any folder or drive with just a few clicks.

22 Increase the Size of Taskbar Peek Thumbnails

When you roll your mouse over an open program’s Taskbar icon, you get a pop-up thumbnail of open document(s)—it’s a bit small, so open Ultimate Windows Tweaker, navigate to “Customization → Taskbar,” and try setting the minimum and maximum thumbnail size sliders to 400. Click “Apply Tweaks,” and after File Explorer restarts, you should instantly see an improvement.

23 Tweak the Notification Area

You don’t need to delve deep into Taskbar settings to change the behavior of the Taskbar’s notification icons. Simply drag icons between the notification area and its “holding area” (click “^” to reveal it). To remove icons permanently without closing the parent application, check out the program’s own settings.

24 Clear System Icons

Windows places several icons of its own in the Taskbar notification area—some elements, such as the touchpad or touch keyboard, can be shown or hidden via the Taskbar’s right-click menu; others, including the clock and the Action Center button, can be removed under Taskbar settings (click “Turn System Icons On or Off” under “Notification Area”).

25 Adjust Notification Pop-Ups

While you can tweak many aspects of the Action Center on your PC via “Settings → System → Notifications & Actions,” one thing you can’t do from here is adjust how long—five seconds— individual notifications appear on screen. To change this setting, open Universal Windows Tweaker to the “Customization → Universal UI” tab. The slider enables you to increase the time from five seconds right up to 300 seconds. Alternatively, you can disable them completely (check “Disable Toast Notifications”).

26 Replace Your Taskbar

The Windows Taskbar is efficient, but not exactly visually pleasing. Fans of the macOS dock should examine the free version of WinStep Nexus ( www.winstep.net) , which combines a more eye-catching aesthetic with functionality that renders the Taskbar redundant. Not only does it include all the expected features—drag and drop shortcuts from your Start menu or desktop to add them to the dock—but you can also add modules such as email checker and weather forecast gadgets.

27 Tweak the Alt-Tab Menu

It may not be as glamorous as the new Timeline, but the Alt-Tab feature is still the quickest way to switch between open apps and windows on your PC. Tweak its looks courtesy of Winaero Tweaker: Navigate to “Appearance → Alt + Tab Appearance,” where you’ll find sliders to adjust its transparency, plus make the desktop darker when it’s invoked.

28 Minimalist Alt-Tab

u’ll also see an option to “Enable Classic Alt + Tab Dialog”—check this, then click “Restart Explorer” to replace the thumbnails with a minimalist icon-based task switcher, with the currently selected icon’s window title displayed beneath it to help you navigate.

29 Multi-Display Settings

If you have two monitors connected to your PC, head over to the Taskbar settings, where you’ll see options for configuring the Taskbar independently on each display—we recommend selecting “Taskbar Where Window is Open” on the “Show Taskbar Buttons On” drop-down menu, to avoid confusion.

30 Launch Programs Quickly

A GETTING STARTED

Download Launchy from www.launchy.net—you can either install it or run it on demand as a portable app. Once Launchy has, er, launched, it sits unobtrusively in the Taskbar notification area. To bring it into focus, press Alt-Spacebar, then start typing the name of what you’re looking for.

B SEARCH AND SELECT

An icon representing a program pops up—if it’s the correct one, press Enter. Wait a few seconds, and more matching results—including web links—appear via a drop-down menu. Click one or use the arrow keys to scroll through the list, pressing Enter when you find your match.

C WIDEN LAUNCHY’S SEARCH REMIT

Right-click the Launchy notification area icon and choose the “Options → Catalog” tab. Click “+” under “Directories” to add additional folders to include, then with the directory selected, click “+” under “File Types” to list file types to search. Finally, click “Rescan Catalog.”

File Explorer

31 Customize Folder Behavior

Windows can be instructed to treat folders in a specific way depending on the contents inside. Right-click a folder and choose “Properties → Customize,” where you can optimize it for a specific file type, such as pictures or documents.

32 Change the Folder Icon

You’ll also see an option to change the folder icon—useful if you want a more visual prompt as to the folder’s contents. Click “Change Icon” to browse files for any icons they contain (“shell32.dll” is selected by default, with lots of options). You can also select previously created or downloaded icon (ICO) files—see the step-by-step guide on the page opposite for a way to extract icons from other files. Alternatively, click “Choose File” to choose a picture to display instead—this is perfect for photo folders, where you’d rather focus on one of the photos inside than have Windows display several of them at once.

33 Set up Individual Folder Views

Windows also remembers any individual customizations that you perform on a folder, so after opening it, switch to the “View” tab on the File Explorer’s Ribbon, where you can experiment with the “Layout” and “Current View” sections to apply settings that will remain specific to that particular folder whenever you reopen it.

