[HN Gopher] Windhawk Windows classic theme mod for Windows 11
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       Windhawk Windows classic theme mod for Windows 11
        
       Author : znpy
       Score  : 165 points
       Date   : 2025-11-15 16:53 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (windhawk.net)
 (TXT) w3m dump (windhawk.net)
        
       | throwaway270925 wrote:
       | Wow, quite a lot of work, but the end result looks amazing!
        
       | OsrsNeedsf2P wrote:
       | Been playing around with this, it's more consistent than Windows
       | 11's UI itself
        
       | zerr wrote:
       | I also do miss the Windows 7 Aero theme.
        
         | accrual wrote:
         | Me too! The Aero effect still holds up great today IMO.
         | 
         | Kind of fun to imagine some hybrid between Aero and Apple's new
         | glass effect. Imagine if Aero could "bend light" instead of
         | just applying a blur effect.
        
       | mattferderer wrote:
       | Can't speak for this product but disabling a lot of the
       | animations, gradients, shadows & visual effects has made Windows
       | 11 run significantly better on the computers I have it on. They
       | didn't seem to add much value anyways.
       | 
       | I'm a fan of a lot of the user experience improvements being made
       | in Windows over the last decade, such as Terminal, running Linux,
       | Power Toys features, screenshots & recording, Paint finally
       | getting layers, window management & more.
       | 
       | At the same time, I'm still not sure why we needed Windows 11 as
       | the only good updates seem like they could have been done without
       | it. All the visual changes have seemed to cause bugs &
       | performance issues on relatively high powered PCs (64GB+ memory,
       | m2 ssd drives, latest gen mid level GPU & CPU)
       | 
       | It seems the Windows ME, Vista, etc experiment continues to live
       | on.
        
         | Krssst wrote:
         | Disabling animations makes everything better no matter the OS.
         | 
         | When executing a sequence of actions, not having to wait
         | 100-300ms for the device to show some random animation before
         | inputing the next action is a time saver and a removes the "why
         | is my computer/phone wasting my time" feeling.
         | 
         | Human reaction time is around 200ms but in a sequence of
         | actions, we don't need visual feedback to move to the next
         | action; it's just muscle memory and we can reach pretty low
         | delay between inputs if the OS and apps do not impede us.
         | 
         | Back to Windows, I'm quite sad that 24H2 removed support for
         | the legacy app switcher (alt-tab). It was very low latency and
         | operated well in many high-load situations. The new one works
         | okay but is not as snappy and can take a bit of time to show up
         | under load. Plus I prefer the old style (smaller box, no need
         | for eye movement to check its content).
        
           | sudopsuedo wrote:
           | Have you looked into SimpleWindowSwitcher?
           | https://github.com/sigoden/window-switcher
           | 
           | ExplorerPatcher makes it easy to configure in the settings
           | menu, I'm not aware of any other projects that implement SWS:
           | https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher
           | 
           | It's very fast and can be configured to set window thumbnail
           | size/area
        
             | Krssst wrote:
             | Thank you, I was not aware of either of those.
             | 
             | SimpleWindowSwitcher looks like a good alternative,
             | unfortunately on my side I think I would prefer switching
             | between all windows of all apps rather than have two
             | different shortcuts for "switch between windows of the
             | current app" and "switch between apps" (but that's just a
             | personal preference).
             | 
             | ExplorerPatcher looks cool too, though patching explorer is
             | probably a no-no in corporate setups.
             | 
             | I also saw https://github.com/kvakulo/Switcheroo which I
             | was curious to try (although it's not an exact replacement
             | either) but never got to it (also seems quite old).
        
               | oezi wrote:
               | I discovered Switcheroo two weeks ago and seeing it
               | abandoned with over 30 forks with relevant commits made
               | me want try to consolidate the forks and add my own
               | flavor to it:
               | 
               | First beta release at
               | 
               | https://github.com/coezbek/switcheroo
               | 
               | Noteable: column design for most frequently used
               | applications and pinned apps shown separately.
        
