From the many customization options available on WinCustomize, some really impressive creations have been crafted with a keen eye for a more minimalistic appeal. Minimalism is generally a great design philosophy, as it emphasizes a pleasant experience in favor of sleek simplicity and an ease of functionality.

Let's take a moment to showcase a few recently created examples of this sort of simple-yet-aesthetically-pleasant customization.

MateriStart by quartzneko (Start Menu Buttons)

In the Swamp by Sed (Wallpapers)

Just passing by by teddybearcholla (Wallpapers)

While the desktop customization options offered by these creators may not be as flashy or extravagant as some others, don't be fooled by the simplicity!  One thing I like about minimalist personalization, is the way these creators have utilized simple elements to let other parts of the desktop really stand out and shine.  Try them out to see what I mean!

Of course, the door is also open to reply here and show off some of your own favorites.  And if you find yourself so inspired, as always, we encourage you to create and share your own!

Today, we are releasing an update for Fences 5 that introduces a new feature, several quality-of-life updates, and more. The update is available now and is currently rolling out to all Fences 5 users or you can manually search for the update by clicking "Check for Update" on the About panel in the Configuration window.

New in this release is the ability to swap screen contents in the Layout tab. This feature makes it easy to swap the screen contents and is helpful especially in scenarios where you change devices frequently with several external monitors attached.

Also new in this release is significant performance improvements when resizing Folder Portals and compatibility updates when Folder Portal content is actively syncing with services like Dropbox and OneDrive. And for those users running the latest Windows Insider builds, compatibility improvements for Peek will provide a more consistent experience.

For users who are running the legacy Layout auto-adjustment settings, we are now moving all users to the option of “Store my layout on a per-monitor-configuration”. When we released version 5.5 earlier this year, this new option became the default experience and we have been actively encouraging all users to move to the new Fences engine.

With robust support for multi-monitor scenarios and additional resilience for complex desktop environments, the new engine is superior in every way to the legacy tooling. While the legacy options are still available, we highly encourage everyone to stay on the new setting.

And if that wasn’t enough, besides a number of bug fixes, double clicking on the "folder" or "up" icon of a folder portal title bar no longer triggers roll-up.

Many of these updates were the result of direct input from our users and your input is essential to helping make Fences the best desktop enhancement available. If you have any feedback, make sure to check out our forums where you can share your feedback and learn how other teams are using Fences at home and in the workplace.

If you haven't tried Fences yet, you can learn more about Fences on the app page and it is also included in the award-winning suite, Object Desktop.

There are all kinds of unique customization options available on WinCustomize.  Some of my favorites are crafted by creators that manage to expertly capture that simple sense of nostalgia from days past. 

So, I thought I'd take a moment to showcase a few such 'blasts-from-the-past,' and open the door for others to show off some of our favorites of this sort of retro desktop personalization. 

Win9x Large by tbanks451

Mac OS X by NandoLinuxmaniac

Something as simple as a classic start button or mouse cursor theme like those pictured above can really bring a sense of charm and character to your desktop experience.  

And there are countless more examples, including even more elaborate old-school-feels in the form of the various WindowBlinds themes that manage to import an entire classic Operating System.

The Windows Classic Theme by SemoB

Aero 11 by SimplexDesigns

Of course, these add up to just a small handful of customization options.  Over the years, WinCustomize has seen tons of options in this fantastic category of vintage customization. 

Feel free to post your own favorites below!

The tranquility of this new Dream by AzDude is more than just a visually stunning desktop background or screensaver.  This paradise landscape was crafted and animated to enhance your desktop experience and will immerse you in a truly dreamlike natural atmosphere.  Complete with 4K resolution and an impressive array of animated elements, the visuals here are as crisp as they are vibrant and immersive.

To create this virtual paradise, AzDude used DeskScapes11 and Dream Maker Pro to skillfully bring crisp life and captivating visuals to a wallpaper created with AI technology.  The lush greenery, flowing waterfalls, and overall serene atmosphere of this Dream all add up to a truly immersive world.  Want to personalize your experience even further? In DeskScapes11, each of these individual effects (and plenty more) can be tweaked for maximum personalization of your Windows 10 or Windows 11 theme.  You might even find yourself inspired to create your own Dream. 

