The Glorious Mess of Customization
Written: March 30 2025
Published: March 31 2025
Mood: Defiant
Listening to: Massive
Attack - Unfinished Sympathy
Playing: Potion Craft
Current Temperature: 79F / 26C
I'm sure you all thought this next blog post was going to be a gardening update, or a crystal growing update. I hate to disappoint but there hasn't been much progress on either of those fronts. Well, at least not enough progress worth writing about anyway. Instead, I'm going to talk about something that matters a little more to me: finding joy through computer personalization.
Readers of a certain age may remember a time before now, when one could personalize the shit out of one's PC UI (at least on Windows PCS, I know this has usually been a thing for Linux, bear with me, will you?) colors, icons, cursors, even UI fonts! Not to mention the wide variety of themes available in case you wanted to rep your favorite game, or turn your PC into a skeumorphic wonderland. Often times apps had their own skins too that drastically altered their appearance. (Windows Media Player, anyone?). Now I'm not going to argue that things were better back then because 1. That makes me look old and out of touch and 2. That's just like my opinion, man. I m, however, going to argue that modern UX design particularly as it applies to operating systems and applications has lost its sense of fun. It's easy to do something fun on your own website with CSS and Javascript, but what about the rest of your PC? Well. Let's explore.
Before we begin, this isn't an exhaustive list of things to make your PC experience more fun, there will likely be a part 2 at some point, but that's a problem for future me.
If you miss the days of Window Media Player visualizations, check out Project M Visualizer It runs on practically everything and it's free and open source. Hell,you can even put it on VLC with some skins for a true retro experience.
For customizing my UI in the vein of old Windows themes, I bit the bullet and got myself a copy of Windowblinds (Developed by the folks who made Sins of a Solar Empire II, no less!). It's 30 bucks, which may be a steep asking price for a lot of folks, but it works with Windows 10 and 11, and it's easy to use.That said it isn't the only option out there. For a free and open source alternative, check out OpenShell.You will definitely need a little more technical experience to get this working, and I haven't used it personally myself,but it is there and is an option. If you do end up using it, let me know how it works for you.
Well, that's what comes to mind immediately. Again, this may get a part 2 at some point, but I do gotta get this out before the month ends.
Quote of the Day: “Does this spark joy? If it does, keep it. If not, dispose of it.”- Marie Kondō