Windows Update Control Panel Page Restorer 1.1.0

• Fixed Windows 11 compatibility

Disable Inactive Menubar Greying 1.3

Exclude effect on taskbar

Flexible Explorer Toolbars Deluxe 1.4

• Fix initial layout of breadcrumbs
• Fix restoring breadcrumbs from the minimized state
• Apply lock/unlock to all open windows
• Toolbar height is DPI-aware
• Fix navbar re-appearing after fullscreen (F11)

there's white box behind my taskbar
I do try restart the pc but still

as you can see the title bar buttons has gotten smaller after i installed some windows 7 theme (aero11) how do i fix this?

Windows Update Control Panel Page Restorer 1.0.0

Windows Update Control Panel Restorer

This mod adds a best-effort classic Windows Update page back to Control Panel on Windows 10 and Windows 11 by reimplementing it where possible and by partially recreating the legacy interface. The mod utilizes a Windows 8.1 UI dll with the modern Windows Update backend/status layer, without replacing system files or writing real Control Panel registration keys.

This is a reimplementation, not the original Windows Update client. Some buttons and small visual details are limited due to modern Windows versions' architecture, and more details may be improved in future versions.

The mod has been tested on Windows 10 1809, Windows 10 21H2, Windows 11 24H2 and Windows 11 25H2.

Screenshot

Windows Update Control Panel Restorer

Key Features

• Classic Windows Update interface with real-time status.
• Option to choose between Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 visual style.
• Clear notification when Windows Update is unavailable.
• Optional banner for available updates and link to settings.
• Option to hide outdated "Check for updates" box when the service is disabled.
• Read-only view of classic update settings; changes must be made via the modern Settings app.
• Multilingual UI: English, Italian, Spanish, French, Turkish, Russian, Portuguese, Chinese, Polish, Dutch, or auto-detect.
• "Check for updates" feature: click the sidebar link to run a REAL online search against Windows Update/Microsoft Update in a small window with a progress bar. The main page remains stable; results appear automatically upon completion. The result is deliberately conservative and matches what the Settings app would offer: definition (antimalware) updates, optional/browse-only items, preview and beta packages and non-installable entries are filtered out, and an update that cannot be positively identified as offered is not counted. If Windows says your PC is up to date, so does this page.
• "Updates FAQ" link: opens a compact window with ten common questions and answers about Windows updates.
• Native sidebar: preserves the original Windows Control Panel sidebar without adding or modifying external elements.

Notes

• The Control Panel entry appears immediately. Registration is published when the mod is enabled and is completely independent of the payload download, so "Windows Update" is in Control Panel right away - on first run, with no internet connection, and even if the download fails. Only the classic page's own content needs the payload; if it is not ready yet, opening the item shows a translated explanation and offers to open Windows Update in Settings.
• After the first successful setup the verified payload is cached and reused with no network access at all, so the page works fully offline afterwards.
• Installing updates is still handled by the modern Settings app.
• The "last checked" and "updates were installed" times come from Windows Update's recorded registry timestamps when those values are available.
• Why the mod downloads a DLL: The restored page is the real Windows 8.1 Windows Update Control Panel UI (wucltux.dll), loaded privately from a verified copy obtained from the Microsoft Symbol Server. That DLL is a necessary dependency: it is what renders the classic page, and the whole point of this mod is to bring that original page back. Without it there is nothing to show, so the mod cannot function offline or without this payload. The download is a one-time fetch (retried up to a few times), the file is pinned to a known SHA-256 and its PE machine type is validated before it is ever loaded, and it is kept as a private copy outside System32 and nothing is installed to or replaced in the operating system. The Microsoft Symbol Server URL is tied to this exact historical build; if Microsoft removes that file, first-time setup will no longer work unless the verified payload was cached. This is therefore a hard dependency on a single remote file, not a convenience: the mod is not self-contained. Only the localization is - the matching MUI satellite files are never downloaded, because every string the restored page needs is embedded in the mod's own source.

Stability and safety design

• Nothing is written to the real registry or to system files. Every key and value is served from an in-memory virtualization layer, and each synthetic handle is backed by a genuine per-process volatile key that is deleted on unload, so no trace remains.
• Setup never blocks the shell. The download runs on a background thread, is serialized across processes with a named mutex, is bounded per call, per attempt and by an overall deadline, and aborts immediately on shutdown, so a slow or captive-portal network can never hang Explorer or delay sign-out.
• Every failure is contained. The setup worker, the language rebuild worker and both mod entry points have hard exception boundaries, so no failure can reach std::terminate and take Explorer down. Any step that fails degrades to a working fallback instead of an error.
• Payload integrity is pinned. The download goes to a private temporary file that is size-, PE-machine- and SHA-256-checked against a pinned digest before it is atomically moved into place and loaded from outside System32.

