My Windows Power User Setup

windows-power-user-setup.md

My Windows Power User Setup

Note: Picture is heavily outdated; I use the same desk and monitor but the PC is completely different in all ways.

For information on my PC build, see: https://ie.pcpartpicker.com/user/rlaPHOENiX/saved/9G7yxr

Stuff I no longer use

macOS style Menu Bar via Droptop4

Why?: Outside of looking visually aesthetic and symmetrical against a Docked/Floating Taskbar, it is irrelevant in daily productivity. Over time it served me no purpose other than for time and the volume bar (since the taskbar icons were removed when docking). There's better alternatives like singular dedicated Rainmeter buttons for those. It ended up being wasted screen real estate. However, Don't get me wrong, it's still the best dock out there of it's kind!

Windows 11 theme, requires donation.

Droptop4 is by far the most customizable and stable Menu Bar around. It uses Raindrop which has gotten very efficient in the last few years. It works incredibly well and can be styled or modified to your liking. However, it loses points on the fact that it cannot replicate the 'File', 'Edit', 'Help' bar's actions to the Bar like macOS would.

This is extremely handy when removing the Task Tray section of the Windows Taskbar as a way to display those actions in a symmetrical and modern way.

Centering and Restricting the Bar's Inner Container

If you want to restrict and center the droptop bar, but only the contents (not the entire bar itself) then add the following

to Supporter.inc in Documents\Rainmeter\Skins\Droptop\@Resources\GlobalVar\Supporter.inc.

`TopBarContentXOffset=(1280 / 2)`  
Change `1280` to the width you would like to restrict to. Since my monitor is 32:9 (the equivalent of 2x 16:9 monitors)

I opted to restrict to 1920 (16:9 width) so the droptop bar fits neatly within the size of a single 16:9 canvas, and be centered.

Removing Rounded Corners on TopBar Menus on ALL themes

If you want to disable rounded corners on the TopBar across ALL themes, then add the following

to Supporter.inc in Documents\Rainmeter\Skins\Droptop\@Resources\GlobalVar\Supporter.inc.

`TopBarHighlightCorner=0`

---

Microsoft Fluent UI theme for Spotify via Spicetify-cli

Why?: Spotify began to rapidly modify their UI and defend against the use of Spicetify themes, making them go outdated faster and harder to then fix and maintain. The theme rapidly began to become outdated and has since effectively died. The theme has a successor by another person but I have not tried it. I've also since moved to Apple Music, so I no longer use or pay for Spotify.

This uses [Spicetify-cli] and spicetify-fluent to get a Microsoft Fluent UI look-and-feel.

Install spicetify-cli, run spicetify backup apply, install spicetify-fluent, and you are good to go! Make sure you use a version of Spotify supported by both spicetify-cli and spicetify-fluent.

Note: Spicetify-fluent often has incompatibilities when new versions of Spotify release. Blocking updates are fairly important. You can upgrade Spotify when you're forced to due to something breaking, or when support for newer versions are confirmed.

Downgrading

- `spicetify restore` and Block Spotify updates before continuing.
- Install an old version from: https://spotify.en.uptodown.com/windows/versions

Try figure out the newest version that works correctly with the theme and BlockTheSpot.
The newest-working version will change all the time as the theme and BlockTheSpot will be getting fixes for
newer versions every now and then. Just sometimes it may not support the very latest.

Blocking Updates

If you don't block Spotify updates, the theme and BlockTheSpot will eventually break.

```
mkdir "C:\Users\$($env:UserName)\AppData\Local\Spotify\Update"
icacls "C:\Users\$($env:UserName)\AppData\Local\Spotify\Update" /deny "$($env:UserName):W"
```

It's OK if the first command errors with `An item with the specified name [...]\Update already exists`.
As long as the second command states `Successfully processed 1 files;` you now have Spotify updates blocked.

Restoring Updates

If you ever want to uninstall any of this, or let Spotify update itself (potentially breaking any Spicetify usage)
then simply run the same `icacls` call, but `/grant` instead of `/deny`. You can then delete the folder if you want
but that wont strictly be necessary for Spotify to be able to update itself.

---

Current Wallpaper

A color-customized version of "Lullaby Of The Ocean" by "visualdon" on Wallpaper Engine.