In DeskScapes11, creation and customization are easy to do. WinCustomize also features countless complimenting styles for various applications, which can be combined for an overall compelling theme from various masterful creators.  The popular “Clean” style for Curtains (by fallschimjager) for example, provides a transparent Windows 10 experience that can be combined with Dreams like 4K Beautiful Paradise to get even more out of your desktop theme.  Want to go even further?  Chrome Glass by RPGFX is a classic and popular package for the CursorFX app that also shines with 4K Beautiful Paradise. 

And that's not nearly all!  Feel free to comment with additional suggestions that work great with this new Dream.  The WinCustomize community is certainly in no short supply of tips and inspiration in finding the perfect theme for some peace between the waves.

Fences is known for being the best desktop enhancement as the productivity tool helps with everything from organizing icons on your desktop to improving your project management flow. Seriously, Fences is used in all sorts of industries from at home to being used by Formula 1 teams – if you haven’t ever tried Fences, you can do so for free here.

One of my favorite use-cases for the product is to make it easy to move files between devices. If you have more than 1 PC, this is the killer feature that you should try today as it makes working on multiple devices a lot easier.

With a combination of Fences, OneDrive and a Folder Portal™ on your desktop, you can make it as easy as dragging a file on your desktop to make a document, file, or any other piece of content available on all of your other computers.

To do this, make sure you are logged into your OneDrive (a corporate version of OneDrive or SharePoint will work too) account on Windows 10 or Windows 11. Open File Explorer and navigate to your OneDrive folder and create a folder called “Transfer” or any other name that fits your preference.

With Fences installed, left click and drag a box on any open space on the desktop and when the flyout for Fences opens, click “Create Folder Portal™ Here”. In the pop-up window, select the new folder you created in your OneDrive account and place that Folder Portal™ on the desktop.

On any other PC, create the same Folder Portal™ and now, whenever you drag any file into the Folder Portal™, it will show up on every device as fast as OneDrive can sync the document which is usually less than a minute.

This is a simple but incredibly powerful way to move content between devices. Rather than emailing/Slacking/or sending a file with Teams to yourself to move a file, with this setup your workflow isn’t interrupted, and it feels like magic.

If you haven’t tried Fences before, you can download a free trial on the app page. And if you are looking for the best value, Object Desktop is an award-winning suite of our best applications for one low price.

Today, we are releasing an update for Fences 5 that delivers a couple of new enhancements as well compatibility improvements for the latest version of Windows 11. The build is rolling out now and you can download it by opening the configuration panel and clicking “Check for updates”.

New in this release is an improvement to the right-click menu on the desktop, we have elevated the ability to launch the Fences configuration panel from the top layer of the desktop right-click menu for Windows 11. Also updated in this release are changes to the configuration panel with the Backup option moved under Layouts in a new collapsible section.

With this update, Fences 5.80 is now fully compatible with the next release of Windows 11, version 24H2. We have included underlying improvements to the core experience of the application that are specifically designed to address the evolving landscape of Windows 11.

This release also highlights our ongoing efforts to keep the highest level of compatibility across our product suite with each new version of Windows. While the Windows 11 24H2 release that will ship later this year may appear to be another incremental improvement to the OS, there are some fundamental changes that require us to keep validating and testing our products to maintain the highest levels of quality and reliability.

If you are on an older version of Fences or haven’t tried Fences before, there has never been a better time to experience the best desktop enhancement for Windows. Earlier this year, we released Fences 5.5 with a new engine and with the updates released today, Fences is ready for the next major release of Windows 11.

You can learn more about Fences on the app page and it is also included in the award-winning suite, Object Desktop.

This week, there was quite a bit of noise in the industry about icon tinting after Apple announced that this feature is coming to the next version of iOS. While that feature won’t reach most users until the end of this year, if you want to tint your Start menu icons, you can do that today.

Introduced with Start11 v2, you can now tint your Start menu icons so that you have a uniform look to your launcher experience.

To tint your icons, open your Start menu, and right click on an open space. In the context menu, hover over Appearance -> Icon Tint and then select your color. If you want to turn off tinting, you can select the trash icon to remove the setting.