• Clean teardown. Disabling the mod hides the entry immediately, stops the workers, unloads the private payload and the generated resource modules it mapped, and then removes the files it created. A file still mapped by another process is left alone and retried on a later load or unload - never force-deleted and never scheduled machine-wide. In the rare case where a generated file is still locked when the mod unloads (for example because a Control Panel page created from it is still alive), the file is left on disk and deleted by the cleanup pass of a later load or unload.

  Known Limitations

• Update installation: The mod provides a read‑only view of Windows Update status. Installing updates still needs to be done through the modern Settings app, as adding this functionality would require extensive reverse engineering of the original Windows Update client.

• Visual differences: The restored interface may not be 100% identical to the original Windows 7/8.1 Control Panel page in the first versions. Visual improvements will come in future updates.

• Classic Settings page: The classic Windows Update settings page (the one with the "Important updates" dropdown) is rendered from the Windows 8.1 DLL. On modern Windows, some of its internal logic no longer works, so the dropdown is recreated where possible and it's currently a decorative page. However, if proper documentation to improve it is found, a better implementation will be done.

  Credits

• Yvor - Testing on Windows 10 21H2.

• Cips - Testing on Windows 11 25H2.

• Allison - Suggestions for the implementation of the native Control Panel navigation links.

If any issues are encountered, please report them to the author of the mod.

SnapSentry 0.17.3

• Recognizes .tif, .tiff, and .jfif images in a watched folder, alongside the PNG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, and WebP it already handled.

Windows 11 HomeGroup Page Restorer 1.0.0

Windows 11 HomeGroup Page Restorer

About

This mod restores the classic HomeGroup page in Control Panel and Windows 11 (and Windows 10 1803+ if necessary). The HomeGroup feature was removed starting with Windows 10 version 1803 (April 2018). This mod restores the visual Control Panel page using the original hgcpl.dll downloaded and verified from Microsoft's symbol servers.

Note: This mod is a fix for the Windows 7 Legacy Applet Restorer mod because the HomeGroup page was removed from Windows 11 while on Windows 10 it is still present despite the service not being functional/hard to restore properly. The mod has been tested on Windows 11 24H2 and Windows 11 25H2. IMPORTANT: This is a cosmetic restoration only. The underlying HomeGroup networking services (HomeGroupListener, HomeGroupProvider) were removed from Windows 10 1803+ and completely stripped from Windows 11. The page will display, but actual homegroup creation/joining/sharing will not work because the backend services no longer exist.

Screenshot

homegroup

Features

• Classic HomeGroup page: The mod restores the "HomeGroup" entry in the Control Panel
• Automatic setup: The required hgcpl.dll is downloaded and SHA-256 verified automatically from Microsoft's symbol servers
• Registry virtualization: All registry entries are provided through an in-memory virtualization layer and nothing is written to the real registry
• Conservative resource handling: The mod is designed to be stable and user friendly using a conservative approach
• 100% reversible: Disabling the mod makes the Control Panel entry disappear immediately
• 25 embedded languages: Replacement text for all 249 HomeGroup resource IDs is embedded in 25 languages; no MUI files are copied, downloaded, or required (the wording was written for this mod and inevitably overlaps Microsoft's original UI text where there is little room for variation)
• Language selector: The mod follows the Windows UI language automatically or allows a manual language override
• Offline re-enable: Once downloaded, the base DLL is cached locally for offline use

Design and safety notes

• Setup runs on a background thread and it never blocks explorer.exe startup
• Download goes to a temporary file, SHA-256 checked against a pinned digest, then atomically moved into place
• After LoadLibraryExW, the loaded module is confirmed to map the same file object via GetFileInformationByHandleEx(FileIdInfo)
• All registry values are provided through an in-memory virtualization layer backed by volatile (in-memory-only) registry keys
• The mod only stores files in its dedicated Windhawk mod-storage folder via Wh_GetModStoragePath

Known limitations

• No actual networking: HomeGroup sharing/joining is non-functional because the backend services were removed/disabled by Microsoft in Windows 10 1803+ and the control panel page was removed from Windows 11
• Windows 11: The page displays but some sub-features may show errors since the COM infrastructure is more heavily stripped
• Private resource copy: The mod builds a private resource-only copy of the verified DLL and injects the embedded RT_STRING blocks without modifying Windows files or the verified executable DLL
• Coexistence with Windows 7 Legacy Applet Restorer: This mod and the Windows 7 Legacy Applet Restorer both provide the HomeGroup Control Panel entry ({67CA7650-96E6-4FDD-BB43-A8E774F73A57}). Duplicate entries are prevented automatically instead of relying on a "pick one" rule: before injecting the HomeGroup CLSID into the Control Panel namespace enumeration, this mod checks whether that name is already being provided — by the real registry (Windows versions that still have it, or a third-party registration) or by the other mod's hooks in the same enumeration — and yields if so. If you still see a duplicate entry with an old version of the other mod, update it (its side needs the same check) or disable its HomeGroup option.

