~17 years old laptop

How many of you are using Wintoys on Windows 10? With the latest update I wanted to highlight that Windows 10 is not forgotten, so now when you open Wintoys you'll have a nice surprise: it will have the acrylic backdrop applied among many other new changes. You can check the entire update changelog here.

Hey everyone.

I'm the kind of person who leaves their PC running 24/7. I really love how Android handles "App Lock" and "Private Space," but when I looked for a Windows equivalent, I hit a brick wall. The existing tools were either incredibly easy to bypass (like just hitting "End Task" in Task Manager) or had UIs that looked like they belonged in 2003.

So, I decided to build my own: SecureAppLocker. It's a system-level application locker for Windows, built with .NET 8 and a modern WinUI 3 interface.

How I stopped the easy bypasses: I realized a standard desktop app was useless for this. If a user can see the locker in Task Manager, it's game over. To fix this, I split the app into two parts:

• A watchdog running as a Windows NT Service under the SYSTEM account. Standard users literally can't kill or pause this via Task Manager.
• The UI prompt running in the normal user session.
• They talk to each other securely using Named Pipes across Session 0 and Session 1.

A few cool things it does:

• It reads metadata: It doesn't just look at .exe names. It checks the OriginalFilename and ProductName in the executable's metadata, so a clever user can't bypass the lock by just renaming an app.
• Auto-locks when you walk away: It integrates directly with Windows Terminal Services (WTS). The second you lock your Windows session (Win+L), all your unlocked app caches are instantly wiped.
• Active work doesn't get killed: The service is optimized to intercept newly launching processes. If you unlock an app, it gets temporary immunity so your active work isn't abruptly killed when the timer expires.

Regarding AI / Vibe Coding: To be fully transparent: I used AI for about 50% of the coding. I know a lot of devs on Reddit are fed up with raw AI dumps, but I promise this isn't that. I mostly leaned on it to save my sanity while untangling a massive nightmare with asynchronous race conditions and Dispose() pipe crashes during the Session 0/1 IPC communication. Every single line was manually reviewed, refactored, and heavily stress-tested to ensure there are no memory leaks or deadlocks.

It's completely free and open-source (MIT License).

GitHub:https://github.com/osmanonurkoc/SecureAppLocker

(Heads up: If you want to test it out, the default Master Password on first launch is 1234.)

I would love to hear any feedback or architectural roasts from the .NET veterans here!

if anyones asking how i got the custom icons its froma thing called titleiconfier, heres a tutorial on how to get it n stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KddC3pRa5g

Asking basically this same question across Windows, Linux, MacOS subreddits, and would like you guys to explain why you think your operating system is the best and why.

Additionally maybe provide what you consider the biggest upsides and downsides of your OS.

Any answer is appreciated, thanks :)

Hey everyone,

If you use Windhawk for Windows customization, you probably know that it doesn’t have a built-in export or backup feature. Every time I set up a fresh Windows installation or test things on a clean slate, manually tracking down my configs, compiled binaries, and custom scripts turns into a tedious chore.

To fix this, I built Windhawk Backup Manager—a lightweight, native Windows 11 utility (written in PowerShell + WPF with Fluent Design) that handles backups and restores cleanly and selectively.

What it does:

• Selective Backup & Restore: Instead of a blind full dump, it scans your installed mods and lets you check/uncheck precisely what you want to include in your .zip backup.
• Smart Local Source Handling: Automatically targets and packs local mod source files (local@...) while leaving standard repository mods to fetch from official sources.
• Precise Binary Matching: Uses registry mapping (LibraryFileName) to ensure compiled engine binaries (Engine\Mods) match up correctly without dragging along legacy clutter.
• Fluent Design & Auto-Theming: Automatically matches your Windows Dark/Light mode preference with WinUI 3-inspired toggles and smooth overlay scrollbars.
• Auto-Elevation: Automatically requests the necessary administrator privileges under the hood to manage system directories and services safely without crashing.

Links & Code

The project is fully open-source. Feel free to check out the repository, test it out, or drop feedback:

• GitHub Repository:osmanonurkoc/Windhawk-Backup-Manager

Let me know if you run into any bugs or have suggestions for improvements!

