Windhawk Windows classic theme mod for Windows 11
40 comments
·November 15, 2025m417z
rikafurude21
I've come across Windhawk before but the mods being just C++ programs seemed a little suspicious to me, how do you make sure the mods dont include malware?
m417z
When you install or run a program, how do you make sure it doesn't include malware? I assume that you check for the author's record/reputation, and perhaps look at the source code if it's available.
It's similar with Windhawk mods. The GitHub and X profiles are verified to be the profiles of the author, so you can decide whether you trust them. The source code is available, so you can inspect it as well. Mods are single-file and usually short, which makes it easier to review than an average program.
nodja
Windhawk mods are distributed as source code and WH itself compiles it. It works the same way usescripts work with tampermonkey/violentmonkey on browsers.
If a mod includes malware it'll be very obvious as mods are usually small.
Refreeze5224
Windows is weird. The way these mods work is injecting code into different processes, which is a very common malware technique. Keyloggers in particular work similarly to Windhawk. And that is not a swipe at Windhawk, that is just how Windows has you do this type of thing.
reactordev
What’s really fun is hooking into the WM_PAINT event from the target processes main thread and then drawing your own controls over whatever was rendered…
Overlays, AIMBots, Discord, Flight Sim Software, we all do it…
mattferderer
Can't speak for this product but disabling a lot of the animations, gradients, shadows & visual effects has made Windows 11 run significantly better on the computers I have it on. They didn't seem to add much value anyways.
I'm a fan of a lot of the user experience improvements being made in Windows over the last decade, such as Terminal, running Linux, Power Toys features, screenshots & recording, Paint finally getting layers, window management & more.
At the same time, I'm still not sure why we needed Windows 11 as the only good updates seem like they could have been done without it. All the visual changes have seemed to cause bugs & performance issues on relatively high powered PCs (64GB+ memory, m2 ssd drives, latest gen mid level GPU & CPU)
It seems the Windows ME, Vista, etc experiment continues to live on.
Krssst
Disabling animations makes everything better no matter the OS.
When executing a sequence of actions, not having to wait 100-300ms for the device to show some random animation before inputing the next action is a time saver and a removes the "why is my computer/phone wasting my time" feeling.
Human reaction time is around 200ms but in a sequence of actions, we don't need visual feedback to move to the next action; it's just muscle memory and we can reach pretty low delay between inputs if the OS and apps do not impede us.
Back to Windows, I'm quite sad that 24H2 removed support for the legacy app switcher (alt-tab). It was very low latency and operated well in many high-load situations. The new one works okay but is not as snappy and can take a bit of time to show up under load. Plus I prefer the old style (smaller box, no need for eye movement to check its content).
ComputerGuru
Not exactly alt-tab but it’s a ui-less immediate switcher (snappy af, zero latency) to switch between windows of the same app with alt-backtick (next to escape), originally a macOS feature: https://neosmart.net/EasySwitch/
(Backwards navigation with alt-shift-backtick)
Krssst
Thank you.
Actually the registry entry on 24H2 behaves somewhat similarly: alt-tab still switches windows (of all apps) but the UI is just gone (which is a problem for me because knowing how much time I need to press tab in advance leads to faster switching than "press tab, see if the focused window is what I wanted, and press tab again if it's not" which involves a computer-brain round trip every key press).
sudopsuedo
Have you looked into SimpleWindowSwitcher? https://github.com/sigoden/window-switcher
ExplorerPatcher makes it easy to configure in the settings menu, I'm not aware of any other projects that implement SWS: https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher
It's very fast and can be configured to set window thumbnail size/area
Krssst
Thank you, I was not aware of either of those.
SimpleWindowSwitcher looks like a good alternative, unfortunately on my side I think I would prefer switching between all windows of all apps rather than have two different shortcuts for "switch between windows of the current app" and "switch between apps" (but that's just a personal preference).
ExplorerPatcher looks cool too, though patching explorer is probably a no-no in corporate setups.
I also saw https://github.com/kvakulo/Switcheroo which I was curious to try (although it's not an exact replacement either) but never got to it (also seems quite old).