           | ComputerGuru wrote:
           | Not exactly alt-tab but it's a ui-less immediate switcher
           | (snappy af, zero latency) to switch between windows of the
           | same app with alt-backtick (next to escape), originally a
           | macOS feature: https://neosmart.net/EasySwitch/
           | 
           | (Backwards navigation with alt-shift-backtick)
        
             | Krssst wrote:
             | Thank you.
             | 
             | Actually the registry entry on 24H2 behaves somewhat
             | similarly: alt-tab still switches windows (of all apps) but
             | the UI is just gone (which is a problem for me because
             | knowing how much time I need to press tab in advance leads
             | to faster switching than "press tab, see if the focused
             | window is what I wanted, and press tab again if it's not"
             | which involves a computer-brain round trip every key
             | press).
        
               | ComputerGuru wrote:
               | Interesting thanks for sharing. I can see how that makes
               | sense for switching apps but imho for switching windows
               | of the same app that benefit is negated since the
               | thumbnail (without intense scrutiny) is generally too
               | similar between windows of the same app.
               | 
               | (As a dev, I often have a dozen browser windows and a
               | dozen or more terminals open, half a dozen IDEs, etc so
               | being able to switch directly between instances if the
               | same app, esp automatically filtering out minimized ones,
               | is much faster than alt-tabbing through then all
               | interleaved, and was my motivation for writing this.)
        
           | thomastjeffery wrote:
           | > Human reaction time is around 200ms
           | 
           | Even if you are talking about the entire loop, that sounds
           | pretty high. Maybe if its moving your hands in reaction to an
           | unexpected stimulus in your feet...
           | 
           | We can tell the difference between 60fps (~16ms per frame)
           | and 120fps (~8ms per frame). Any more than that is a
           | noticeable amount of waiting.
           | 
           | It does get complicated, though. What if the information is
           | presented immediately, _then_ animated? Well, that 's where a
           | complete measurement of reaction time would be relevant.
           | 
           | Even so, as you pointed out, we often predict what we will be
           | doing in advance, and can perform a sequence of learned
           | actions much more quickly. If there is a delay imposed before
           | you can perform an action, then you must learn the delay,
           | too. That learning process involves making mistakes
           | (attempting the action before the animation is over), which
           | is extra frustrating, considering how unnecessary it is.
        
             | RamRodification wrote:
             | https://humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime
             | 
             | You'll probably see around 200ms. Not saying that's the
             | relevant number in this discussion, but that's probably
             | where the number comes from.
        
               | thomastjeffery wrote:
               | On mobile, I consistently get just under 400ms. I suspect
               | using a mouse would get me closer to 200ms, since I would
               | be resting my finger on the button.
               | 
               | So yes, total reaction time is generally quite long, but
               | most of that time is spent performing "action".
               | 
               | That site would be more interesting if it provided a
               | second interface where you do something predictable, like
               | match a repeating beat.
        
           | jstimpfle wrote:
           | I agree there are many bad timer-waster animations. But
           | animations can be a good thing. Take scrolling as an example.
           | Pressing page-down on a text-page or in a text-editor,
           | without animation, it takes me a lot of time and energy to
           | find the place where I left off reading or editing before
           | scrolling. A good animation can save a lot of time here. It's
           | similar with other operations -- and I agree that those
           | operations that we don't do that often tend to be the ones
           | that profit more from animation, while the ones where we
           | already know in advance what will happen can be made worse by
           | animation. I think an animation should never slow down the
           | user, they should not be blocking. An unfinished animation
           | should not prevent the user from typing the next action.
        
         | 3eb7988a1663 wrote:
         | The Win11 screenshot tool is a travesty. It now takes multiple
         | seconds to initialize, plus additional delay in actually
         | selecting what you want to capture. The previous iteration was
         | instantaneous. I have lost many opportunities to screenshot
         | something from a screen share because of this trash
         | performance.
        
