As long as Microsoft makes decisions developers don't like there have been countless programs to change the behavior, design, or functionality of Windows. As this list of programs that do any of the above grows, I decided to do my best to put this list in one place.
Below is a non-comprehensive collection of software that can change the look and feel or behavior of Windows OS organized by what effect the software has. As well as containing some special sections for software that bundles together or otherwise tries to accomplish the same goal.
Some programs listed are Open-Source, Free, Paid, or even developed by Microsoft themselves.
See something missing from this list? Feel free to contribute.
- Special Sections
- Visual Tweaks
- Browser Tweaks
- Window Manager Tweaks
- Search Tweaks
- Input Device Tweaks
- File Handling Tools
- Misc Tools
- StartAllBack - Embrace, enhance, unsweep classic UI from under the rug.
- Start11 - Customize the Start Menu and Taskbar in Windows 10/11
- Win11DisabledRoundedCorners - A simple utility that cold patches dwm (uDWM.dll) in order to disable window rounded corners in Windows 11
Lightweight utility for organizing the taskbar through groups
C#
- Create groups of shortcuts in the taskbar
Easily manage the brightness of your monitors in Windows from the System tray.
Javascript
- Adds brightness sliders to the system tray, similar to the built-in Windows 10 volume panel.
- Normalize backlight across different monitors.
- Can automatically change monitor brightness depending on the time of day
- Seamlessly blends in with Windows 10. Uses your Personalization settings to match your taskbar.
- Starts up with Windows
Classic Shell Reborn.
C++
- Classic style Start Menu for Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10
- Toolbar for Windows Explorer
- Classic copy UI (Windows 7 only)
- Show file size in Explorer status bar
- Title bar and status bar for Internet Explorer
Add margins, rounded corners and segments to your taskbars!
C#
- Margin: Remove Pixels from each side of the taskbar.
- Corner Radius: Adjust corners of the taskbar.
- And more...
A lightweight utility that makes the Windows taskbar translucent/transparent.
C++
- Advanced Color Picker to choose color of Taskbar
- Taskbar States: Normal, Opaque, Clear, Blur, Acrylic
- Dynamic Modes:
- Dynamic Windows: Change taskbar appearance if window is maximized or visible
- Dynamic Start Menu: Change taskbar appearance if start menu is open.
- Dynamic Cortana: Change taskbar appearance when Cortana (Or search Menu) is open.
- Dynamic Timeline: Change taskbar appearance when the Timeline is open
- Ability to show or hide the Aero Peek button depending on the currently active dynamic mode.
Center Windows taskbar icons with a variety of animations and options.
Visual Basic .NET
- 42 different Animations including "none"
- Great performance (Very optimized and lightweight looping)
- Change animation speed
- Change custom offset position based on center
- Center between startbutton, search, taskview etc... and left tray icons, clock etc...
- All taskbar settings supported
- Vertical taskbar supported
- Unlimited monitors supported
- Change taskbar style to Transparent, Blur, and Acrylic
- Change taskbar color and transparency
- Hide Start button and more...
- Github
- Microsoft Store $1.39
Customize and widgetize your Live Tiles
Proprietary
- Create custom Live Tiles and pin them on the Start Menu, on your Desktop as an icon or create a floating widget. All four sizes are supported!
- The "Live" aspect of the Live Tiles is present both on the Start Menu tiles and for the widgets on Desktop. All Apps with a Live Tile are supported, both on Windows 10 and Windows 11.
- No live tile support for some apps? Live Tiles Anywhere can use the toast notifications from the action / notification center.
- Customize many aspects of the tile, including images, background and text color, branding and more.
- Supports Desktop win32 apps, UWP apps, links, commands and other protocols.
- LTA will automatically find installed apps, including games from Steam and Epic Games launcher.
- A central hub is available, where you can manage all the tiles you've created, added and customized.
- No changes will be made on system files and no special procedures or patches are required.
- Updated Fluent Design interface, easy to use, with light or dark theme supported.
- Multi-language support available. English and Italian languages ​​are supported in this version.
A simple utility that cold patches dwm (uDWM.dll) in order to disable window rounded corners in Windows 11
C
- Disable window rounded corners in Windows 11.
Automatically switches between the dark and light theme of Windows 10 and Windows 11
C#
- Compatible with Windows 10 and Windows 11.
- Theme switch based on sunrise and sunset.
- Desktop wallpaper switch.
- Windows .Theme switch, to also change Accent Color, Diashow and Mouse Cursor.
- Support for accent color on the Taskbar and other system elements.
- Office 2013 - 2019 theme switch.
- Ability to automatically enable the grayscale color filter of Windows 10.
- Suitable for gamers: Don't switch while playing a game to avoid stuttering.
- Lightweight with clean uninstall. No admin rights needed.
- Automatic Updates.
- Run custom scripts.
