Miss the heady days of Windows Vista? Well, some people must, as the ancient operating system from Microsoft has been recreated in a modern take, as a theme for Windows 11.
To be precise, this is a DIY patchwork theme for the utility Windhawk that goes by the name of the ‘Windows Vista 2025 Edition.’
Windows Central spotted this, and explains that the setup process is rather convoluted (not to mention that it comes with something of an oddity).
First off, you’ll (obviously) need to install Windhawk, which is a tool that runs in the background of your OS (promising to be very lean on resources), and offers a mod-based experience for tinkering with Windows 11.
Then you need to install certain mods in Windhawk and tinker with their configuration (the taskbar styler mod, taskbar height and icon size, and more). Popping into Google Drive to grab some files is also necessary (that’s the mentioned oddity – not sure we’re keen on the idea of this).
At any rate, you can follow the YouTube video above from Link Vegas if you want the full details of how this works.
Does this all sound like a lot of hassle? Well, yeah, it kind of is, and most folks doubtless won’t want to bother with all these ins-and-outs – and can just settle for having a gawp at how the end result turns out. Which is a fairly slick-looking take on Windows 11 with hints of Vista, rather than a true look of the old OS (but let’s face it, who in their right mind would want the latter?).
If you want to take the plunge with Windhawk and this theme, it’ll certainly scratch that nostalgia itch to some extent. Be aware that any third-party software (or files grabbed from random Google Drive accounts) can come with risks, so conduct your own due diligence as ever with any download.
Read more: Microsoft warns some Windows 11 users they should downgrade to Windows 10 ‘immediately’