           | oezi wrote:
           | Win+Print = takes screenshot and saves to
           | Pictures/Screenshots/
        
           | accrual wrote:
           | I agree, even on fast hardware there is a lot of unnecessary
           | delay trying to take a screenshot.
           | 
           | My old workflow from the Win2k/XP days was: Print Screen, Win
           | + R, type mspaint, Enter, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+S, Enter, done. Still
           | feels faster than watching my screen fade in and out for the
           | snipping tool.
        
             | 3eb7988a1663 wrote:
             | I too have had to resort to full page screenshots. Such a
             | complete waste for a tool that was Done.
        
           | mkl wrote:
           | I've been using the open source ShareX screenshot tool:
           | https://getsharex.com/
        
         | netsharc wrote:
         | They probably had to go to 11 (unlike Spinal Tap, Microsoft's
         | 11 isn't awesome) because they added the TPM requirement. If a
         | computer was Windows 10 compatible but not Windows 10 version
         | 24Hblahblah, it would confuse the average user...
         | 
         | Instead they can throw away their perfectly good computer and
         | buy the confusion as a single package! Relax, the climate can
         | take it!
        
       | Veliladon wrote:
       | > The mod injects only in the process Winlogon.exe, and exits
       | once the handle of the memory area is closed. It does not hook
       | any functions.
       | 
       | Yep. Sure. Going to let a Russian utility fuck with winlogon.exe.
       | Excellent idea.
        
         | vunderba wrote:
         | That was my first concern too, but it does look like you can
         | build the binary from source:
         | 
         | https://github.com/ramensoftware/windhawk
        
           | icapybara wrote:
           | Doesn't mean it's safe.
        
             | moron4hire wrote:
             | Yeah, I would probably delete this updater _if_ I were to
             | try this: https://github.com/ramensoftware/windhawk/blob/ma
             | in/src/wind...
        
               | baq wrote:
               | as opposed to any other updater on your system...?
               | 
               | > Tech Enthusiasts: Everything in my house is wired to
               | the Internet of Things! I control it all from my
               | smartphone! My smart-house is bluetooth enabled and I can
               | give it voice commands via alexa! I love the future!
               | 
               | > Programmers / Engineers: The most recent piece of
               | technology I own is a printer from 2004 and I keep a
               | loaded gun ready to shoot it if it ever makes an
               | unexpected noise.
               | 
               | -- https://imgur.com/6wbgy2L (actually a tweet from
               | someone else, but apparently it's private now)
        
               | moron4hire wrote:
               | It's actually not completely outside of my threat
               | profile.
               | 
               | Honestly, with the prevailaince of ransomware attacks,
               | unless you're a literal hermit, it shouldn't be out of
               | anyone's threat profile.
        
               | baq wrote:
               | Absolutely. Sufficiently capable LLMs can mass produce
               | exploits against whole ecosystems; recent Anthropic post
               | moves the risk needle from 'theoretical' to 'realized'.
               | Any auto-updating software is running a risk of its cdn
               | and/or build forge being compromised. Scary times.
        
               | m417z wrote:
               | This is not an updater. Due to the sensitive nature of
               | Windhawk, it has no auto-updating mechanism, only update
               | notifications (this file is part of that).
        
             | vunderba wrote:
             | I didn't say it was. But having the source means you (and
             | others) can vet the code if that's a concern.
        
           | zerr wrote:
           | Why such a simple UI utility app needed a VSCodium/Electron
           | UI? The author seems to be well versed in Win32 API, so why
           | not just learn the GUI part as well? It's not that hard.
        
             | hackernudes wrote:
             | I 100% agree with this sentiment
        
             | m417z wrote:
             | The reason the Windhawk UI is based on VSCodium is mainly
             | for the mod editing functionality. VSCodium with clangd are
             | used for C++ intellisense out of the box.
             | 
             | You might say that many users don't care about mod
             | development and don't need it. I agree, and I have it on my
             | list to create a lite Windhawk version which doesn't depend
             | on VSCodium.
             | 
             | Note that VSCodium is only used for the UI. When Windhawk
             | is running in the background, its memory consumption is a
             | couple of MB.
        
               | accrual wrote:
               | Sounds like a reasonable trade off to me. Improves your
               | dev experience and users still get a fast binary.
               | 
               | Thanks for this by the way. Carrying the torch of Windows
               | modding in the future!
        
