Windows 10 is a welcome return to the Windows operating system that many of us missed after Microsoft implemented radical design changes in Windows 8. Win10 has been praised for going back to the basics we’re familiar with, but not everything is the way it was and other functions seem to be missing. Here are five programs that rectify what users may miss in Windows 10.
1. Throwback Windows 7 Start Menu
It seems like there will always be someone who isn’t happy with whatever Microsoft does to the Windows Start Menu (or, for that matter, the overall Windows user interface). For these people, Stardock has made a business over the years developing software that modifies the look and feel of the latest versions of Windows.
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Start10 is the company’s latest, which returns a Start Menu that looks and works like Windows 7. Start10 lets you switch between this classic Windows 7-style and the Windows 10 Start Menu, and there’s a third theme that falls in-between: It has the user interface of the Windows 7 Start Menu but uses the appearance of Windows 10.
Start10 goes beyond this. It also lets you tweak several aspects of the interface to the extreme. You can change the color and texture design of the Start Menu panel, and the size of program icons can be adjusted or their placement arranged into a grid layout. The look of the Start button icon can be customized, too, by choosing from several designs that are included with Start10, or you can use your own image file. You can remap keys in relation to the Start Menu’s functions, like reassigning what happens when you press the Windows logo key. Start10 costs $4.99 for a license, and there’s a 30-day free trial.
2. Bring back the floating clock
Miss the floating clock from Windows 8/8.1 that would appear over the lower-left of the screen whenever you summoned the Charms bar? This simple executable program puts it back into Windows 10. Just run the program once, and a dark translucent panel appears on the lower-left of the desktop, showing the time, day and date. Click away from this panel or to another program you have running, and the panel goes away. To bring it back, press the ALT and “C” keys together. Right-clicking on its icon in the notification tray will stop the program from running. The current version of Floating Clock only shows the time in 24-hour format.
3. Adjust background images and colors under one user interface
The settings for changing the look of Windows 10 (i.e. its desktop background image, colors, lock screen image, theme) are spread across the Settings app and the classic Control Panel. For example, under the Personalization page of the Settings app, clicking “Themes” and “Theme settings” launches the Control Panel’s own (and separate) Personalization page, where you can then choose a different theme for Windows 10.
The Personalization Panel for Windows 10 brings these settings together under one user interface that resembles how they were originally presented in Windows 7. It doesn’t modify the Settings app or Control Panel — it’s a standalone program that you can use to change the theme directly, but clicking its other functions will launch the corresponding settings page on the classic Control Panel (for example, clicking “Desktop Background” opens the Desktop Background tool under the Control Panel).
Personalization Panel for Windows 10 can be set to launch when you right-click over the desktop and choose “Personalize” from the context menu, replacing the Settings app which is the default program that launches when you do this. This program lets you add colored title bars for application windows, which are not on in Windows 10. After you’ve turned this on, you can change the color of the title bars by clicking “Color” from within Personalization Panel for Windows 10. (This function doesn’t affect the colors of the title bars of Windows apps.)
4. Throwback application windows to Windows 7 style
Speaking of colored title bars, here’s another program that does the same thing, and it can additionally change the look of application windows. Win10 Theme Revealer installs two themes: Windows Color Revived turns on colors for application title bars. In addition to colored title bars, the Windows Lite theme makes application windows look like they did under Windows 7 (making the Minimize, Restore Down/Maximize and Close buttons larger, and restoring a thicker border to application windows).
Like the Personalization Panel for Windows 10 program, once you’ve selected either of these themes, you can change the color of the title bars. Neither theme affects the title bar color of Windows apps, but the Windows Lite one adds thicker lines to the sides and bottom borders of them. Win10 Theme Revealer comes in two versions: for Windows 10 64-bit and 32-bit.
The program will install the two themes, and can also be used to uninstall them from your Windows 10 system. (Speaking of colored application title bars, this feature will officially come to an update to Windows 10. As of this writing, the current Insider Preview of the OS, provided by Microsoft to the public who are willing to test early version builds, now has this option.)
5. Make Windows search (or Cortana) use a search engine besides Bing
Cortana, the personal digital assistant that’s built into Windows 10, pulls results from Microsoft’s own search engine, Bing. To no surprise, the company doesn’t let you change this to another search engine within Windows 10 or Cortana settings, but with Chrome or Firefox, you can sidestep this. If you’re using the latest version of Firefox, be sure it’s set as your default browser under Windows 10.
Then under the browser’s settings, pick whichever search engine you want Firefox to use as its default, and then put a checkmark by “Use this search engine for searches from Windows.” From that point on, results in the Cortana search box on the taskbar will be pulled from the search engine of your choice. If Chrome is your preferred default browser, you’ll have to install an extension to do the same thing: Chrometana. It will route search requests you enter into Cortana through your choice of DuckDuckGo, Google or Yahoo.
Wen is a freelance writer. He can be reached at howardwen@gmail.com