Custom settings (base64): ewogICJhbGlnbm1lbnQiOiAwLAogICJhbGlnbm1lbnRwb3NpdGlvbiI6IDYwLAogICJhbGlnbm1lbnR4IjogNTAsCiAgImFsaWdubWVudHkiOiA1MCwKICAiYWxpZ25tZW50eiI6IDEwMCwKICAicmF0ZSI6IDEwMCwKICAic2NoZW1lY29sb3IiOiAiMCAwIDAiLAogICJ2b2x1bWUiOiAwLAogICJ3ZWNfYnJzIjogMjksCiAgIndlY19jb24iOiA0MywKICAid2VjX2UiOiB0cnVlLAogICJ3ZWNfaHVlIjogNTAsCiAgIndlY19zYSI6IDAKfQ==

Previously used:

• WallHaven #z88mvw Screenshot of Berg Mountain from the Game "Star Wars: Fallen Order".
• Cloudly Wallpaper Engine (Originally from Unsplash)

Software

Directory Opus - Windows Explorer KILLER

Probably the best Software I could recommend someone!

1. Tabs! Split View! Flat View! Horizontal! Vertical! You can display your folders in any way you wish all in one Window.
2. Customization, Configuration, literally everywhere. You want this to be different? Do it!
3. Plugins! PLUGINS! You want to add new functionality? Sure!
4. Do you rename files? The built in simple and advanced renamers are fantastic for batch and/or filtered renaming, and can even be templated/saved for later re-use at a click!
5. Fantastic search options too! Again both simple and advanced modes with many many many ways of searching.
6. Hate how Windows constantly changes how folders are listed? Like some with big icons, some tree view, some details view? Directory Opus can set a global view style, and you can change it at a click at any point.
7. Hate how Windows doesnt force full-width of the filename, so you constantly have to resize the column and the window just to see the filename? Well Directory Opus 12 lets you "fill" the column width to use up available space, meaning you only have to resize the window or make other columns smaller to see the filename (how it should be!).

Do note that by default the UI of this software will look a hell of a lot different. If you want it to look like mine, follow my the instructions on my Directory Opus Dolphin + Mica theme page of their Forums.

MPV - VLC KILLER

Switched to MPV one day, and never looked back!
However, I won't judge you if you prefer to have a traditional video player GUI like VLC or MPC-HC over MPV's approach. I still recommend you giving it a good try for a bit!

• The Karate Kid © 2010 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.

1. The Video is put front and center. The UI has no Window title bar (except on Windows), borders, or the like. This gives you much more screen space real estate. It's also a lot easier to move the Window by dragging anywhere on the video itself instead of a tiny Window title bar.
2. The UI is minimal and is fully customizable using Lua. The UI is rendered atop of the video just like it would be a YouTube video, or such. You can even get a UI theme that looks like YouTube, see tethys.
3. It's also very keyboard-forward. You are not forced to use your Mouse like most other players. There's not a single action or button you cannot use with your Keyboard.
4. Every aspect of the software is customisable from Keyboard Shortcuts, to Hotkeys, Video Output to UI, colors to themes. You can even re-route the video through a pipeline before it displays it, e.g., through a VapourSynth script to sharpen Anime e.t.c.
5. You don't need to install anything else. No codec packs nor MadVR. Codec packs are only required for software that do not support the codec by default (i.e., MPC-HC and co). MadVR is only supported on software that seemingly use such codec packs and shouldn't be considered useful anymore. Instead configure MPV to route through a VapourSynth script that can do the same thing.

There's a lot more reasons to use MPV. Give it a go, you will absolutely love it. I would recommend you guys to take a look at installing the Dynamic Crop script. Follow the README's usage instructions on where to place the script, then in your mpv.conf config put: script-opts-append=dynamic_crop-mode=4. It will now automatically remove black bars (window boxing) whenever it's detected them after a few scene changes.

Recommended Config Values

autofit-larger=80%x80%

I personally don't like when windows open to the max size they possibly can, but as a window. A pseudo-fullscreen. So with this it ensures videos only go as big as 80% of my screen on the width and height.

screenshot-directory=C:\Users\Username\Pictures
screenshot-format=png
screenshot-high-bit-depth=yes
screenshot-png-compression=9

By default MPV takes Lossy JPEG screenshots. With this you get full 32bpp lossless PNG screenshots compressed to Level 9 (slowest but smallest file size). They now also go to your Pictures directory.

profile=gpu-hq

This sets the profile for MPV to use. The profile gpu-hq is aimed towards higher quality decoding/output. Especially if the video is not playing in it's exact 1:1 scale and full resolution (e.g., resized slightly, or a lot).

See what sub-values the profile is setting here: https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/etc/builtin.conf#L43

Alt+[ add video-zoom -0.01
Alt+] add video-zoom 0.01

The default buttons for zooming in and out have never worked for me ever, over years and different setups. So I've always used this instead. It's possibly because I have a UK keyboard layout.

