就其本身而言，Windows 10 看起来并没有那么糟糕。它有一个现代的界面，所有的东西大部分都是扁平的和彩色的。开始菜单(Start Menu)是Windows 7和Windows 8的混合。任务栏简单明了。桌面由您的图标和壁纸组成。
对于大多数人来说，默认设置就可以了，特别是因为您可以更改墙纸并自定义开始菜单和任务栏(Start Menu and taskbar)的颜色。不过，对于定制爱好者来说，让桌面看起来(desktop look)“酷”很重要。您可能已经在网络上看到人们展示他们定制的桌面(show off their customized desktops)的文章，并且您可能想知道他们是如何获得这种外观的。
好吧，在本文中，我将向您展示如何自定义Windows 10 ，使其看起来与(Windows 10)默认外观(default look and feel)完全不同。例如，这是我开始自定义之前的原始Windows 10桌面：(Windows 10)
非常标准，这里没有什么令人兴奋的事情。在玩过我将在下面提到的程序之后，我设法让我的桌面看起来像这样，这不是很好，但只花大约半个小时就可以了。
如您所见，我在右侧有一个自定义侧边栏，其中包含指向我最喜欢的(custom sidebar)Windows位置的链接，左侧有一些带有图标的自定义链接，而(hand side)不是我的普通桌面图标，一个自定义Windows 10开始菜单(Start Menu)，一些天气信息(weather info)位于右下角，一个显示当前时间的酷炫圆圈和一个用于快速使用Google的小(Google)搜索框(search box)。正如我所提到的，这只花了我大约 30 分钟的时间，它使您的桌面看起来独一无二(look unique)。
当然，如果您想要那些外观精美的定制桌面，您将不得不花费更多时间。在自定义Windows方面，有几个非常流行并且已经存在很长时间的程序。这很好，因为它们经常更新，并且与Windows集成得非常好，这意味着您的计算机仍然可以非常流畅地运行。除了我将在此处提到的程序之外，还有很多其他程序，但它们几乎没有那么可靠。
从哪里开始定制？
那么你应该如何开始呢？好吧，您可以单独自定义Windows(Windows)的许多不同方面，这就是那些专业定制者如何让他们的桌面看起来如此酷炫的方式。没有什么神奇的方法可以安装一个程序并改变一切(program and change everything)。在我看来，这是自定义Windows(Windows)的最佳方法：
您会注意到除Rainmeter之外的所有程序都由一家名为Stardock的公司提供。他们有一整套你可以购买的程序，但我只推荐我上面提到的那些。我花了 50 美元买了整个包装，只是为了每个都试一下，看看哪个好。
我真正喜欢Stardock的另一个原因是，他们有一个名为WinCustomize的附带网站，其中包含适用于所有程序的大量额外选项。例如，如果您购买了 DeskScapes，并希望将高清视频(HD video)作为您的桌面背景(desktop background)，您可以在WinCustomize 网站(WinCustomize site)上找到数百个“梦想”(hundreds of “Dreams”)。我原以为DeskScapes会成为一个花哨的应用程序，但结果证明它真的很酷。
我不会详细介绍如何使用Stardock 程序(Stardock program)，因为它们非常不言自明。它们几乎都具有用于配置设置的相同界面，并且它们可以识别何时安装了另一个Stardock 程序(Stardock program)并一起工作。
例如，当使用Start10 和 WindowsBlinds(Start10 and WindowsBlinds)这两个可以更改开始菜单(Start Menu)的程序时，每个程序都可以选择从另一个程序中选择设置。
雨量计
Rainmeter是一个惊人的小程序，可以在几分钟内改变你的桌面。值得注意的是，Rainmeter仅用于向桌面添加内容。它不会改变Windows中的任何视觉样式，如开始菜单或任务栏(Start Menu or taskbar)或窗口框架。它所做的只是允许您将类似于小部件的“皮肤”添加到桌面。
要开始使用Rainmeter，请继续下载 4.x Beta Release 版本(Beta Release version)。出现设置对话框时选择标准安装。(Standard Installation)
保留所有默认设置并完成安装。Rainmeter还有一本很棒的手册(fantastic manual)，详细解释了如何使用该程序。安装后，您会看到一些皮肤自动出现在您的桌面上。这是默认的Illustro 皮肤(Illustro skin)。
请(Make)务必阅读手册以了解如何添加、删除和使用皮肤。您要做的下一件事是下载自定义皮肤，然后混合搭配它们。每个Rainmeter 包(Rainmeter package)都会附带多个皮肤，但您只能启用您想要或喜欢的皮肤。然后，您可以启用其他软件包中的某些皮肤进行混合和匹配。查看“发现”(Discover)页面以查找皮肤。
当您找到您喜欢的内容时，请点击右侧边栏中的“(hand sidebar)下载”按钮(Download button)。在看到devianArt 上的“下载(Download)”按钮之前，您可能需要向下滚动一下。确保(Make)该文件是 .rmskin 文件而不是ZIP 存档(ZIP archive)。现在您只需双击该文件，就会弹出Rainmeter 皮肤安装程序。(Rainmeter Skin Installer)
只需单击安装(Install)，您就可以开始了！您应该会自动看到所有皮肤都出现在您的桌面上。要删除特定皮肤，只需右键单击它并选择Unload Skin。
有些皮肤有多个变体，您可以通过右键单击并选择(right-clicking and choosing) Variants来访问它们。变体只是显示特定皮肤的不同方式。要编辑代码，您可以选择Edit skin。即使是代码，自己手动编辑皮肤也不难。您可以阅读手册以获取有关如何执行此操作的说明。
下载 Rainmeter 皮肤时，您必须经历一些试验和错误(trial and error)，因为有时它们并不总是有效，特别是如果它们有点旧。我遇到了一堆天气皮肤(weather skin)停止工作的包，因为API已从数据提供者更改，但皮肤尚未更新。
总体而言，使用Rainmeter和特定的Stardock应用程序，您可以真正自定义Windows，使其看起来完全不同和独特。如果您想获得更多的硬核，您可以下载图标包来自定义您的所有图标。不幸的是，Stardock的(Stardock doesn)IconPackager 应用程序(IconPackager app)还不支持Windows 10。如果您有任何建议，请随时发表评论。享受！
The Best Utilities to Customize Windows 10
By іtself, Windows 10 dоesn’t look so bad. It’s got a modern interface where eνerything is mostly flat and colorful. The Start Menu іs a mix оf Windows 7 and Windоws 8. The taskbar is simple and straight-forward. The desktop consists of your icons and a wallpaper.