34 Adjust Icon Spacing

Further tweaks can be performed using Winaero Tweaker—navigate to the “Advanced Appearance Settings → Icons” section, where you can adjust the horizontal and vertical spacing of icons in both File Explorer and on the desktop, plus change the default font used to display names.

35 Tweak File Explorer Panes

File Explorer displays two panes—Navigation and Details—by default, but you can also add a Preview pane via the Ribbon’s “View” tab, plus restore Libraries to the Navigation pane by clicking it and choosing “Show Libraries.”

36 Set Up Quick Access

The Quick Access section of the Navigation pane is File Explorer’s best feature, bar none. You can drag frequently accessed folders into here to pin them for one-click access from any File Explorer location. You can also click and drag existing entries to rearrange their running order, or right-click to unpin them.

37 Clean the Navigation Pane

The Navigation pane can get cluttered with lots of entries you don’t use. The simplest way to review and remove these is to open up Winaero Tweaker to “File Explorer → Navigation Pane—Default Items.” Want to add your own links? Select “Navigation Pane—Custom Items” to do so.

38 Customize Navigation Pane Items

You can rename the “Quick Access,” “Libraries,” and “This PC” icons in the Navigation pane via Winaero Tweaker’s “File Explorer” section, too. You can also change their icons in the same way that you edit any folder icon.

39 Customize the “This PC” View

Given that most of us open File Explorer to “This PC” by default, it helps if you can tailor it to your exact needs. Fire up Ultimate Windows Tweaker, and navigate to the “Customization → This PC” option, where you can decide which user folders should be displayed, as well as adding various useful system shortcuts at the same time.

40 Add Tabs to File Explorer

Your web browser has tabs to reduce window clutter, so why not File Explorer? We’ve been using QTTabBar ( http://qttabbar.wikidot.com) for the best part of a year to do just that. Once installed, tabs appear beneath the Ribbon—click “+” to browse for a new tab, or press Ctrl-N to duplicate the current tab.

41 Navigate Subfolders Quickly

There’s another fringe benefit to using QTTabBar: After installation, roll your mouse over a folder icon and click the drop-down arrow that appears over it to drill down through the folder’s contents using a series of drop-down menus.

42 Pop-Up File Previews

QTTabBar also enables you to ditch the preview bar; instead, roll your mouse over a supported file type, and after a short pause a pop-up preview appears. You can configure the size of the thumbnail (and other QTTabBar options) by right-clicking an empty space on its tab bar in File Explorer, and then choosing “QTTabBar Options”—look under “Preview → Windowing.”

43 Customize Context Menus

The right-click menu is a handy place to stash useful—if not frequently needed—tools. You can add numerous entries to this using Winaero Tweaker’s “Context Menu” section—you can access the new Clipboard History feature, for example, or restore access to classic appearance options in Windows 10 (see “Personalization”). It also contains system tools that enable you to do things such as claim ownership of a folder or reset its permissions to the default.

44 Clean Out the Context Menu

Select “Remove Default Entries” in Winaero Tweaker to clear out unused entries added by Windows, such as BitLocker entries. Most clutter, however, comes from third-party tools. If you can’t find options to remove them within those programs, use a tool such as ShellMenuView ( www.nirsoft.net/utils/shell_menu_view.html) to review and remove unwanted entries. Doing so can be daunting, but ShellMenuView is comprehensive, and all its options are grouped by app, making them easy to detect and, if necessary, remove in bulk.

45 Extract Program Icons

A CHOOSE WHERE TO SEARCH

Download Icons Extractor as a ZIP file from www.nirsoft.net/utils/iconsext.html, then extract its contents, and double-click “iconsext.exe” to launch the program. You have the option of choosing to search a specific file, all the files inside a folder, or a running process for icons.

B SEARCH AND BROWSE

Click “Search For Icons” and wait while the folder is searched—doing so can take some time, and a counter indicates how many matches have been found. You can click “Stop” at any time to halt the search and view the matches found so far. Double-click a match to view the available icons.

C BROWSE AND EXTRACT

If a suitably large (128x128 or preferably 256x256 pixels) icon exists, you can either select it and click “Copy Selected Image” to copy it to the clipboard, or close the dialog box, right-click the icon, and choose “Save Selected Icons” to save it as an ICO file for use elsewhere.

Take Things to the Next Level

46 Take Precautions

We’re now entering potential risk territory with some of these tips. Therefore, make sure you have some kind of system backup in place—either a rollback option such as System Restore or Rollback Rx ( https://horizondatasys.com/download), or an up-to-date drive image using Macrium Reflect Free ( www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx). Done that? Good, let’s move on….