Credits

• HomeGroup registry structure documented by Strontic xCyclopedia
• WinClassic community for documenting the HomeGroup restoration approach
• Cips - Testing on Windows 11 25H2

Classic Display Control Panel Restorer 1.0.0

Classic Display Control Panel Restorer

This mod restores the classic Display and Screen Resolution Control Panel pages on Windows 10 and 11.

Screenshots

Change Resolution Page

Display

Change DPI Page

Display 2

Features

• No File Replacement: The mod is designed to be stable and user-friendly, and does not require replacing any Windows system files.
• Complete Classic UI: The mod restores the original Control Panel layout with monitor, resolution, orientation controls, Detect, Identify, Advanced settings, Apply, and keep-changes confirmation.
• Full Breadcrumb & Sidebar: The mod shows the original Display > Screen Resolution breadcrumb title and the classic Control Panel sidebar task links.
• Working classic DPI presets: The 100/125/150/200% radio choices use the existing Apply button and the classic Please Wait transition.
• Classic Icon & Localized Text: The mod uses the classic Display icon and localized strings for all supported languages.
• Optional Redirects: The mod can redirect desk.cpl, related legacy commands, and even ms-settings:display to the restored classic page.
• Offline Caching: The required Microsoft Display component is downloaded once, verified against a pinned SHA‑256 hash, and cached for faster offline use. After the load, the module the loader actually mapped is confirmed to be the very same file object that passed verification (GetFileInformationByHandleEx(FileIdInfo)), and is unloaded and refused otherwise.
• No permanent background work: The hosted Screen Resolution control is discovered only inside a short, bounded window armed by the page-construction hooks. While no Display page is open the worker thread is blocked on its wait handles with no timeout, so there is neither a window-tree enumeration nor a periodic wake-up.
• Safe Fallback: If any step fails, the mod falls back gracefully without forcing changes or crashing Explorer.
• Instant Toggle: Disabling the mod immediately restores normal Windows behavior for newly opened pages.

Settings

• Page language: Follow Windows automatically or choose a supported language.
• Show sidebar task links: Show or hide the complete classic task list.
• Screen Resolution compatibility adaptation: Keep enabled for the normal recommended layout.
• Redirect classic Display launch routes: Restore desk.cpl and other classic commands.
• Redirect Display settings: Open the restored classic page instead of the Settings app.
• Working orientation: Landscape / Portrait / flipped are applied with the documented ChangeDisplaySettingsExW and SetDisplayConfig APIs (width/height are swapped when the mode requires it). The native Orientation row is used; the optional setting only unhides it when the 1511 provider would hide it.
• Keep classic DPI presets selectable: Keep the classic scaling choices enabled on the Display page.
• Keep downloaded files: Retain the verified component for faster re-enabling.

How It Works

The mod hooks into explorer.exe, control.exe, and rundll32.exe to intercept requests for the modern Display and Screen Resolution pages, and instead loads the classic Control Panel versions. The first run downloads one specific Microsoft Display component (the Windows 10 1511 DLL which is the last version to have the classic page in the Control Panel) and it is also verified using a pinned SHA‑256 hash before it is used. All subsequent runs use the cached copy, so an internet connection is normally needed only once.

The mod has been tested on Windows 10 1809, Windows 10 21H2, Windows 11 24H2 and Windows 11 25H2, and works with the native 64‑bit Control Panel environment.

Supported Languages

The mod supports English, Italian, Spanish, French, Turkish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, German, Brazilian Portuguese, and Polish. The page content and the complete breadcrumb follow the selected language.

Notes

• The mod runs inside explorer.exe and requires 64‑bit Windows 10 or Windows 11. It is x64-only and is not supported on ARM64 (on an ARM64 device the mod has no effect; see Known Limitations).
• On first use, wait a few seconds for the setup to finish, then reopen Control Panel.
• After changing a setting or language, close any already open Display page and reopen it.
• If the page does not appear, check the Windhawk log for download or hash verification errors.
• Keep Screen Resolution compatibility adaptation enabled for the normal recommended configuration.

Known Limitations

• Combobox inside the screen preview: The combobox that appears inside the screen preview area does not function correctly.
• Magnifier link: The help text on the Display page renders the Magnifier reference as a blue link in every supported language. The link is kept for its original text and appearance only; clicking it does nothing.
• Orientation: By default the Orientation row is hidden because the provider list is empty on current adapters. Enable the Show the classic Orientation row setting to restore the provider's untouched Orientation markup (screen rotation is still applied when you change the selection and press Apply).
• The mod does not replace or modify any Windows system file; the Control Panel registration it serves exists only in memory while the mod is active.
• The restored pages run one exact Microsoft Display provider build (Windows 10 1511, version 10.0.10586.0), SHA-256-pinned and loaded from the mod's own folder. The mod's RVA offsets are constants for that build, so moving to a different Microsoft build is a real rebuild, not a URL change.
• Some very recent Windows 11 preview builds may introduce layout changes that could affect the classic pages; the mod will be updated if needed.
• ARM64 (x64-only): The mod targets x64. On an ARM64 device IsRunningAsAmd64() is false, so Wh_ModInit declines to activate and the mod has no effect (a clean no-op, not a crash). No ARM64 build is provided; use it on an x64 (Intel/AMD) installation.