Cider - iTunes KILLER

A fantastic recommendation by a fellow visitor of this Gist!

I recommend using the Mojave layout as seen above which will have tabs on the side, and a search bar at the top.

Cider Legacy (v1.x) with Ciderify theme and Floaty Simple

This uses Ciderify Theme and Floaty Simple from booploops Concept Pack to get a Microsoft Fluent UI look-and-feel.

Make sure your Window Style is set to Mojave for Ciderify and Floaty Simple to work.
You can change the Window Style under Settings, Visual (Pen Icon).

You can install Ciderify Theme and Floaty Simple from the Styles setting menu,

1. Open Settings and click on the Styles tab (The Paintbrush, not the Pen).
2. Click "Explore GitHub Themes".
3. Look for and Install Ciderify and booploop Concepts Pack.
4. Close the Settings Menu and go back to refresh the available Styles.
5. Click Ciderify, Add Transparency, Remove Tabs, and Under "Concepts Pack", Floaty Simple.

qView - A Growing Competitor to Windows Photos

Similar to MPV but for Photos. I like it's approach but it could do better.
Nowadays I use Windows Photos more frequently than qView as while it is similar to MPV, it doesn't have Windows Photos' Markup, Cropping, or Rotation features that I use quite often. It's UI that open in native image size is also not quite what I would expect to be good UX compared to how MPV does it for Videos. It just hasn't been consistent. Nevertheless, I hope the quirks get ironed out or improved one day as it would be a fantastic replacement.

1. No UI clutter at all. Not a single button to choose from. Your photos are front and center at all times. (Like MPV for videos).
2. Sensible, standard, and expectable shortcut keys for familiar tasks like Exiting, Zooming, Resetting Zoom/Position.
3. A previous/next photo switcher that actually works. The Windows Photos app "needs" the folder to be indexed for previous/next photo switching to work... Why...
4. Resize your photo without having to then re-zoom into the photo to make it fit the new window size. It fits automatically.
5. Configurable options to allow you to limit the Window Size to be a minimum and/or maximum size of your display as to not take too much, or too little of your screen. This is convenient for resolution images, and small images like icons.

UX Alterations

Transform the Taskbar into a Floating Dock via RoundedTB or TaskbarXI

We can give Windows (11 or 10) a macOS-like floating dock using RoundedTB or TaskbarXI.

via RoundedTB (Stable but hacky result)

• It's quite stable in comparison to TaskbarXI, it hasn't ever crashed or fumbled on me.
• Has a lot less features, and the settings used to dockify it, is quite a hacky trick.
• RoundedTB's entire purpose is to add margin around the taskbar, add rounded corners, generally space it out.
  It was not designed as a dockifier, if anything it's purpose is kind of the opposite.

Settings:

Note: You may want to keep the 'Show system tray' option enabled if you don't use my Rainmeter setup.

via TaskbarXI (WIP but native result)

• Tends to crash or flicker more than RoundedTB. Disable "Smooth Resize" to prevent crashing!
• Has more features and has a much more native look-and-feel.
• It also resizes the Taskbar more smoothly.
• TaskbarXI's entire purpose is TaskbarX but for dockifying Windows 11 Taskbar.

Settings:

Note: You may want to untick 'Hide traywnd' option if you don't use my Rainmeter setup.

Taskbar Icon Separators via Dummy Application files

1. Download the Separators package:
2. Rename it to just Separators.zip removing the .png extension and extract it to a Separators folder.
3. Move the extracted Separators folder somewhere you will keep it. (I recommend moving them to C:/Program Files/Separators).

Note:

• Each exe file is 1 Separator on your Taskbar, we cannot re-use the same exe for multiple Separators (sadly).
• This is why there's 6 duplicates already, as to show you that you need to duplicate any of the exe files to make more.
• You must not move or rename these files after we start using them.

To add them to your Taskbar:

1. Highlight all of the Separator exe files you want to add.
2. Press and hold right-click and drag over to your desktop, let go of right-click and select "Create shortcuts here".
   
3. Individually right click -> Show more Options (if on Windows 11) -> Pin to Taskbar.
   (you cannot highlight and do pin all at once, or only the last highlighted gets pinned for some reason).
   
4. Repeat the previous step(s) for every Seperator you want to add, you should end up with a few Separators on the right of the Taskbar.
   (it's ok to add more than you need, you can unpin any extras you don't end up using)
   
5. Drag to position the Separator between any icons you wish. Do remember that the icons between Separators should be pinned.
   You could add an extra separator after all pinned icons to separate unpinned Window Icons from Pinned Icons as well.
   

