Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Windhawk Windows classic theme mod for Windows 11

windhawk.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 144 posts

Re: Windhawk Windows classic theme mod for Windows 11

#31

Post by Krssst »

ComputerGuru wrote: post #26
Krssst wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'…

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)

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).

Re: Windhawk Windows classic theme mod for Windows 11

#32

Post by WD-42 »

oybng wrote: post #25

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..

Linux isn’t hard, it’s just different. Better, but different. That’s too much effort for some.

Re: Windhawk Windows classic theme mod for Windows 11

#33

Post by Refreeze5224 »

rikafurude21 wrote: post #30
m417z wrote: post #22

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

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?

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.

Re: Windhawk Windows classic theme mod for Windows 11

#34

Post by Dennip »

remir wrote: post #14

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...

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.

Re: Windhawk Windows classic theme mod for Windows 11

#35

Post by anthk »

remir wrote: post #14

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...

Windows' GOD mode CLSID:

https://www.thewindowsclub.com/create-master-control-panel-g...

Re: Windhawk Windows classic theme mod for Windows 11

#36

Post by nodja »

rikafurude21 wrote: post #30
m417z wrote: post #22

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

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?

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.

Re: Windhawk Windows classic theme mod for Windows 11

#37

Post by m417z »

rikafurude21 wrote: post #30
m417z wrote: post #22

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

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?

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.

Re: Windhawk Windows classic theme mod for Windows 11

#38

Post by reactordev »

Refreeze5224 wrote: post #33
rikafurude21 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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.

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…

Re: Windhawk Windows classic theme mod for Windows 11

#39

Post by remix2000 »

Veliladon wrote: post #6

> 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.

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 (:
Post reply on HN