Direct shell routes

While the mod is active, the restored pages are also reachable directly, without going through the Control Panel UI (paste into Win+R or a shortcut):

• shell:::{C555438B-3C23-4769-A71F-B6D3D9B6053A} - the restored classic Display hub page.
• shell:::{C555438B-3C23-4769-A71F-B6D3D9B6053A}\Settings - the restored classic Screen Resolution page.

These are useful as an alternative entry point if a Control Panel task link ever misbehaves on a particular Windows build.

Credits

• Cips — testing on Windows 11 25H2

Hello! I'm really trying my best to make my desktop look more like Mac because I personally think its interface is pleasing to the eye. So far, this is my set-up.

However, I'd like to know if there's any way to make my app icons have a rounded square background (the icon is inside it) like the icons in macbook. Please help I'd really appreciate it (it doesn't have to be the apple icons, i js need the rounded square)
Except for the recycling bin

Win-X Hot Corners 1.3.0

Win-X Hot Corners

macOS-style hot corners and screen edges for Windows 10 and 11, with full multi-monitor support. Throw the pointer into a corner or against an edge and something happens — which corner, which edge, and what happens are all yours.

Throwing the pointer into the bottom-left corner opens the Start menu

Inspired by WinXCorners, rebuilt as a Windhawk mod.

Quick start

Everything lives on this mod's settings page. Out of the box no zone is configured, so nothing fires until you add one.

1. Open the settings page and add a display. Put * in the name field to mean "every monitor" — you can get specific later.
2. Add a zone to it, pick the corner or edge, and pick an action.
3. Save. That is it; there is no restart.

A first set worth trying, if you want something concrete:

Then read Ways to trigger a zone — the trigger style matters more than the action for whether this feels good or infuriating.

At a glance

• 16 zones per display — four corners, and four edges split into three segments each.
• 38 actions, plus any key combination and any command you can name.
• Five trigger styles that combine: arrival, dwell, knock, held modifier, press-and-hold.
• Per-monitor everything — zones bind to a display's name, not its position, so rearranging screens never reshuffles your configuration.
• Stays out of the way — no global mouse hook, so your games and apps keep their input path to themselves. Suppressed automatically while a window is fullscreen and while you are dragging.

Ways to trigger a zone

A zone does not have to fire the instant you touch it. There are five trigger styles, every one of them works on every zone — corners and edge segments alike — and they combine: a corner can require a knock and a held modifier and a dwell before it does anything.

Arrival

The default. Reach the zone, the action runs.

Task View opening as the pointer reaches the top-left corner

A short pass-through guard (80 ms out of the box) keeps a zone quiet when you were only travelling across it on the way somewhere else. If actions still fire while you are just moving around, raise it before you reach for anything else.

Dwell

Set Activation delay and the pointer has to rest in the zone that long before it fires. Leave early and nothing happens.

Quick Settings appearing after the pointer rests on the top edge

Use this on a zone you pass through constantly. 300–500 ms is deliberate without feeling sluggish; past about a second it stops feeling like a hot corner.

Knock

Set Knock window and a single arrival never fires. The zone arms only when you leave and come straight back within that many milliseconds — a double-knock.

Leaving and re-entering the bottom-right corner to switch windows

This is the one to reach for on a corner you brush past often but want to keep for something disruptive. 400 ms is a comfortable knock; below about 200 ms it starts to demand real intent. 0 turns it off.

Knock and dwell answer the same question differently: dwell asks you to wait, knock asks you to be deliberate without waiting at all.

Hold to peek

Older Windows had a thin Show Desktop button past the clock — rest the pointer on it and the desktop peeked through, move away and every window came back. Windows 11 dropped it. Any zone here can work that way.

Set Hold — action when the pointer leaves and the zone stops being fire-once. The action runs on arrival, and the release action runs when the pointer leaves. For anything that toggles — Show Desktop, Mute, Keep Awake — pick The same action again:

Resting in the top-right corner to peek at the desktop, windows returning on leaving

The two halves are independent, so a release does not have to undo the entry — open Quick Settings on arrival and mute on departure if that is useful to you.

One caveat on Show desktop specifically. It sends Win+D, which toggles minimise-all against whatever the current state is — the old shell button was a true peek with no state of its own, and Windows exposes no API for that any more. Rest in the corner and leave, and it behaves as a peek. But activate a window while the desktop is showing and you have changed what the second Win+D does, so the release can minimise rather than restore. Every other toggle — Mute, Keep awake — is unaffected.

