Have you ever heard of Windhawk? It’s a cult-favorite Windows tweaking tool I’ve been dabbling with for years, and I’ve had readers ask me about it. If you dig through Windows enthusiast communities — on Reddit, in forums, and elsewhere — you’ll find lots of people chatting about Windhawk and sharing how they use it to customize their PCs.
In short: It’s a free tool that lets you install “mods” for Windows and the applications you run.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Windhawk as I contemplate why Microsoft is pursuing the Windows Baseline Security Mode, too. So let’s talk about Windhawk — and the future of Windows.
Why Windhawk is fun (but don’t download it yet)
Imagine moving the taskbar, theming the Start menu, customizing the taskbar clock, making desktop windows translucent, and just generally changing the way Windows and the applications you use behave.
For example, I love making better use of my mouse wheel. With Windhawk, I can activate a mod that lets my switch between browser tabs by rolling my scroll wheel over my browser’s tab bar in Chrome, Brave, Edge. I can install mods that let me position my mouse wheel over the Windows taskbar and scroll to adjust the system volume, too. (You can view the full list of Windhawk mods here.)
Want to theme your taskbar or Start menu so they look totally different? In the screenshot below, I’ve turned Windows 11’s taskbar into a dock-style experience with a transparent background with a few clicks.
This is awesome. It’s the kind of power that, philosophically, should be available to all PC users out of the box. We should be able to deeply customize how our PCs work. Instead, we’re often fighting product decisions made by distant marketing departments.
Witness Windows 11’s taskbar, for example: While Microsoft will finally make the taskbar movable once again, it took 4-5 years of Windows users begging for this feature to come back before Microsoft decided to begrudgingly return it.
But, although it works, Windhawk isn’t perfect. In fact, as a tech journalist, I can’t “recommend” everyone download and use it. Instead, this piece isn’t a software recommendation: It’s an honest discussion of why Windhawk is awesome — and why you should be careful before using it, anyway.
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