And you can mix and match colors as well, you don’t have to tint all the icons a single color. With individual control, you can tint any icon to a color that you choose while leaving the other icons not tinted or with a different color applied.

It’s really that simple. Start11 v2 offers a wide range of customization options that allow you to make the Start menu a truly personalized experience. And the icon tinting will work with any icon you place into your Start menu with supported designs – menus that replicate legacy styles do not currently support tinting.

If you haven’t tried out Start11 v2, you can learn more about the app on its page and it is also included in the award-winning suite of productivity and customization, Object Desktop.

It has been a rather wild month for Windows enthusiasts with Microsoft starting to make significant changes to the OS. First, the company started removing legacy components from Windows 11 24h2 (Start11 v2 is compatible with these changes) and in the last week we have seen the company experiment with more ads being shoved into your Start menu.

If Windows adding more unwanted additions to the Start menu wasn’t enough, there was also a viral thread about a former Microsoft engineer lamenting about how sluggish the native Start experience has become because it’s clear that for Microsoft, Windows is an avenue for advertisements as well as productivity.

And that’s where Start11 v2 comes into play. Start11 v2 allows you to keep complete control of your desktop experience and remove the unwanted ads while also adding new productivity features. With options that let you remove the "recommendations" that Microsoft keeps pushing to App Canvas that lets you design your own Start experience, Start11 v2 is easily the industry's most advanced Start menu.

While we have added many new features with v2, like being able to pin folders and folder menus to the taskbar, we also fully understand that for many, keeping Windows acting like Windows is what makes v2 popular. From bringing back the Windows 10 menu or going back further to a Windows 7 style menu, Start11 v2 is a powerful application that lets you keep your desktop, yours.

If you haven’t experienced Start11 v2, you can try it for free or if you are looking for the best value, Object Desktop includes Start11 v2 and many other great apps like Groupy 2, Fences 5, and the newly updated ObjectDock.

Today we are releasing Start11 v2 2.07 with improvements to Windows 11 compatibility for future releases. You can download the new build by opening Start11 v2 configuration panel, clicking About, and checking for updates.

With this release, we are primarily focusing on improvements to animations on the taskbar and squashing a few bugs that have been reported by the community. Also in this release, we are improving stability for complex search queries as well as a continued focus on the upcoming release of Windows that is currently known as Windows 11 24H2.

Later this year, Microsoft will be releasing as significant update to Windows 11 that is referred to as 24H2 and as part of this release, it looks like Microsoft will be removing legacy code from the OS. The removal of this code is impacting any Windows 11 application that leveraged this functionality but Start11 and Start11 v2 are not impacted.

This is important because Microsoft has started pushing app compatibility blocking notifications to devices that are running these applications and stopping them from upgrading. Any customer running Start11 or Start11 v2 should not see these notifications.

After installing the latest update, let us know if you encounter any issues with the application or have any feedback about what features we should add next. Many of the newest features of Start11 v2 were developed because of the direct feedback we have received in our forums.

The Start menu is arguably one of the most customizable areas of Windows. Yes, you can easily change your desktop wallpaper, arrange icons on your desktop, or change sounds, but the Start menu is the heart of the OS.

While the default Start menu with Windows 10 and 11 is relatively locked-down, Start11 v2 provides a fully customized experience and with features like App Canvas, you can build your own layout. And once you create the perfect layout, persevering it is an essential part of the experience.

With Start11 v2, creating and restoring, configurations is a simple process with the ability to easily backup settings to a file, restore a setting from a file, and if needed, you can also reset Start11 v2 back to the default configuration.

To backup your settings, open the Start11 v2 configuration panel, click "Settings backup", then click "Backup settings to a file", and then save the file to a location of your choosing. To restore a configuration, click "Restore settings" in the same configuration panel area and you can load your backup file.

The best part of these configurations is that you can save multiple files for different scenarios. If you have a work-related menu or a gaming related layout, you can easily load those when needed. Or if you are like me, and enjoy making multiple styles for different devices, I have a folder with menus that are designed specifically for touchscreen and non-touch devices that I use.

Backing up your Start experience was an important pillar of the v2 update for Start11 that introduced dozens of new enhancements. If you haven’t tried out Start11 v2 yet, you can download a free trial here and grab it through the award-winning, Object Desktop productivity suite.