47 Customize Lock Screen

Can’t tweak the lock screen to your satisfaction using the options found under “Settings → Personalization → Lock Screen”? Then take a look at the “Boot and Logon” section of Winaero Tweaker for more possibilities, such as not automatically selecting the last logged-on user by default, or adding a limit to how long the slideshow feature plays for.

48 Grab Lock Screen Images

If you’re using the Windows Spotlight feature to display rotating background images, and you’d like a permanent copy of any or all of them, select “Find Lock Screen Images” in Winaero Tweaker, followed by “Get this one” under the current photo (if it’s displayed) to save it, or “Get all images stored on this PC” to copy them to a desktop folder.

49 Apply the Aero Lite Theme

Aero Lite is a no-frills theme particularly suited for low-end PCs, such as 2-in-1 tablets. If you think it might help with performance—or want to see if its clean and simple lines appeal—open Winaero Tweaker and click “Enable Aero Lite (default)” under “Appearance → Aero Lite.” You can undo it from here, too.

50 Customize Aero Lite

Once enabled, select “Window Borders” under “Advanced Appearance Settings” to change the width and padding of windows—changes are performed in real time. You can also change the height of the window title bar and change the font—this requires logging off and on again, but also works with other desktop themes, too.

51 Change Windows’ Start-Up Sound

You can customize your Windows sound scheme by typing “sounds” into the Settings search box and selecting “Change system sounds.” What you can’t do from here is change the Windows start-up sound. Instead, navigate to “Appearance → Startup Sound” in Winaero Tweaker, where you can apply your own choice of WAV file in place of the default. If your chosen file is in another audio format, convert it using Pazera Free Audio Extractor ( www.pazera-software.com/products/audio-extractor).

52 Switch System Fonts

Tired of the rather conservative Segoe UI font used by Windows for its desktop components? Then swap it out for something more glamorous (but legible) via Winaero Tweaker’s “Advanced Appearance Settings → System Font” screen. Log out and back in again to see the effect.

53 Reduce Window Clutter

You’ve added tabs to File Explorer, how about grouping application windows in a single multi-tabbed window, too? TidyTabs ( www.nurgo-software.com) enables you to drag up to three windows on top of each other to group them, then use the tabs to switch. Upgrade to the Pro version (a measly $9) and you can automatically group windows from the same application together, plus group more than three windows at once.

54 Get the Aero Glass Look

If you’re a tech-savvy Windows 8.1 user, head to www.glass8.eu to download Aero Glass for Windows 8 if you’d like to restore the translucent Aero effects from Windows 7. Aero Glass technically works with Windows 10, too, although we haven’t had much luck in getting any of the effects to work.

55 Try a New Shell

The most radical change you can make to Windows is to replace the default shell with another one. One of the simplest to deploy is Cairo ( https://cairodesktop.com)—during installation, leave the default settings, so it installs alongside File Explorer, not in place of it.

56 Set Up Apps

After installation, Cairo opens the App Grabber to enable you to choose which app shortcuts to add to the Programs menu at the top of the screen. Drag those you want into the left-hand pane, then click “Continue” to place them in subfolders such as “System Tools” or “Office.” Click “Finish.”

57 Use the Menu Bar

Cairo’s menu bar offers shortcuts to Programs, Places (user folders, This PC, Program Files, and the Recycle bin), Documents, and Downloads. There are various system tools and shortcuts on the right—click “<” to reveal your Taskbar notification area icons. Click the Cairo menu button in the top-left corner for a slimmed-down Start menu (plus access to Cairo’s settings, or choose “Exit Cairo” to return to the regular desktop).

58 Navigate Folders with Cairo

You’ll see a list of files and folders on the desktop that correspond to those that are on your desktop. A floating bar enables you to change the folder shown using the navigation buttons to move up and down the folder tree, go back to the “home” desktop folder, or jump to a different folder.

59 Cairo’s Dock

Last, but not least, is Cairo’s dock—its replacement for the Taskbar. It exclusively displays shortcut icons and open windows—click to open, right-click for more options, or “=” to open Task View for a preview of open windows.

60 Transform Your Desktop with WindowBlinds

A DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL

Download the trial version of WindowBlinds from www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds—after the program has installed, choose the 30-day trial, and enter your email address. Once activated, pick a style from the “Style” section of the program to preview it.

B MODIFY SKIN

Click “Modify Style” to make changes—work through the “Colors,” “Transparency,” “Textures,” and “Fonts” sections to customize it exactly the way you want it to look. Aching to recreate the old Windows 7 glass-like style? Select “Diamond” and choose “One click blur” under “Transparency.”

C APPLY NEW SKIN

Once you’ve finished making your changes in WindowBlinds, click “Stop modifying” followed by “Apply style to desktop.” After a short pause, you’ll see the Windows desktop update. Continue making tweaks—increase transparency using the sliders, for example—and apply them in real time. ■