So, if you are looking to give your Windows a minimal look but at the same time don’t want to make your computer heavy, then today we are going to share an in-depth guide on how you can make your desktop minimal.
Avoid clutter, heavy customisation, or other things that could complicate this process. We are not going to use Rainmeter, but some tools are available for free to download and install from the Microsoft Store. Without further ado, let’s get deep into this.
Hide the Desktop ICON
This is the first step towards making your desktop minimal and giving it an aesthetic look. To hide your desktop icon, here are the instructions.
- Right-click on your desktop.
- From the context menu, go to View and click on the Show desktop icon to disable.
Download Wallpaper
You can download any wallpaper that you see fits best. If you need help finding where to download wallpaper, head over to this page.
Once you download the wallpaper, apply it as a desktop wallpaper.
- Locate the wallpaper you downloaded, and then right-click on the image.
- Next, click on “Set as desktop background.”
Download and install widgets.
We need to download and install Be Widgets to place some widgets so your desktop looks more connected.
Clock Widget
- Open the Microsoft Store and search for BeWidgets.
- After downloading, please open it and click on New Widget.
- Name it, and then click on Customise.
- Fill in the details according to your preferences.
- For example:
- Width: 400
- Set a 12-hour format and remove zero. Before the hour, it appears under Preferences.
- Keep the background colour transparent; appear under Appearance.
- And adjust the font size to maybe 80; the font could be Gilroy ExtraBold.
- At the end, place the clock by clicking on Centre Position X, which appears under Main.
- Re-adjust according to your preferences.
Add a calendar.
- Click on New Widget, and then click on the drop-down menu to choose Date.
- Please give it a name, and then adjust it.
- Change the colour to transparent and fonts from the Customisable context box.
- You can change the format or other things based on your preferences.
Add weather.
- Again, click on New Widget and choose Time from the drop-down menu.
- Now give the widget a name, and then click on Customise to open the customisable menu.
- From there, change the forecast settings, like Unit, and keep the background colour transparent.
- Now, change the city where you live so it shows you your weather details.
- Adjust the position of the widget, and that’s it.
It allows you to create your own personalised and customisable modern widget related to time, date, photos, weather, or an application shortcut.
After setting up your widgets, you need to make sure they remain running on startup but also keep them hidden on startup; for this, here are the instructions.
- Open the BeWidget, and then click on Settings.
- Under Preferences, you can find the toggle menu to hide on startup.
- Toggle to enable, and there you have it.
Download and install TranslucentTB and RoundedTB.
We have finished the desktop part, and now it comes to the taskbar. For this, you need to have TranslucentTB.
- Open the Microsoft Store, and then search for TranslucentTB and RoundedTB.
- Open both apps, and you will have a transparent taskbar, and there will be no lines thanks to the RoundedTB that we have installed.
Download and install the Files app.
To make your File Manager catch up with the desktop aesthetics, it’s an excellent choice to give the File app a shot.
- Open Microsoft, and then search for Files App.
- Launch the File app and open Settings.
- From there, choose your colour as light, and from the theme, choose glass.
- Remember to toggle Set Files as the Default File Manager in the Experimental Section.
- There you have it: nice, clean file apps that match your desktop aesthetics.
If you were thinking about how you could uninstall that, it’s simple since we downloaded the application from Microsoft like other applications.
- Search for the app that you want to uninstall.
- From the right panel, click on Uninstall.
- That’s it!
Note: Disable Set Files as the default file manager before uninstalling the Files app.