Today, I released my new app called "Personalization Panel for Windows 10". Like many users, I am not happy to use the Settings app, so I coded an alternative with the familiar look revived. Again, like all my other apps, it is free and portable.
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Microsoft removed all options from the Personalization window shipped with the classic Control Panel in Windows 10. This is a regressive change from a usability point of view. In the classic Personalization UI, all settings were in a single window, accessible with one click. But the Settings app is a mess. It starts slower, all settings have been rearranged across different pages. When you want to open something like Screen Saver or just change the theme, it opens the classic Control Panel applets any way. It is obvious that Microsoft is still transitioning from the Control Panel to the Settings app, but it is not yet complete, nor polished. I prefer using the classic Personalization UI.
The Personalization Panel for Windows 10 restores the options which were removed from the desktop context menu and replaced with the Settings app.
Personalization Panel for Windows 10 has an authentic look like the original. It is a portable free app which supports all editions of Windows 10 and works with 64-bit (x64) and 32-bit (x86) versions. The application can be integrated directly into the Desktop context menu from the app's options so you can use the personalization options like previous versions of Windows.
The application supports translations. It comes with the following languages out of the box:
Arabic (Saudi Arabia) Bulgarian (Bulgaria) Chinese (Simplified, China) Chinese (Traditional, Hong Kong SAR) Croatian (Croatia) Czech (Czech Republic) Danish (Denmark) Dutch (Netherlands) English (United Kingdom) English (United States) Estonian (Estonia) Finnish (Finland) French (France) German (Germany) Greek (Greece) Hebrew (Israel) Hungarian (Hungary) Italian (Italy) Japanese (Japan) Korean (Korea) Latvian (Latvia) Lithuanian (Lithuania) Norwegian, Bokmal (Norway) Polish (Poland) Portuguese (Brazil) Portuguese (Portugal) Romanian (Romania) Russian (Russia) Serbian (Latin, Serbia) Slovak (Slovakia) Slovenian (Slovenia) Spanish (Spain, International Sort) Swedish (Sweden) Thai (Thailand) Turkish (Turkey) Ukrainian (Ukraine)
You can download it here:
Download Personalization Panel for Windows 10
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Thank you. I hate the new settings app personalization.
Me too.
Dude! You’re amazing! Thanks a billion for the help! Will be applying it asap!
I’ve also seen that we can also enter to the “Old” Screen Resolution moniker, by heading:
Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Display\Screen Resolution
Great stuff. Would it be at all possible to have different colour schemes for different virtual desktops? Feel like microsoft have missed a trick there.
It is not possible, I am sorry.
Sergey:
The white color in all Windows 10 windows is killing my eyes. Can you restore the ability to change windows colors as was available in Windows 7 & below? Your Personalization Panel would be perfect if it had this feature. I’m very impressed with your computer knowledge, Sergey. You have helped me get rid of a lot of annoying stuff in Windows 10 that I don’t need or want. If you decide to run for President, you have my vote! :)
Thank you Brad.
How about this? ” Get colored title bars in Windows 10 with one click using Winaero Tweaker 0.3 ”
https://winaero.com/blog/winaero-tweaker-0-3/
Thank you so much for this! I don’t mind the new personalization window so much, but you can only choose from one folder at a time for Background slideshows in it and I accidentally changed my old settings and couldn’t undo it. I always use your Desktop Background Tuner to have a nice variety and now this let me choose from those options again! Thank you!
Happy to read this. You are welcome Ben. Thank you for using my software.
Really nice. Do you think you could add the ability to change Windows’ default fonts as well?
Sergey,
First off, this is fantastic. I have a custom theme i’ve been running for years, and i tweak it when bored (which is surprisingly often), and it was odd when all of my options were no longer in the same place.
One small (and i mean tiny) caveat i have is the Donate/More Cool Stuff links at the bottom. Don’t get me wrong, I understand 100% why they are there and I don’t have any problems with you doing it; That said, is there any way to pay to remove them? I have no problem paying for features I enjoy (Start8/Start10 being prime examples), and honestly, you deserve some cash for what you do. If not, it’s no big deal, but i thought i’d ask.
Andrew
Andrew, I added the option to hide the bottom links
For free.
Enjoy.
Will be in the Personalization panel for 10 version 1.1. Going to release today.
Hi, Sergey!
Know you how to return the Aero Glass effect like Windows 7 to Windows 10?
You do not mind the comments in Russian?
Hi, comments in Russian are acceptable.
I have no idea how to restore the glass effect in Windows 10 for window frames.
Hi nice work, although what would one do to revert back to the original personalization panel?
What files need to be changed…
Thank you
Options->Disable integration.
I already implemented it.
This gives a “.NET” framework issue on win 10 10240 (up to date on updates) as of 10-8-2015
I would like to have more details or a screenshot.
Microsoft .NET Framework
Unhandled exception has occurred in you application If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately.
Index was outside the bounds of the array
Details:
See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.
************** Exception Text **************
System.IndexOutOfRangeException: Index was outside the bounds of the array.
at .(String , Boolean& )
at .(String , SearchOption , Boolean )
at .()
at .(Object , EventArgs )
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnLoad(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.OnCreateControl()
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl(Boolean fIgnoreVisible)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.CreateControl()
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Form.WmShowWindow(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)
************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.6.106.0 built by: NETFXREL2STAGE
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework64/v4.0.30319/mscorlib.dll
—————————————-
personalization10
Assembly Version: 1.1.0.1
Win32 Version: 1.1.0.1
CodeBase: file:///C:/Users/Joe/Desktop/ppanel10_%5Bwinaero.com%5D_1999/personalization10.exe
—————————————-
WinaeroControls
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.5
Win32 Version: 2.0.0.5
CodeBase: file:///C:/Users/Joe/Desktop/ppanel10_%5Bwinaero.com%5D_1999/WinaeroControls.DLL
—————————————-
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.6.79.0 built by: NETFXREL2
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
—————————————-
System
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.6.79.0 built by: NETFXREL2
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
—————————————-
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.6.93.0 built by: NETFXREL2STAGE
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
—————————————-
System.Configuration
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.6.79.0 built by: NETFXREL2
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Configuration/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Configuration.dll
—————————————-
System.Core
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.6.79.0 built by: NETFXREL2
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Core/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Core.dll
—————————————-
System.Xml
Assembly Version: 4.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 4.6.79.0 built by: NETFXREL2
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.Net/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/v4.0_4.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
—————————————-
************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.
For example:
When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.
Thank you very much, I am trying to fix it.
take your time! I just implemented a different solution for now. thanks for all the hard work!
Did you use files from older Windows versions to make this, or did you make this from scratch?
I made it from scratch. Those dialogs are working in Windows 10.
The context menu doesn’t work for Windows 10 Build 14366 (Insider Preview). The context menu appears but when I select any of it. It just restarts explorer.exe instead. It seems Microsoft had changed those location.
It would be nice if Microsoft lets their user choose between immersive and classic interface so that the who loves the classic interface can fully enjoy Windows 10