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 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