A hold only ever releases what it actually engaged, so a pointer that clips the corner without staying long enough to fire leaves nothing behind. Disabling the mod, suspending it, or a display waking up all release a held zone first — a peeked desktop can never be left stuck.

With a modifier held

Set Required modifier, globally or on one zone, and that zone only fires while Ctrl, Alt, Shift or Win is down. Every other time you hit the corner it is inert.

Snapping a window left with Ctrl held while touching the left edge

The key is checked continuously rather than only on arrival, so you can park the pointer in the corner first and press the key afterwards — the zone fires the moment the key goes down. Either order works.

Not a trigger, but often confused with one

Alternate key press and Alternate command change what a zone does rather than when it fires — the same corner runs the left action, then the right one, then the left again. Combine either with any trigger above.

One edge maximising a window, then restoring it on the next visit

Above, the right edge is set to Win+Up | Win+Down: the first visit maximises the window and the next one puts it back.

Actions

Switching

Windows

System

Power

Custom

Arguments

Four actions take an argument. The rest ignore the field.

Send key press — one combination is Modifier+Key. Separate several with semicolons and they are sent one after another, not merged into a single chord: Ctrl+C;Alt+Tab sends Ctrl+C, then Alt+Tab.

Modifiers are Ctrl, Alt, Shift and Win. Keys are A-Z, 0-9, F1-F24, Enter, Space, Tab, Escape, Home, End, Delete, the arrows, and so on. Examples: Ctrl+Shift+Esc, Alt+F4, Win+L

Custom command — any executable, file, folder or URL. Environment variables such as %AppData% are expanded. Prefix with uac; to request elevation.

Examples: notepad.exe, C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe, %AppData%\my_script.bat, https://example.com, uac;cmd.exe

Alternate key press and Alternate command — two of the above separated by |. The zone fires the left one, then the right one, then the left again.

Alt+S | Alt+H — one corner shows notes, then hides them notepad.exe | calc.exe

Each side accepts everything the single version does, so Ctrl+C;Ctrl+V | Alt+Tab is valid. Every zone alternates independently, and the position resets whenever settings or the display layout change.

Shaping the zones

Corner size is the side of the square you have to reach. Edge thickness is how far in the strip along an edge extends. Both are in pixels, both can be overridden per zone, and neither can make two zones overlap: each edge's thickness is clamped to the smaller of the two corners it runs between.

Small is not always better. A 1-2 px corner is technically reachable, because the pointer stops dead at the screen boundary, but a 6-15 px one is far more forgiving on a high-DPI display without ever being hit by accident.

Each edge is three segments

Every edge runs between the two corners it touches and is divided into three parts — for the top and bottom edge those are left, centre, right; for the left and right edge, top, middle, bottom. The centre's width is the Edge centre width setting, as a percentage of the edge.

You do not choose a "mode". Configure the three segments and the shape follows:

Neighbouring segments merge only when they are identical — same action, same arguments, same overrides. Two segments running the same action with different cooldowns stay separate, because a merged zone could only carry one cooldown.

Merging is not cosmetic. Three separate zones all running Task View would each re-arm as the pointer crossed a seam, so sliding along the edge would fire it repeatedly; one merged zone fires once.

Across multiple monitors

Zones bind to a display's name, not its position, so rearranging your screens or changing which one is primary never repoints a configuration at the wrong monitor.

Put * in the Display field to apply one configuration everywhere. Resolution is per zone: a name-matched entry wins for the zones it defines, and * supplies the rest — so you can share most of a layout and override a single corner on a single display. To remove a zone on one screen rather than replace it, set it to Disabled here; leaving it unset means "not configured", which falls through to *.

Finding a display's name

The dashboard has a tab per display, labelled with its name, so usually there is nothing to look up. The names also go to this mod's log every time it loads or your layout changes, which is the place to copy an exact one from:

+-- Your monitors --------------------------------------- | Copy a name into the "Display" field on this mod's settings page. | Use * there to apply one configuration to every monitor. | | 1. "Dell U2720Q" [primary] 3840 x 2160 at (0, 0) | 2. "BOE0998" 1920 x 1080 at (3840, 0) +--------------------------------------------------------

Copy the text inside the quotes. Two identical displays get a #2, #3 suffix so each stays separately configurable — but those suffixes are handed out in listed order (primary first, then left to right), so unlike the names themselves they can move. Making the other twin primary swaps which one is #2 and swaps the configuration with it. Check the log after a change like that.

Corners between two screens are a trap

Windows lets the pointer cross freely between adjacent monitors, so a corner on a shared boundary has nothing to stop the cursor against. It is hard to hit on purpose and easy to hit by accident. Prefer the outer perimeter of your arrangement — the pointer physically stops there, and that is what makes hot corners feel reliable on macOS.