Embrace, enhance, unsweep classic UI from under the rug
Proprietary
- Restore and improve taskbar
- Restore and improve File Explorer UI
- Restore and improve context menus
- Restore and improve start menu
- Finally lightweight styling nd UI consistency
Proprietary $5.99
- Familiar: Replace Start Menu with a classic version.
- Enhance: Bring back missing features form previous versions of Windows
- Personalize: Robust customization options that allow you to change styles, colors, transparency, shortcut links and more.
- Control: Move Start button to center or left, top of the screen, or change how it responds.
A Tool to Redirect News, Search, and Weather Results to Your Default Browser
AutoIt
- Filters and passes the command line arguments of Microsoft Edge processes into your default browser.
Easily drag windows when pressing the alt key. (Windows)
C
- Using Shift can snap to other windows
- Ctrl while dragging can trap a window within the current monitor.
- Using Alt to drag windows when clicking anywhere within them.
Sizer 4.0 is latest version of the popular utility used to accurately resize and reposition windows.
Proprietary
- Better compatibility: Sizer has been completely rewritten to improve compatibility with modern applications including Windows 10 Apps.
- Hot keys: Sizer actions, including bringing up the main resizing menu, can be assigned to a hot key that can be used at any time.
- Macros and expressions: Specify sizes and positions as formula. e.g. 0.7 * w:mon results in a value that is 70% of the width of the current monitor. With macros you can position several windows at the same time allowing you to layout multiple applications the way you want them.
- Menu Groups: Simplify and tidy up the Sizer menu by creating cascading menus with groups.
- Portable: Run Sizer from a USB pen drive or keep your configurations in one place.
- Configuration file management: Export and import settings via the user interface.
FancyZones is a window manager utility for arranging and snapping windows into efficient layouts to improve the speed of your workflow and restore layouts quickly.
C#
- Allows definition of window locations for a desktop that are drag targets for windows.
Can help you search and launch your app instantly.
C#
- Select
ALT+Spaceand start typing to search. - This shortcut can be changed.
- Supports additional plugins.
- Search for applications, folders, or files.
- Search for running processes (previously known as WindowWalker)
- Clickable buttons with keyboard shortcuts.
- Invoke Shell Plugin
- Do a simple calculation using calculator.
Allows you to customize the keyboard to be more productive by remapping keys and creating your own keyboard shortcuts.
C#
- Redefine keys on your keyboard.
- Exchange shortcut key combinations.
Add functionality to enhance your mouse and cursor.
C#
- Find My Mouse: Double press the left
Ctrlkey to activate a spotlight that focuses on the cursor's position.
Quick way to globally "mute" both your microphone and camera.
C#
- Quickly Mute your microphone and turn off your camera with a single keystroke while on a conference call.
- Works regardless of what application has focus on your computer.
Enable preview pane rendering in File Explorer to display new file types.
C#
- Preview Pane rendering of SVG icons (.svg)
- Preview Pane rendering of Markdown files (.md)
- Preview Pane rendering of PDF files (.pdf)
- Icon thumb preview for SVG icons.
- Icon thumb preview for PDF files
Enables you to perform bulk renaming, searching and replacing file names.
C#
- Bulk renaming tool that enables you to:
- Modify the file names of a large number of files (without giving all of the files the same name)
- Perform a search and replace on a targeted section of file names.
- Perform a regular expression rename on multiple files.
- Check expected rename results in a preview window before finalizing a bulk rename.
- Undo a rename operation after it is completed.
Windows Shell extension for quickly resizing images.
C#
- Right Click resizing of images in File Explorer.
- Drag and Drop with the right mouse button to resize.
System-wide color picking utility, pick colors from any currently running application.
C#
- Pick colors from any currently running application.
- Copy it in a configurable format to your clipboard.
Designed to keep a computer awake without having to manage its power & sleep settings.
C#
- Can allow running time-consuming tasks, ensuring the computer does not go to sleep or turn off its screens.
Shows the available shortcuts for the current state of the desktop.
C#
- An overlay appears showing keyboard shortcuts that use the Windows key.
-
PowerToys Awake - Designed to keep a computer awake without having to manage its power & sleep settings.
-
Color Picker - System-wide color picking utility, pick colors from any currently running application.
-
FancyZones - Window manager that makes it easy to create complex window layouts and quickly position windows into those layouts.
-
File Explorer add-ons - Enable preview pane rendering in File Explorer to display new file types.
-
Image Resizer - Windows Shell extension for quickly resizing images.
-
Keyboard Manager - Allows you to customize the keyboard to be more productive by remapping keys and creating your own keyboard shortcuts.
-
Mouse Utilities - Add functionality to enhance your mouse and cursor.
-
PowerRename - Enables you to perform bulk renaming, searching and replacing file names.
-
PowerToys Run - Can help you search and launch your app instantly.
-
Shortcut Guide - Shows the available shortcuts for the current state of the desktop.
-
Video Conference Mute - Quick way to globally "mute" both your microphone and camera.
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