Start Menu Replacement via PowerToys Run

PowerToys Run is essentially a better Windows Search with more capabilities. It even lets you search on whatever Search Engine you wish, No more bing!

What's fantastic about this is you can override the Start Menu with it entirely using AutoHotKey. Both of the following installation methods require PowerToys Run's Hotkey to be ALT+SPACE.

AutoHotKeys Script

#SingleInstance Force
~LWin::
    SendInput, !{Space}

AutoHotKeys AHK2EXE Compiled Binary

1. Download and rename this file to PowerToys-Run.exe, removing .png from the filename.
2. Press Win+R and type shell:startup, hit enter and you should be brought to a folder.
3. Move PowerToys-Run.exe to the startup folder and then run it.

Done! Now everytime you reboot AutoHotKey will override the start menu with PowerToys Run.

---

Please inform me if anything is incorrect in this document or the process changed over time. If you have a more efficient method to do something, and the end result is the same or better, please let me know.

Also feel free to tell me your thoughts, or anything you have personally found to be an immediate install in your Windows journey!

---

• "Burning Sky Sunset after Storm" Photo © 2019 Fachy Marin.
• The Karate Kid © 2010 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc.

I found your comment underneath one of the issues of TaskbarXI (namely this). I just want to say that this is a well-written guide. Thank you so much for writing this, @rlaphoenix! Here's how mine looks like currently:

Here are my experiences with each program that you recommended (minus Directory Opus):

Rainmeter + Droptop4

Had a bit of confusion whilst setting it up, but it works pretty dang well! Sadly, I wanted to show Droptop4 on both my main monitor and external monitor (which have different resolutions as shown above), and Rainmeter/Droptop4 doesn't play well with that, so I'm putting that off until I figure out a solution.

P.S. if you know how to solve my problem or can point me to someone who knows, I'll be very grateful!

RoundedTB

Let me tell you, this one is a fresh breath of air after transitioning from TaskbarXI. The transition when expanding/shrinking the dock is indeed slightly less smooth compared to TaskbarXI, but I'll happily take that as RoundedTB is much, much more stable.

PowerToys Run and by extension, PowerToys

I love the amount of features PowerToys provide! PowerToys Run looks sleeker and performs better and faster than the Start Menu. Really invokes the feeling of using macOS' Finder search. Using Autohotkey as a hotkey to replace `Alt+Space` is also a great idea. Some minor functions are lost (like searching for specific settings through the Settings menu), but hey, there's always the Right Windows Key to trigger the normal Start Menu again.

I did encounter a problem with AutoHotkey and ElevenClock (a program for displaying clocks on external monitors). Since ElevenClock's clock uses the Action Bar shortcut Win + N when clicked, this also results in PowerToys Run being triggered every time the clock is clicked.

Luckily, I found a solution on stackoverflow about triggering only the LeftWin key (credits to user3419297), which boils down to this code:

#SingleInstance Force
LWin Up::
    If (A_PriorKey = "LWin") ; check if only LWin is pressed
        Send, !{Space}
Return

<#d::
    ; allows LWin to retain its modifier key function
    Send #d
Return

or just rebind the hotkey to RWin instead:

~RWin::
    Send, !{Space}
Return

qView

Sleek, minimalistic, and smooth, although I haven't had much use out of it yet. I do miss the ability to crop images easily like in the Photos app, but it's a small thing. Besides, I can still open the Photos app if I want to.

mpv

Same feedback as qView, though the heavy reliance on hotkeys instead of UI elements is a small learning curve (like adjusting volume). I do appreciate the smooth scroll and the ability to switch audio tracks easily.

Extra: Cider since I use Apple Music

It's basically what iTunes should have been for Windows. It feels much more like the native Apple Music app, along with a whole load of new features and a thriving community behind it. If anyone who's reading this uses Apple Music, try it out here.

Sorry if this sounded like an ad! I'm not sponsored, I just really believe in that project.

Again, thank you so much, @rlaphoenix !

@amsyarzero Thanks for the comment. I just want to let you know I recently tried Apple Music and needed a desktop client and Cider is working out nice. Had a lot of hiccups at first relating to the login system not remembering the login and such issues, but its fine now. I also have problems with the song library order not being correct and sort of "corrupting" and being altered in a weird way, but overall it works fine. Nice look to it once you change it in settings :D

Not a fan of that Refresh Library button position though haha. Also not ideal that I paid for it on Microsoft Store and its quite out of date :/

Update:

They fixed the problems in relation to logins and the "Added" order in the Song library.
I've been using Cider now pretty much ever since making this reply. It's been going quite well
with the occasional hiccup. The most glaring issue right now is that settings keep resetting when it updates.