               | zerr wrote:
               | I believe those who write C++ have already installed
               | their favorite IDE or editor.
        
         | sph wrote:
         | And the author is a security/malware researcher. Yeah, you
         | might want to pass.
        
         | gruez wrote:
         | >fuck with winlogon.exe. Excellent idea.
         | 
         | That's mostly irrelevant because all the thing baddies want to
         | do with your computer, they can do without touching winlogon or
         | even getting admin.
         | 
         | https://xkcd.com/1200/
        
         | remix2000 wrote:
         | Yeah, it would be so much better if it was American-made,
         | because as everyone knows there are no corrupt people in the US
         | and every person of Russian descent is a spy for their
         | motherland's government (:
        
           | Muromec wrote:
           | Yes, it would be better if it was American made, because the
           | US government has lesser capability to _compell_ otherwise
           | independent developers to do their bidding.
        
             | remix2000 wrote:
             | You missed my point, which is that all governments exist to
             | oppress by design, it's literally what governments are,
             | they are businesses that monopolize violence. Some people,
             | esp. people of the Western world are too arrogant to admit
             | it. Personally, I would honestly rather trust someone who
             | is aware of that fact over someone who isn't.
        
               | Muromec wrote:
               | Look, I'm as much an enjoyer of Kropotkin and von Mises
               | as the other guy and torched more then zero regional
               | police HQs in my life.
               | 
               | You are right in principle, but there is a varying degree
               | to which different governments actually oppress people
               | and there are certain patterns of what to expect from
               | which.
               | 
               | I would not trust american company, like msft to not
               | snitch to me to US government either, but the likehood of
               | random shmuk being coopted is much more likely in one
               | case as opposed to another.
        
         | carlosjobim wrote:
         | Look at the top of this page. It says "hacker news".
        
         | Muromec wrote:
         | just add the r===ain keyboard to input sources and you will be
         | fine.
        
       | ukuina wrote:
       | This is so neat looking. Is there an equivalent for MacOS?
        
         | gedy wrote:
         | Not exactly afaik, but I've recently been going to System
         | Settings > Accessibility > Display, and turning on:
         | Increase contrast         Reduce transparency
         | Differentiate without color         Show toolbar button shapes
         | 
         | https://imgur.com/a/DqfN07k
         | 
         | I like the retro and simple vibe compared to the new Liquid
         | Glass controls.
        
           | sfpotter wrote:
           | Ah! Thank you! Even on Sequoia this is a massive improvement!
        
             | gedy wrote:
             | Great, glad to help. FYI there are similar settings for iOS
             | and I do same on my phone.
        
       | remir wrote:
       | I wish there was a "power user" mode in Windows that you could
       | activate and you'd get the ability to have classic themes (my MS
       | themselves), classic Control Panel, no constant nudging, no
       | weather/Xbox/Solitaire apps, etc...
        
         | estebank wrote:
         | They tried that during the Chicago development and discarded
         | the idea due to multiple problems with how humans work.
         | 
         | Two different UIs meant that you had to learn them separately,
         | you didn't have a slow ramp from one to the other, one familiar
         | with one could get stuck on the other with no knowledge of how
         | to get back, divided efforts between the two, etc.
         | 
         | Not quite what you are asking for, but closer to Win95 shipping
         | with progman.exe which could allow someone to cosplay Win3.11
         | while running Win95.
        
           | senorrib wrote:
           | And yet they seem to have lost all that knowledge from Win8
           | onwards. WinForms, WPF, UWP, WinUI, MAUI... All of these with
           | their own metaphores, design language, and they all feel
           | half-baked, full of bugs.
        
         | Dennip wrote:
         | THe settings siutation is so annoying, there are still so many
         | options locked away inside control panel and the new settings
         | app has a few that dont exist in control panel, its so
         | fragmented.
        
           | accrual wrote:
           | I find myself reaching for the Control Panel all the time in
           | Windows 11. I won't go into the main settings panel unless
           | it's the only way.
        
