Windows 10 is customizable via these free tools
With Windows 10 from Microsoft, you have an almost unlimited number of free, open source and paid apps to customize the look of your operating system.
And in this article, we share a list of free and open source tools to change desktop background animation when you move the cursor, add widget support, and more.
Rainmeter:
A free and open source tool for customizing the Windows 10 desktop and earlier versions, and you can use this open source tool to change the look and feel of the Windows desktop using tools such as: clock, grid, and more.
And with Rainmeter, you can use the desktop as an application rather than just a place to open the Start menu, search, and applications.
For example, the Windows 10 Virtual Desktop Package allows you to monitor network speed across the desktop and access the Google search bar.
Rainmeter is a background-based tool and you can download various shapes and layouts created by Rainmeter users from the forum.
Lively Wallpaper:
An open source tool that lets you convert video, GIF and HTML animations into a Windows 10 desktop wallpaper.
The experience is similar to live android wallpapers, the wallpapers pause playback when you launch an app in full screen mode to reduce memory usage.
With this application, you can define the following formats as laptop backgrounds:
- the video.
- Internet pages.
- The video broadcast.
- Shaders.
- GIF animation.
And the app also lets you set WebGL interactive wallpapers, which are powered by Chromium Engine, and if you are interested, you can download the app from Github.
Microsoft Edge:
In Canary releases, Microsoft is testing a new feature called Web widgets, and as the name suggests, the tool lets you install Chromium Edge WebView-supported widgets over the desktop.
Currently, you can only install the MSN News widget over the desktop, so the widget floats on top of other applications.
The widgets also work when you close Microsoft Edge, while allowing them to run in the background.
The tool is powered by your Microsoft account and displays weather forecast, headlines, sports, and financial information.
Microsoft is currently testing the Web Widgets feature, and if your browser is included in the test, you should be able to access the widgets from the Microsoft Edge menu via Windows 10.