Windows 10
Customise Windows
November 2019 | |^51
> Backup/Restore Start Menu Layout in
Winaero Tweaker to export the current layout- just in case.
10
Customise the
Start menu
Use the Personalisation > Start section of
Settings to configure certain aspects of the
Start menu. Tiles can be added by right-
clicking items and choosing Pin to Start Menu.
You can then click and drag items around to
rearrange them, or click and drag items on top
of each other to group them in a folder.11
Lock the Start menu
After you’ve set up the tiles to
your satisfaction, open Ultimate WindowsTweaker and navigate to Customisation
> Universal UI, then check Lock Start Tiles
to prevent accidentally rearranging them
in future.12
Ditch the Start menu
Still hankering after the Windows
7 Start menu? Our old favourite alternative
Start menu – Classic Start – has been
resurrected under a new name, and
updated to work with the latest version of
Windows 10 Download and install Open-
Shell from https://open-shell.github.io/
Open-Shell-Menu. During installation, click
Classic Explorer and Classic IE, and choose
Entire feature will be unavailable to avoid
installingthese.13
Customise the
Quick Access menu
Press [Win] + [X] to access the alternative
Start menu. You can choose which options
appear on it by downloading and running
the portable Win + X Menu Editor (https://
winaero.com/download.php?view.21).14
Restore Desktop Gadgets
Do you miss the old Windows 7
gadgets that provided extra functionality
on the desktop, such as weather reports and
CPU load? Visit http://win10widgets.com to
download Win10 Widgets. It’s a customised
version of Rainmeter (www.rainmeter.net),
with the gadgets pre-installed and running.
StartmenuLiveTilescandosimilarthingstoo.15 Organise your desktop icons
A Install icons
Download and install Vi-Pad
(http://lee-soft.com/vipad) – if the
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and unblock the program. During
installation, click Yes when prompted
to copy all existing desktop icons to
the Vi-Pad window, which will
happen in real time as you watch.B Organise icons
All shortcut apps appear in a single tab- New Tab – spread over multiple pages.
Right-click New Tab to rename it, or use
the ‘+’ button to create additional tabs,
so that you can organize your apps into
more categories. Once that’s done,
right-click an app icon to move it to
that tab.
C Add new icons
You can drag new shortcuts into any tab
from the desktop or from File Explorer.
Right-click the program’s Taskbar
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Uncheck Use Windows DWM to make it
translucent. You can also make the icons
larger or smaller, using the slider at the
top of the menu.Still hankering after the old Start menu? Open-Shell
is the new name for Classic Start.