         | anthk wrote:
         | Windows' GOD mode CLSID:
         | 
         | https://www.thewindowsclub.com/create-master-control-panel-g...
        
       | mapontosevenths wrote:
       | I used to use Stardock WindowBlinds to do something similar, but
       | it leads to all sorts of weird compatibility issues with various
       | applications.
       | 
       | I wonder if this will have the same issues?
        
         | keyringlight wrote:
         | I find the various privacy and 'feature' disabling
         | scripts/utilities questionable for a similar reason, it's
         | moving outside of the expected behavior of the OS for how
         | applications and future MS updates expect things to work. The
         | core issue seems to be you're working against what MS want and
         | they provide a moving target, functionally it's their system,
         | not yours.
        
       | m417z wrote:
       | Hi, Windhawk author here. Nice to see it on Hacker News.
       | 
       | This is just one Windhawk mod, submitted by a community member.
       | There are hundreds others. Windhawk was created to simplify
       | Windows customization and to make it more accessible, both for
       | developers and users. For a more detailed introduction, check out
       | the Windhawk release blog post:
       | 
       | https://ramensoftware.com/windhawk
        
         | rikafurude21 wrote:
         | I've come across Windhawk before but the mods being just C++
         | programs seemed a little suspicious to me, how do you make sure
         | the mods dont include malware?
        
           | Refreeze5224 wrote:
           | Windows is weird. The way these mods work is injecting code
           | into different processes, which is a very common malware
           | technique. Keyloggers in particular work similarly to
           | Windhawk. And that is not a swipe at Windhawk, that is just
           | how Windows has you do this type of thing.
        
             | reactordev wrote:
             | What's really fun is hooking into the WM_PAINT event from
             | the target processes main thread and then drawing your own
             | controls over whatever was rendered...
             | 
             | Overlays, AIMBots, Discord, Flight Sim Software, we all do
             | it...
        
             | blacklion wrote:
             | `LD_PRELOAD` works on UNIX-like systems too.
        
               | anthk wrote:
               | Thanks to LD_PRELOAD you could downgrade tons of OpenGL
               | effects and enforce some settings for high end games and
               | make them playable with good speeds on legacy systems.
               | 
               | Also to force texture sizes and whatnot.
               | 
               | I wish Wine/Proton had options for those, to override
               | antialising, texture sizes, rendering resolution and
               | everything.
        
           | nodja wrote:
           | Windhawk mods are distributed as source code and WH itself
           | compiles it. It works the same way usescripts work with
           | tampermonkey/violentmonkey on browsers.
           | 
           | If a mod includes malware it'll be very obvious as mods are
           | usually small.
        
             | 3eb7988a1663 wrote:
             | Top tier malware can be incredibly terse and sophisticated.
             | The trigger line to execute the xz exploit was a `.` in a
             | build script. You are probably fine do to sheer obscurity -
             | nerds who yearn for a Win9X experience are low in number
             | and might only be running it for a laugh in a VM.
        
               | y-c-o-m-b wrote:
               | It's not just for "nerds" if that's what you're implying.
               | I use the "Multirow taskbar for Windows 11" Windhawk mod
               | because I recently upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows
               | 11, which removed the ability to have more than one row
               | on the taskbar.
               | 
               | There's a malware risk in literally every piece of
               | software. Windows itself behaves as malware with all the
               | telemetry it gathers.
        
               | 3eb7988a1663 wrote:
               | The tiny fraction of computer users who have the
               | capability and interest to do this qualifies as nerds in
               | my book. I did not realize this was still a pejorative on
               | a forum where we are mostly all technical experts in some
               | domain or another. It is your computer - go nuts.
        
           | m417z wrote:
           | When you install or run a program, how do you make sure it
           | doesn't include malware? I assume that you check for the
           | author's record/reputation, and perhaps look at the source
           | code if it's available.
           | 
           | It's similar with Windhawk mods. The GitHub and X profiles
           | are verified to be the profiles of the author, so you can
           | decide whether you trust them. The source code is available,
           | so you can inspect it as well. Mods are single-file and
           | usually short, which makes it easier to review than an
           | average program.
        
