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the lengths people will go to keep using Windows is astonishing but the fact of

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the matter is every new version including Windows 11 has some amazing

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new features that you don't want to miss out on at the cost of a bunch of new

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annoyances you'll have to get used to or you can get mad and take it into your

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own hands and you don't even have to be an elite power user to do it so let me

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show you how the average user can decrapify Windows 11 and make it the way

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it should have been to begin with war thunder is an online military

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vehicle combat game that's free to play and a lot of fun try it for free down

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below today and get some special bonus items for signing up

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the taskbar and start menu are arguably the biggest sources of annoyance in

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Windows 11. and there's no shortage of fixes for that by far the most

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comprehensive available so far is start all back it's just currently in its

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release candidate phase it's so comprehensive that it addresses almost

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every major issue many will have with Windows 11's new ui full stop not only

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can it make the start menu less whatever this is by restoring it to a

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more Windows 7 like state but it comes with its own search engine that doesn't

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rely on the bingified search that microsoft's been using since Windows 10.

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the taskbar itself can be modified dramatically with this rather fetching

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segmented look that makes the centered taskbar make a lot more sense while

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freeing up desktop real estate otherwise used by a solid bur i actually kind of

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like this look although you can just go for the classic style if that's more

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your jam that's not where the Windows 7 and 10 styling stops though because you

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can also use it for the corner icons too by default Windows 11 bundles the volume

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control with wi-fi and bluetooth in the new control center which can make things

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a little trickier to do quickly but with start all back you can separate these

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icons into their own functions just like old times

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in fact you can even restore explorer to the Windows 7 or 10 layout complete with

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ribbon ui and it can make the old right-click menus the default instead of

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the new simplified ones that hide your third-party extensions oh and

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even weirdos who like to move the taskbar around can put it anywhere they

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want albeit with the caveat that flyouts will still come from the bottom right

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corner of the screen unless you're using the Windows 7 or 10 styles there's more

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that start all back can do too but they're not the only game in town meet

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start 11 by stardock this does a lot of the same stuff as

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start all back but some of the extended functionality is different particularly

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when it comes to integration with the broader object desktop suite stardock's

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start menu replacement has a more accurate Windows 10 style as well as an

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original modern design that's different from anything microsoft has done to date

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customization is also a bigger focus overall for start 11 with custom

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textures actions and direct controls for transparency blur and color to dial it

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in just right unfortunately both start all back and start 11 are paid software

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but the good news is that each only costs five bucks once

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as of right now there aren't any officially supported free options for

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Windows 11. you can use open shell which is a free start menu replacement for

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Windows 10 but it runs behind the regular start

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menu and only opens if you hit the Windows key which is less than ideal so

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what can you get away with for free first you can left align your taskbar this is

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something that microsoft has mercifully added an option for which you can find

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in the taskbar settings under the taskbar behaviors

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simple and free if you want classic right-click menus or to move your

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taskbar to the top of the screen both of these can be done with a couple of

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simple registry tweaks without even having to install anything i'll link

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those down below now if you really like the concept of that centered taskbar

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dock from start all back then good news rounded tb is free and will do the same

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thing you'll need to use taskbar settings to choose the alignment but once you dial it in it looks pretty

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snazzy if you ask me unlike start all back though the menu

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itself is still in the middle with this method it's got baked in support for

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another app called translucent tb that allows you to customize the visual style

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of the bar but there are performance ramifications for doing this so it's not

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recommended by the developers right now taskbar x can do some of the same stuff

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and does a bit more with behavior rather than appearance if you want a more

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tweaky tool for the taskbar but as cool as all this is

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there's still something missing from Windows 11 live tiles if you agree to

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love them since their introduction in Windows 8 then good news microsoft

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removed them in Windows 11. wait that's not good at this at all

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no no the good news is an intrepid developer decided to create a free

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program to put live tiles wherever the heck you want on both Windows 10 and 11.