For most people, the default settings are just fine, especially since you can change the wallpaper and customize the colors of the Start Menu and taskbar. However, for customization enthusiasts, making the desktop look “cool” is very important. You’ve probably seen articles on the web where people show off their customized desktops and maybe you’ve wondered how they are able to get that look.
Well, in this article, I’m going to show you how you can customize Windows 10 to appear completely different than the default look and feel. For example, here was my original Windows 10 desktop before I started customizing it:
Very standard and nothing exciting going on here. After playing around with the programs I’m going to mention below, I managed to get my desktop to look like this, which is not great, but OK for spending only about half an hour.
As you can see, I have a custom sidebar on the right with links to my favorite Windows locations, some custom links with icons on the left hand side instead of my normal desktop icons, a custom Windows 10 Start Menu, some weather info at the bottom right, a cool looking circle that tells the current time and a small search box for quickly using Google. As I mentioned, this only took me about 30 minutes to do and it makes your desktop look unique.
Of course, if you want those amazing-looking customized desktops, you’ll have to spend a bit more time. When it comes to customizing Windows, there are a couple of programs that are very popular and that have been around for a long time. This is good because they are updated often and they integrate really well with Windows, meaning your computer will still run very smoothly. There are a lot of other programs out there in addition to the ones I will mention here, but they are not nearly as reliable.
Where to Start Customizing?
So how should you get started? Well, there are many different aspects of Windows that you can customize individually and that’s how those pro customizers get their desktops to look so cool. There is no magic way to install one program and change everything. In my view, here are the best ways to customize Windows:
- Get a custom wallpaper that is the exact resolution for your screen(s). This is the easiest step.
- Next, customize your desktop with information or interactive widgets. For this, we will use Rainmeter.
- Customize the Windows 10 Start Menu using Start10.
- Customize window frames, the taskbar, title bars, etc. with Windows Blinds
- Uses other programs like Fences and DeskScapes for more customization, if desired
You’ll notice that all the programs, except for Rainmeter, are by a company called Stardock. They have a whole suite of programs you can purchase, but I only recommend the ones I mentioned above. I bought the entire package for $50 just to try each one and see which ones were good.
The other reason I really like Stardock is because they have an accompanying website called WinCustomize that includes tons of extra options for all of their programs. For example, if you purchase DeskScapes and want to have an HD video as your desktop background, you can find hundreds of “Dreams” on the WinCustomize site. I thought DeskScapes was going to be a gimmicky app, but it turned out to be really cool.
I won’t go into much detail on how to use the Stardock programs because they are pretty self-explanatory. They all pretty much have the same interface for configuring the settings and they recognize when another Stardock program is installed and work together.
For example, when using Start10 and WindowsBlinds, two programs that can alter the Start Menu, each program has options to pick the settings from the other program.
Rainmeter
Rainmeter is an amazingly small program that can transform your desktop in a matter of minutes. It’s worth noting that Rainmeter is only for adding content to your desktop. It doesn’t change any visual styling in Windows like the Start Menu or taskbar or window frames. All it does is allow you to add “skins”, which are like widgets, to your desktop.
To get started with Rainmeter, go ahead and download the 4.x Beta Release version. Choose Standard Installation when the Setup dialog comes up.
Leave all the default settings and finish the installation. Rainmeter also has a fantastic manual that explains exactly how to use the program in detail. Once installed, you’ll see some skins automatically appear on your desktop. This is the default Illustro skin.
Make sure to read the manual to understand how to add, remove and use skins. The next thing you’re going to want to do is download custom skins and then mix and match them. Each Rainmeter package will come with multiple skins, but you can enable only the ones you want or like. You can then enable certain skins from other packages to mix and match. Check out the Discover page to find skins.
When you find something you like, go ahead and click the Download button in the right hand sidebar. You might have to scroll down a bit before you see the Download button on devianArt. Make sure that the file is a .rmskin file and not a ZIP archive. Now you just double-click on the file and the Rainmeter Skin Installer will pop up.
Just click on Install and you’re good to go! You should automatically see all the skins appear on your desktop. To remove a particular skin, just right-click on it and choose Unload Skin.
Some skins have multiple variants, which you can access by right-clicking and choosing Variants. A variant is just a different way to display that particular skin. To edit the code, you can choose Edit skin. Even though it’s code, it’s not hard to manually edit a skin yourself. You can read the manual for instructions on how to do this.
You’ll have to go through some trial and error when downloading Rainmeter skins because sometimes they don’t always work, especially if they are a bit older. I ran into a bunch of packages where the weather skin had stopped working because the API had changed from the data provider, but the skin hadn’t been updated.
Overall, using Rainmeter and specific Stardock applications, you can really customize Windows to look completely different and unique. If you want to get even more hardcore, you can download icon packages to customize all your icons. Unfortunately, the IconPackager app from Stardock doesn’t support Windows 10 just yet. If you have any suggestions, feel free to comment. Enjoy!
