Customize your Windows 10 experience with these free tools

Windows 10 comes with built-in personalization settings to help you customize the desktop and it provides plenty of options by default. However, if you want to get the most out of your desktop, we recommend these third-party open-source programs.

Fluent Search

Fluent Search is an open-source app that lets you search for running apps/processes, browser tabs, bookmarks, files, and more. Unlike Windows Search, Fluent Search offers accurate results and it lets you jump easily between running apps and browser tabs.

Fluent Search can also search for any open windows and it can even attempt to locate app-specific content inside them, such as buttons, hyperlinks, and more. Unlike Windows Search, search tags can filter search results easily. In addition to these features, Fluent Search also advanced Machine Learning models to learn your usage patterns and suggest results.

You can download Fluent Search from Microsoft Store.

Modern Flyout

Modern Flyout is an open-source project that will replace Windows 10 or Windows 11's audio, aeroplane, and brightness flyouts with a customizable flyout with a modern UI.

The native flyout is not permanently closed but will be hidden when you've this third-party tool installed. At the moment, the following flyouts can be modernized:

Audio Flyout Media session Flyout Airplane Mode Brightness Scroll Lock Number Lock Caps Lock Insert / Overtype mode

You can download Modern Flyout from Microsoft Store.

PowerToys for Windows 10

Windows 10 PowerToys suite is developed by Microsoft and it will allow you to extend File Explorer's capabilities, optimize app windows for big monitors, resize images, and more. Some of the PowerToys include:

Image Resizer Windows File Explorer's preview pane Replace slow Windows Search with Run-like tool. Modify Keyboard shortcuts Batch File Renamer Color Picker

Read more: How to supercharge Windows 10 with PowerToys.

Windows Terminal

Windows Terminal is another open-source software developed by Microsoft and it can help users launch multiple shell/console tabs in the same operating system.

Using Windows Terminal, you can replace PowerShell or Command Prompt instances. Windows Terminal can have a tab with a PowerShell console, another with the Windows 10 command prompt, and another with a WSL Ubuntu shell.

Windows Terminal

Windows Terminal is highly customizable and it also comes with a dedicated settings page. You can also make changes to the config file to change the background or map keyboard commands.

You can download the Terminal from the Microsoft Store.