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put them in the start menu put them on the desktop as widgets it doesn't matter

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your app doesn't even have to have a live tile it can grab notifications and

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use those to make it live it's pretty sweet or at least it's a

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start what if you also happen to hate the new route of Windows well that's a

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little trickier with 11 disable or restore rounded corners is a creatively

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named app that does exactly what it says on the tin by modifying the desktop

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window manager dll to remove the rounded corner bits entirely that's a potential

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security risk since it requires the remissions of the file to be modified

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plus you'll need to reapply the patch if the file ever gets an update from

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microsoft but if you do break something there's always system restore and the

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upside is you need to only run the app and reboot to once again gaze upon the

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glory of 90 degree corners

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just like god intended speaking of intentions

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i'm not sure you can give microsoft much benefit of the doubt on making it way

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more difficult to change your default browser than it was on Windows 10. thankfully mozilla reverse engineered at

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edge's one-click switch method for firefox for those of you with a more

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google-centric browser you'll still have to painstakingly make the changes

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yourself but you'll notice that even if you get a different web browser set as

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the default no matter what method you use microsoft edge will still launch

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from time to time when clicking on links or accessing Windows help enter

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edge deflector a simple little app that registers itself to handle a special

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hidden microsoft edge link type passing it on to your default

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browser after the first time setting it as a default you'll never see edge again

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hopefully and now for the bonus round all the stuff that i think is useful

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that's not Windows 11 specific starting with alt drag if you've used Linux

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you'll know that this title refers to the ability to hold a keyboard key down

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and then click anywhere in a window to drag it around something that can help

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with productivity and is particularly useful for touch screens it's a little

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old now and doesn't directly support aerosnap but it's got its own snap

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feature built in that kind of mimics it another app called sizer can help with

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that though it allows you to position and size Windows quickly and accurately

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it's a fair bit faster than dragging the window around manually even to use with

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snap twinkle tray is an app that people with notebooks and surface devices might

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appreciate it lets you change the brightness of even external displays and

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while it doesn't smoothly step through the brightness levels like modern

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laptops what's really cool is you can set minimum and maximum values for each

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monitor to normalize them so you can control all the displays at once

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whenever you change the brightness combine this with scheduled brightness

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changes and another app called auto dark mode and you've got a pretty great setup

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imo complete with time-based desktop wallpaper switching twinkle tray hooks

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into the on-screen display control via ddcci which is supported by most

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displays since the late 2000s and is a whole rabbit hole all on its own

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finally i would be remiss to talk about

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decrapifying Windows if i didn't talk about power toys these are small apps

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developed by microsoft for the purpose of extending Windows for power users and

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some like virtual desktops have even graduated to flagship features today

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some of them like svg previews seem like they should probably be baked into

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Windows without any further questions asked but then there's others like fancy

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zones that's an app that lets you partition your displays and set up

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custom layouts for apps it's something that i would actually say is super

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useful for ultrawide users and almost non-negotiable for super ultra wide

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users or users of big tv displays like Linus microsoft even made a spotlight

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ask search tool proving that yes they can do it properly they just hide it

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away as a power toy get subscribed by the way because yes we are going to be

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reviewing Windows 11 in its current state and based on what you've seen today we've definitely got some things

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to say there's a ton of other stuff around like alternative file managers

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like one commander file copiers like teracopy process managers like prio or

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process lasso that save priorities and CPU affinities and many many more tweaks

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but for now let's turn it over to you are there any tweaks or utilities that

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you use that we didn't cover let us know in the comments down below and hey maybe

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we can make a regular thing out of this kind of video just like we make regular

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things out of sponsors to segues like this

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war thunder is a free-to-play online military vehicle combat game that's

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available on Windows mac Linux playstation 4 playstation 5 xbox one and

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xbox series snx with cross play there

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are more than 50 million players from all over the world and it features an

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incredible arsenal of more than 2 000 historically accurate playable tanks

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aircraft and ships from the 1930s to the 1990s you can participate in massive

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combined arms battles on over 80 major battlefields from world war ii to the

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end of the cold war and there's always active development with free major

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updates every couple of months that add even more content that includes vehicles

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for signing up thanks for watching guys this is kind of a different video so

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maybe go check out our video on Windows 10 ameliorated for another take on how

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to fix Windows that project no longer exists so

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think of it as a fun little time capsule