1970-01-01
Classic Windows (95-7) was the best era for Windows and always will be the best in terms of GUI. Everything that came after 7 has been a downgrade from 7's GUI.
oybng
It's incredible the effort Windows 10/11 users will go to in order to reach a somewhat functional and reliable computing experience via third party modifications, yet Linux is somehow too much effort. Just look at the instructions on that page..
sockaddr
"but he's sweet sometimes"
It's just an abusive relationship and eventually some of them break out of it.
WD-42
Linux isn’t hard, it’s just different. Better, but different. That’s too much effort for some.
remir
I wish there was a "power user" mode in Windows that you could activate and you'd get the ability to have classic themes (my MS themselves), classic Control Panel, no constant nudging, no weather/Xbox/Solitaire apps, etc...
Dennip
THe settings siutation is so annoying, there are still so many options locked away inside control panel and the new settings app has a few that dont exist in control panel, its so fragmented.
estebank
They tried that during the Chicago development and discarded the idea due to multiple problems with how humans work.
Two different UIs meant that you had to learn them separately, you didn't have a slow ramp from one to the other, one familiar with one could get stuck on the other with no knowledge of how to get back, divided efforts between the two, etc.
Not quite what you are asking for, but closer to Win95 shipping with progman.exe which could allow someone to cosplay Win3.11 while running Win95.
anthk
Windows' GOD mode CLSID:
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/create-master-control-panel-g...
mapontosevenths
I used to use Stardock WindowBlinds to do something similar, but it leads to all sorts of weird compatibility issues with various applications.
I wonder if this will have the same issues?
keyringlight
I find the various privacy and 'feature' disabling scripts/utilities questionable for a similar reason, it's moving outside of the expected behavior of the OS for how applications and future MS updates expect things to work. The core issue seems to be you're working against what MS want and they provide a moving target, functionally it's their system, not yours.
OsrsNeedsf2P
Been playing around with this, it's more consistent than Windows 11's UI itself
throwaway270925
Wow, quite a lot of work, but the end result looks amazing!
zerr
I also do miss the Windows 7 Aero theme.
ukuina
This is so neat looking. Is there an equivalent for MacOS?
gedy
Not exactly afaik, but I've recently been going to System Settings > Accessibility > Display, and turning on:
Increase contrast
Reduce transparency
Differentiate without color
Show toolbar button shapes
I like the retro and simple vibe compared to the new Liquid Glass controls.
sfpotter
Ah! Thank you! Even on Sequoia this is a massive improvement!
Veliladon
> The mod injects only in the process Winlogon.exe, and exits once the handle of the memory area is closed. It does not hook any functions.
Yep. Sure. Going to let a Russian utility fuck with winlogon.exe. Excellent idea.
remix2000
Yeah, it would be so much better if it was American-made, because as everyone knows there are no corrupt people in the US and every person of Russian descent is a spy for their motherland's government (:
vunderba
That was my first concern too, but it does look like you can build the binary from source:
zerr
Why such a simple UI utility app needed a VSCodium/Electron UI? The author seems to be well versed in Win32 API, so why not just learn the GUI part as well? It's not that hard.
m417z
The reason the Windhawk UI is based on VSCodium is mainly for the mod editing functionality. VSCodium with clangd are used for C++ intellisense out of the box.
You might say that many users don't care about mod development and don't need it. I agree, and I have it on my list to create a lite Windhawk version which doesn't depend on VSCodium.
Note that VSCodium is only used for the UI. When Windhawk is running in the background, its memory consumption is a couple of MB.
hackernudes
I 100% agree with this sentiment
icapybara
Doesn't mean it's safe.
vunderba
I didn't say it was. But having the source means you (and others) can vet the code if that's a concern.
moron4hire
Yeah, I would probably delete this updater if I were to try this: https://github.com/ramensoftware/windhawk/blob/main/src/wind...
sph
And the author is a security/malware researcher. Yeah, you might want to pass.
gruez
>fuck with winlogon.exe. Excellent idea.
That's mostly irrelevant because all the thing baddies want to do with your computer, they can do without touching winlogon or even getting admin.
Hi, Windhawk author here. Nice to see it on Hacker News.
This is just one Windhawk mod, submitted by a community member. There are hundreds others. Windhawk was created to simplify Windows customization and to make it more accessible, both for developers and users. For a more detailed introduction, check out the Windhawk release blog post:
https://ramensoftware.com/windhawk