             | orbital-decay wrote:
             | To review these third-party mods one needs to understand
             | C++, Windows programming, and fairly obscure theming-
             | related parts of its internals, some of which are
             | undocumented/reverse engineered, and many have poorly
             | understood side effects. This is a pretty specific
             | combination of skills that slowly approaches arcane status,
             | even if might feel otherwise to some. But again, larger
             | apps are indeed harder to review than this.
             | 
             | (this particular mod is 100% innocuous, though)
        
               | deburo wrote:
               | Huh, with AI you can always "review" those mods. They are
               | small enough. Anyway they are distributed via the
               | creator's github repo, so it's already somewhat of a peer
               | reviewed mechanism.
        
           | Lammy wrote:
           | FUD:
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty,_and_doubt
           | 
           | I'm so sick of people telling me to _BE AFRAID_. If you want
           | to live without the risk of a little danger, go live in
           | prison.
        
             | rikafurude21 wrote:
             | No one told you to be afraid, install anything you want on
             | your computer. Personally I just dont want to deal with
             | getting my logins and keys stolen. It'd be very annoying.
        
         | y-c-o-m-b wrote:
         | Thanks for making this a safe place to modify Windows in a
         | community-driven fashion. I mentioned it in a comment below,
         | but I use the "Multirow taskbar for Windows 11" mod and it's
         | been a godsend for keeping things more organized as before. I
         | appreciate you and the mod community.
        
       | oybng wrote:
       | It's incredible the effort Windows 10/11 users will go to in
       | order to reach a somewhat functional and reliable computing
       | experience via third party modifications, yet Linux is somehow
       | too much effort. Just look at the instructions on that page..
        
         | sockaddr wrote:
         | "but he's sweet sometimes"
         | 
         | It's just an abusive relationship and eventually some of them
         | break out of it.
        
         | WD-42 wrote:
         | Linux isn't hard, it's just different. Better, but different.
         | That's too much effort for some.
        
         | linguae wrote:
         | Some of us still rely on Windows applications that either don't
         | run on Linux, can't run under Wine, or don't have alternatives
         | that meet our needs.
        
         | unleaded wrote:
         | Every techie knows about Linux by now. Not everyone chooses to
         | use Windows because they're foolish or don't know any better
        
           | NaomiLehman wrote:
           | why do they choose it?
           | 
           | i have a windows workstation because one CNC machine that we
           | use needs it. only other reason i can see is gaming?
           | 
           | I have all 3 major OSs at home and, honestly, Windows 11 is
           | stuff of nightmares to me
        
             | y-c-o-m-b wrote:
             | I've given some good reasons before:
             | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45858749
             | 
             | The "solutions" provided to me so far for my primary issue
             | (using Ableton Suite DAW) has not worked. There is no
             | practical solution that allows this software to function in
             | a Linux environment successfully. I can open the app, but
             | that's the extent of it. It's not usable.
             | 
             | > I so badly want to jump ship entirely, but there's
             | several things holding me back. I do music production as a
             | hobby and Ableton Live doesn't play nice with Linux. In
             | fact it seems anything that is resource intensive without
             | native linux support has some issues. I'm also an MS stack
             | developer, so things like Visual Studio Pro aren't
             | available (although I've been using Cursor IDE more and
             | more these days). Lastly I have some games acquired through
             | "the high seas" in which a work-around doesn't exist for
             | compatibility.
             | 
             | > The responses I got were to switch to different software.
             | No, no, and no. I paid a lot of money for Ableton Suite and
             | poured many many hours into learning how to use it; it's
             | the DAW I prefer to use, I don't want to switch.
             | 
             | > Having said this, I did try to dual boot recently with
             | Linux Mint, and once again ran into headaches getting my
             | Logitech mouse buttons to work.
        