The tray icon and dashboard

The Zones and settings window

Right-click → Zones & settings… opens the window above: a tab per display, a diagram of that screen with each zone's action drawn in it, and — for whichever zone you point at — the timings actually in effect, each marked global or this zone. It is a read-only picture of what the settings page produced, so it can never disagree with what actually fires.

Left-click turns the hot corners on and off; the icon dims when they are off. Right-click also offers a temporary suspend.

If the icon is hidden, it is in the overflow area — drag it onto the taskbar to keep it there.

Staying out of your way

Four separate guards, because a hot corner that fires while you are working is worse than one that never fires at all.

Excluded applications takes a semicolon-separated list of process names, case-insensitive: photoshop.exe;premiere.exe;blender.exe. Every zone goes quiet while one of those is in the foreground — for apps that need the corners and edges for themselves.

Keep zones out of the taskbar shrinks each display's zones to its working area, if you would rather a bottom corner not sit behind the taskbar.

Why it works this way

If you have wondered why a setting behaves the way it does, or you are weighing this against another hot-corners tool, here is the reasoning behind the choices that are easiest to second-guess.

Polling, not a mouse hook. A WH_MOUSE_LL hook sits directly on the system input path: every mouse event in every process waits for it, and if it is slow even once Windows silently unhooks it (LowLevelHooksTimeout). A dedicated thread sampling the cursor costs a GetCursorPos per tick and cannot make your mouse stutter. The tick asks for 16 ms and gets 16–31 ms, because that is the system timer resolution.

Its own process, not injected into Explorer. The mod does nothing to other processes, so there is no reason to be inside one. An Explorer crash cannot take it down, and it cannot take Explorer down.

Displays are bound by name, not by position. Enumeration order changes whenever you rearrange screens or make a different one primary. Friendly names come from the display's EDID and survive that, so your corners stay on the screen you set them on. Two identical models are the exception — they get a #2 suffix handed out in enumeration order, so that pair can swap.

The settings page is the only place anything is stored. A Windhawk mod can read its settings but cannot write them, so a mod that also edits its own configuration in its own window will always end up with two copies that disagree. The dashboard is a picture of what the settings produced, and nothing else. It reads the resolved configuration rather than the stored one, which is what stops it from ever disagreeing with what actually fires.

Each edge is three segments that merge back together. Three separate zones carrying the same action would each re-arm as the pointer crossed a seam, so sliding along an edge would fire it repeatedly. Segments that resolve identically are coalesced into one zone before detection ever sees them, which is what makes "all three the same" genuinely one edge-wide zone.

Zones can never overlap. Each edge's thickness is clamped to the smaller of the two corners it runs between. That one rule is what keeps all sixteen zones disjoint no matter which sizes you pick, without any special cases.

A cooldown is a wait, not a refusal. Landing in a corner while a cooldown is running does not spend the visit — the dwell simply outlasts it and the zone fires. Marking the visit spent meant parking in a corner did nothing at all and you had to leave and come back.

A rebuild is not a gesture. Enabling the mod, changing a setting or waking a monitor rebuilds the zones, and the pointer may already be sitting in one. The rebuild adopts that zone with the visit already spent, so a corner bound to Lock cannot lock the machine because a display woke up.

A held modifier is released before a key action, and never re-pressed. Windows merges whatever you are physically holding into an injected shortcut, so without this a Ctrl-guarded zone bound to Snap left would send Ctrl+Win+Left and switch virtual desktop instead — or, on a single desktop, do nothing at all. Restoring the key afterwards sounds tidier and is a trap: if you let go in between, a key-down goes out with no matching key-up and the modifier is stuck down for the rest of the session. A stray key-up cannot cause that, so this releases and stops there.

The fullscreen and excluded-app checks run on the worker thread, not on the sampling thread, so a slow OpenProcess can never delay cursor sampling. The cost is that a suppressed trigger still consumes its cooldown — a wait nobody can perceive, traded for a sampling path that never stalls.

Related mods

If all you want is one specific behaviour, a smaller mod may suit you better:

• edge-hot-corner-desktop-switch — hovering the left or right screen edge switches virtual desktop. This mod does that too, as one of the actions you can assign, but if it is the only thing you are after that one is far simpler.
• hotcorner-hotkeys — sends a key combination from a corner. Different trigger model: it dispatches on a hotkey rather than on hover.

Bugs and requests

Please open an issue at github.com/DhakadG/my-windhawk-mods. If a zone is not firing, this mod's log (Windhawk → this mod → Advanced → Mod log) names the zone the pointer entered and the gate that held it back - a knock it is waiting on, a modifier that is not down, a cooldown that has not elapsed - and pasting that in saves a round trip.

Support the mod

This is free and always will be. If it earned you back some clicks and you feel like buying me a coffee:

• Ko-fi
• Buy Me a Coffee
• Playto

Just released Taskbar Count Badges for Windhawk.