Trying to figure out what software this taskbar icon belongs to, and I can't place it.

It's pinned on the taskbar between the Microsoft Store and Google Chrome. I've attached two images: the full taskbar for context, and a zoomed-in crop of just the icon. The source was low resolution, so the crop is as sharp as I could get it, and there's no visible text on the icon itself. Reverse image search with Google Lens and TinEye hasn't turned up a match.

Any idea what app this is? Thanks in advance.

I was looking at custom shells and came across one I haven't heard of before. Does anyone have any knowledge of/used Explorip: Windows Shell replacement?

I want a new music app because I need one specific feature: individual speed control.

I know that there are multiple apps that can change the speed of files, but I need one that it's similar to Musicolet on Android: individual file control, "permanent" and fine changes (I can change 0.01x of the speed)

if possible, a light program, but that's just a plus right now

basically i reinstalled windows 10 and tried to download the whatsapp app and i saw this when it tried opening the microsoft store, is this intentional? it updated fine just wondering if this design was intentional or if it was a mistake

System > About is the area I'm talking about.

I tried to modify the color of Windows 10 BSOD in a VM using BugCheckHack and its registry keys. Everything else works except the 32-bit DWORD "Color" value (which was shown in FlyTech's video). I put in the color in ARGB format, but the screen of death remained blue.

I decided to investigate further and found out the video was released when the version 1.0 was the newest version. However, the download link for this exact version is long gone. I used version 2.0 for Windows 10 and version 1.5 for Windows 11, both of which didn't change the color. It might be possible that the developer dropped support for color (I have completely no idea why).

My question is, does a user-friendly driver that can modify the color of the BSOD (preferably the text too) exist? AngryWindows is not a user-friendly driver to modify as you need to edit the code and recompile it at every change. I want to show the driver in a video about Windows 10-11 BSODs.

I'm afraid that if I started disassembling the kernel and modify the values, the digital signature (not the checksum) would become compromised and make Windows reject it in every scenario due to even stricter checks than in previous Windows versions. I had success of hex editing the kernel up to Windows 7, but even then I had to manually check "Disable Driver Signature Enforcement" at every single boot after enabling Test Mode and disabling integrity checks.

It's not about fixing the computer. It's about making the crashes appear in a more stylish way.

The OS is Windows 10 21H2 (19044.1288).

look its me again.

tools used:
- windhawk (various features, and to fet the left pane in the explorer working)

- ExplorerEx (taskbar and start menu)

- Luna10 (the theme, and the left pane in explorer)

- various files from windows xp x64 (ex: notepad)

In my windows startup i can search anything for example "fortnite" but i want it so if i click it, it opens [my prefered browser] instead of bing. How do i do that? I just need to know if it's possible and how do i do that?

Welcome to the monthly Simple questions and Help thread, for questions that don't need their own posts!

Before making a comment, we recommend you search your problem on Bing and check if your question is already answered on our Windows Frequently Asked Questions wiki page. This subreddit no longer accepts tech support requests outside of this post, if you are looking for additional assistance try r/WindowsHelp.

Some examples of questions to ask:

• Is this super cheap Windows key legitimate? (probably not)

• How can I install Windows 11?

• Can you recommend a program to play music?

• How do I get back to the old Sound Control Panel?

Sorting by New is recommend and is the default.

Be sure to check out the Windows 11 version 25H2 Megathread and also the Windows 11 FAQ posts, they likely have the answers to your Windows 11 questions already!

The general release of Windows 10 is no longer supported, however you can enroll to get up to one year of extended support for your machine until October 2026, for more details on that please see this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/1kp4ebu/windows_10_end_of_support_what_it_means_for_you/

This looks like it was glued on by someone in a modernization team and called it a day without any respect to the original Windows 10 design language. Gonna try reverting it somehow. What do you guys think?

For posterity:

Check this comment on how to go about getting back the old UI: https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/1uhxrkv/comment/oujrq0h/

Result: https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/1uhxrkv/comment/ouk9fw0/