             | blacklion wrote:
             | Adobe products, for example. Or any of other of miriad of
             | other products which have only Win/MacOS and no Linux
             | support.
             | 
             | And, no, Wine cannot run anything.
             | 
             | You see, I don't need OS at all, I need applications. Some
             | of these applications are "universal" (FireFox, for
             | example), some has good equivalents, and some are unique to
             | OS.
             | 
             | And, no, DarkTable, or RAW Therappe are not equivalent to
             | Lightroom or Capture One. And no, there is no equivalent to
             | foobar2000 among music players.
        
               | anthk wrote:
               | MPD + advanced clients pown foobar 2000 anytime. Also,
               | Audacious, Strayberry...
               | 
               | Audacious with audacious-plugins could play anything
               | (even video game music files) and it still has ProjectM
               | plugins' support.
        
               | noosphr wrote:
               | >And, no, Wine cannot run anything.
               | 
               | Wine may not be able to run the apps you need, but it can
               | run plenty. The older the software gets the more wine
               | becomes the only option to run it.
        
               | ac29 wrote:
               | You can run nearly any Windows app with winboat. Its not
               | based on wine, it runs real windows in a container.
        
             | 1bpp wrote:
             | Creative Cloud and DAWs. Those are my only reasons and
             | basically the only reasons I ever hear from people. A Linux
             | port of Photoshop would probably put a small dent in
             | Windows' market share at this point.
        
         | system2 wrote:
         | A foolish take, makes me believe you didn't really work in the
         | real world. Because the entire global computer ecosystem is
         | built on Windows-compatible software. Finance, accounting,
         | medical, car diagnostics, and even HVAC software are built
         | windows-compatible-only only.
         | 
         | Don't get me wrong, I use Xubuntu on my crappy old devices,
         | Ubuntu on my secondary mini-pc, and switch between them with
         | KVM while working. I tried to make Linux work for everything
         | but missing industry software made it difficult.
        
           | thewebguyd wrote:
           | Don't bother. HN has a very hard anti-Microsoft bias,
           | especially when it comes to Windows. At the same time will
           | completely overlook many of the same warts or different warts
           | that exist on macOS or Linux because they get a free pass for
           | some reason.
           | 
           | Despite its flaws Windows still remains a very capable
           | workhorse general purpose OS, and with WSL dev is a non
           | issue. Hell, having actual Linux is better than the macOS
           | Frankenstein Unix and homrbrew
        
         | accrual wrote:
         | For some it's just fun. Changing things because we can. I was a
         | huge tinkerer in the XP days, I'd test out every tweak and tool
         | I could get my hands on and would reinstall the OS every couple
         | months. I'd use Resource Hacker to change out the XP flag
         | icons, put my initials on the start button, etc. It wasn't
         | about making it more usable so much as it was just making it
         | mine.
         | 
         | It makes me happy to see newer generations still doing the same
         | stuff, granted its much more complex to do this work on Win11
         | vs XP.
        
         | venusenvy47 wrote:
         | Most of us are forced to use it because of corporate IT
         | requirements.
        
         | Kwpolska wrote:
         | Windows 11 user here. I use zero third-party modifications.
         | Some people are masochists.
        
           | wild_pointer wrote:
           | Indeed, some people are :)
        
       | 1970-01-01 wrote:
       | Classic Windows (95-7) was the best era for Windows and always
       | will be the best in terms of GUI. Everything that came after 7
       | has been a downgrade from 7's GUI.
        
       | roughly wrote:
       | The description of how this works gave my inner ops guy a panic
       | attack. I love this kind of hack.
        
       | bongodongobob wrote:
       | I've tried these things before. Use with caution, and definitely
       | not on a work device. They never fully uninstall and you might be
       | left with incorrect registry keys and other weirdness. May break
       | updates as well.
        
         | rkagerer wrote:
         | _They never fully uninstall_
         | 
         | Ugh, you'd think we'd be better by now.
         | 
         | I've had good success with Total Uninstall for this problem
         | (with software in general). It does a diff of your registry and
         | filesystem before/after installing an app, and after uninstall
         | highlights lingering remnants. Over time you and it "learn" to
         | filter out background changes unrelated to the install process.
        
       | bsnnkv wrote:
       | Would love to see someone running this theme + a tiling window
       | manager!
        
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