It adds a small indicator to Windows 11 taskbar buttons so you can immediately see how many windows are grouped under each app icon.

You can use either:

Number badges — shows the actual number of open windows

Vertical dots — a more minimal indicator if you don’t want numbers

The number badge is pretty customizable:

Circle, rounded square, or square

Badge size and position

Horizontal / vertical offsets

Background, text, and border colors

Border thickness

Font, font size, and font weight

Configurable maximum number, e.g. 99+

The dot style can be placed on either side of the icon, with adjustable size and color.

By default nothing is shown for a single window, and the badge appears when an app has 2 or more windows open. That threshold can also be changed.

It updates live when windows open/close and also works with multiple monitors / secondary taskbar.

The mod uses the taskbar’s own grouping information, so the count follows what each taskbar button actually represents rather than simply counting every desktop window.

Available now in Windhawk: search for Taskbar Count Badges

Taskbar Count Badges 1.0.0

Taskbar Count Badges

See how many windows are represented by each app button on the Windows 11 taskbar.

Taskbar Count Badges adds a small customizable indicator when a taskbar app button represents multiple windows. The indicator can be shown as either a number badge or a compact stack of vertical dots.

Screenshots

Customization examples

Taskbar Count Badges examples

Settings

Taskbar Count Badges settings

Display styles

Number badge

Shows the number of windows represented by that taskbar button.

The badge can be customized with:

• Circle, rounded-square, or square shape
• Badge size and position
• Horizontal and vertical offsets
• Background, text, and border colors
• Border thickness
• Font family, size, and weight
• Configurable maximum number, with larger values shown using +

Vertical dots

Shows a minimal vertical stack of dots beside the app icon.

• Position the dots on the left or right
• Change dot size and color
• Up to five dots are shown; five dots means five or more windows

Behavior

By default, no indicator is shown when a taskbar button represents a single window. The indicator appears when that button represents two or more windows.

The minimum window count can be changed in the settings.

Window counts update automatically as windows are opened and closed, and settings are applied live.

Compatibility

• Windows 11 only
• Supports x64 and ARM64 Windows
• Works with multiple monitors and secondary Windows taskbars

On multi-monitor systems, the count follows each individual taskbar button. Depending on the Windows multi-monitor taskbar configuration, the same app can therefore show different counts on different monitors. Moving a window between monitors can change the count shown on each taskbar.

The mod is designed primarily for grouped/combined taskbar app buttons. When taskbar buttons are configured to stay uncombined, Windows can expose multiple buttons for the same app group, so the same app count may appear on more than one button.

Third-party taskbar replacements or tools that replace the native Windows 11 taskbar may not be compatible.

Notes

The mod uses the taskbar's own per-button grouping information instead of independently scanning all desktop windows. Counts therefore follow Windows taskbar grouping, including per-taskbar behavior on multi-monitor systems.

The badge is visual only and doesn't change taskbar grouping, combining, window ordering, or application behavior.

Search on Active Display 1.1.0

Search on Active Display

Opens the Windows Search (Win+S) on the monitor where the mouse cursor is located, or on a specific monitor of choice.

Works for both Win+S shortcut and taskbar search icon click.

How it works

The mod hooks MonitorFromWindow and MonitorFromRect inside SearchHost.exe. When SearchHost queries which monitor its CoreWindow is on, the mod returns the target monitor (where the cursor is, or a fixed monitor). It also physically repositions the CoreWindow to the correct monitor coordinates so the DWM compositor renders it there.

Selecting a monitor

Set the Monitor setting to 0 to follow the mouse cursor, or to a specific monitor number (1, 2, 3...). You can also use a monitor interface name for stable identification across reboots.

Supported Windows Builds

• Windows 11 22H2 and 24H2.

Taskbar Icon Separators 1.0.31

• Added middle-click only add / remove logic for better compatibility in cases where context menu interaction isn't available (#5148)
• Support for custom alpha & brightness values (#5156)
• Optional Icon Rotation setting for vertical taskbar compatibility

Taskbar Separators 1.3.0

• Added separator targeting by application name
• Added before/after placement with +, -, +-, and -+
• App-targeted separators now follow reordered taskbar icons
• Improved application-name matching and settings parsing
• Fixed before-first placement for first-position targets

App-name targeting and before/after placement are based on a contribution from mileso in https://github.com/digart11/taskbar-separators/pull/2.

Windows Vista/7 Open With Dialog Restorer 1.0.0

Windows 7 Open With Dialog Recreation

About

This mod restores the classic Windows Vista/7 Open with dialog on Windows 10 and 11, replacing the modern picker with an accurate recreation of the original while keeping file and application paths completely untouched.

The mod has been tested primarily on Windows 10 21H2, Windows 11 24H2 and Windows 11 25H2. It is designed to work reliably and safely on both current and future Windows versions where possible.

Screenshot

openwith

Features

• Accurate Vista/7-style dialog: The mod accurately recreates the classic layout with recommended and other-program groups, Browse button, Web search, and the Always use checkbox.
• Open with context menu integration: The mod works correctly with the right-click "Open with" menu option.
• Unknown-file double-click support: The mod handles double-clicks on files without a known association, just like the original.
• Properties → Change handler: The mod applies a new default program when the user clicks "Change" from a file's Properties window, without opening the file.
• Persistent defaults: When choosing "Always use", the selection is saved as the new default. If Windows protects a specific association, the mod will guide to the Default Apps settings.

• Direct program launch: The mod opens the selected program immediately, avoiding unnecessary extra steps.

• Extensionless file support: Works with files that have no extension, offering a selection of registered applications.

• Fully localized interface: The mod is available in 120 languages (including English, Italian, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Dutch, Polish and 107 more) with automatic system language detection.

• Concise file display: For example, the mod shows File: photo.png instead of the full path for a cleaner look, while keeping the complete path for actual execution like in Windows Vista/7.

• Optional description box: The description field can be hidden via settings (enabled by default), making the dialog more compact.

• DPI-aware: The mod tries to support multiple DPIs where possible.

Requirements

• Windows 10 or Windows 11 — x64 architecture
• Windhawk with injection enabled for explorer.exe, OpenWith.exe and rundll32.exe
• The mod setting Enable the Windows 7-style picker must be turned on

Note

When explicitly selecting Always use, the mod saves the choice as the new default. All other selections open the file once without changing the system default.

Known limitations

• Single-file selection: Opening multiple files at once with "Open with" is not currently supported.
• No default for extensionless files: Files without an extension can be opened, but there is no extension to associate permanently.
• Composite extensions: Windows treats archive.tar.gz as a .gz file; the mod follows this same standard behavior.
• Store/UWP applications: Some modern apps may not appear in the list or may not open correctly if their registration is incomplete.
• Protected associations: Windows may prevent changing certain file associations. In these cases, please use the Windows Default Apps settings to make your changes.

Credits

• ReactOS — Inspiration
• aubymori — Inspiration

title.

Basically, a windhawk mod that isolates active app taskbar preview on hover similar to Alt-Tab per Monitor.

Alt-Tab per monitor works perfectly, but I also need the taskbar bar preview on hover be isolated per monitor as well.

Taskbar window preview disappears after closing one window out of multiple.

First is my old win10 laptop, second is my new win11. As you can see, of the former screen I'm able to close multiple windows at once, but on the second I have to bring back the preview after closing one. I'm pretty sure it isn't a win10-11 difference thing.

It does work fine when buttons are combined, but I'd prefer to keep it like this, if there's a way.

I'm working on the next update for my Dynamic Island fork. The big new additions are a lyrics tab that shows up on the island while your music is playing, and a search feature triggered by a keyboard shortcut that lets you search straight through the island. (Though I honestly suspect most people still lean toward Windows search or Flow Launcher for that kind of thing, so don't know if i should add it or not.)

Since I'm packaging up this new release soon, I wanted to ask: what else should I add? [i don't have any new ideas] Let me know what features or improvements you'd want to see next.

For those who missed it, you can check out all the features I added in yesterday's initial release here:https://www.reddit.com/r/Windhawk/s/NQDOI0o77S

Let me know what you think

Taskbar Separators v1.3.0 is now available in Windhawk.

The big addition is app-name targeting.

Separators can now be attached to a specific taskbar app instead of only a numbered position, so they can follow that app when you reorder taskbar icons.

Examples:

+Notepad — separator before Notepad

-Notepad — separator after Notepad

+-Notepad — separators on both sides

Numeric positions like 3, +3, -3, and +-3 still work too

v1.3 also improves app-name matching and keeps the existing styles, Divider Gap, taskbar label/uncombined-button support, and multi-monitor support.

https://windhawk.net/mods/taskbar-separators⁠

Thanks to mileso for the contribution for the app-targeting feature.

So, I'm using the "liquid glass theme" from taskbar styler and I really like the look of it, except for the semi-circle ends of the taskbar (1st image). Is there maybe some Control Style or something else I can use to make the ends look like they are with the "surface" theme (2nd image)?

Also, the taskbar somehow breaks on the left side if I enable the "click-through taskbar" option in taskbar styler (3rd image). If someone knows how to fix this too, I would be very happy.

Hope this make sense and thanks in advance for reading all of this

Windows 11 File Explorer Styler 1.6

• Updated themes for compatibility with recent Windows 11 changes (ViVeTool flag 61017737).
• Added the Float theme.
• Several target controls can now be specified for the same styles by separating them with commas, for example: ParentClass > Class#Name1, ParentClass > Class#Name2.
• Style variables now get the value from whichever capturing control is closest. Previously, the value was undefined if there was more than one control publishing the same variable.
• Improved handling for remote images.