How to make Windows 11 look like Windows 10

Windows 11 is a big shift compared to Windows 10 in terms of design, and that change is especially significant when you consider that Windows 10 was around for six years before Windows 11, so people got very used to how it looks. And while Windows 11 arguably looks much nicer, some people might miss that old look after upgrading.

Thankfully, there are ways bring the Windows 10 look to Windows 11, though you'll probably have to spend a bit of money to get it as close as possible. The best way to do this involves using paid tools, though some tweaks can be done for free.

Make the taskbar and Start menu look like Windows 10 with Start11

There are a few apps that can be used to change the look of Windows 11's Start menu, but our favorite pick has to go to Start11. This app is developed by Stardock, a company specialized in Windows customization, and it offers a ton of options for making Windows 11 looking like anything you want.

Bring back the Windows 10 Start menu

To bring back the Windows 10-style Start menu, start by installing Start11, then follow these steps.

1. Launch the Start11 settings.
2. Open the Start menu section on the left.
3. Choose the Windows 10 style option.
   

   

   Screenshot of Start11 set to use the Windows 10 style Start menu on Windows 11© Provided by XDA Developers
4. Make sure the Use Start11 Start menu toggle is enabled near the bottom of the page.

You can apply more customizations, like colors and pinned folders, with the Configure menu option. This is optional, but it can make the experience even more personal to you.

Move the Start menu and taskbar

If you'd like to move the taskbar to the top of your screen like you could on Windows 10, Start11 also makes that possible. It can also move the Start menu icon back to the corner, though this is also possible in Windows 11 normally without spending any money.

1. Launch Start11.
2. Click the Taskbar tab on the left-side menu.
3. Scroll down to the bottom and choose whether you want the taskbar at the bottom or the top of the screen.
   

   

   Screenshot of Start11 settings showing the option to choose where to place the taskbar© Provided by XDA Developers
4. Head to the Start Button tab on the left side.
5. In the dropdown menu at the bottom, set the taskbar to be Left aligned.
   

   

   Screenshot of Start11 settings with the option to align taskbar icons to the left© Provided by XDA Developers

Bring back the Windows 10 Start icon

Finally, if you want the Start menu icon to look like it did on Windows 10, you can download a custom icon to do just that.

1. Download the Windows 10 Start menu icon pack from WinCustomize.
2. Extract the files to a folder of your choice.
3. Launch Start11.

1. Go to the Start Button tab.
2. Enable the Use a custom start button image option.
   

   

   Screenshot of Start11 settings with the option to use a custom Start button enabled© Provided by XDA Developers
3. Click Pick image.
4. Browse to find the files you downloaded. You can choose between a large or small icon.
   

   

   Screenshot of Start11 settings with a custom WIndows 10 icon© Provided by XDA Developers

Once you select the file, your Start menu icon will immediately be updated. You now have a taskbar that looks much closer to Windows 10.

Enable taskbar ungrouping

With a recent update, Windows 11 made it possible to enable taskbar icon ungrouping natively, but if you enabled the custom taskbar in Start11, you might want to do it through the Start11 app, too. To do this:

1. Launch the Start11 settings window
2. Go to the Taskbar tab on the left side.
3. Enable the Let Start11 enhance the taskbar option if it isn't enabled already.
   

   

   Screenshot of Start11 Settings with the enhanced taskbar option enabled© Provided by XDA Developers

   If you aren't using other taskbar enhancements, you can use the settings built into Windows 11 (in the section below) to enable taskbar ungrouping.

4. Click Configure enhanced taskbar....
5. Expand the Taskbar button combining button.
6. Click the Never combine taskbar buttons to open a dropdown menu and choose your preferred behavior.
   

   

   Start11 settings showing the option to combine taskbar buttons© Provided by XDA Developers
7. (Optional) If you have multiple monitors, you can also configure the behavior on different monitors.

Start11 gives you a ton more customization options for the taskbar, including color and transparency settings and much more. However, if you don't want to spend money, there are many options to help you change the look of Windows 11, too.

Align the taskbar to the left

Windows 11 aligns the taskbar icons at the center of the screen by default, but it's actually possible to make it so that it's aligned at the left, just like before. Here's how:

1. Right-click an empty area of the taskbar and choose Taskbar settings.
2. Expand the Taskbar behaviors box.
3. Click the dropdown menu next to Taskbar alignment and choose Left.
   

   

   Screenshot of the Taskbar settings in Windows 11 with taskbar alignment set to left, with the taskbar visible below it.© Provided by XDA Developers

Enable taskbar ungrouping

The initial release of Windows 11 lacked the ability to ungroup taskbar items, but this feature has been added back in a recent update to version 23H2. This makes it so different windows of the same app are shown separately on the taskbar. Here's how:

1. Right-click an empty area of the taskbar and choose Taskbar settings.

1. Expand the Taskbar behaviors box (if you haven't already).
2. Click the dropdown menu next to Combine taskbar buttons and hide labels and choose Never or Only when taskbar is full, depending on your preference.
   

   

   Screenshot of the WWIndows 11 desktop and Settings app with taskbar ungrouping enabled.© Provided by XDA Developers
3. You can also change this behavior for multiple monitors with the Combine taskbar buttons and hide labels on other taskbars option.

Remove additional Windows 11 icons from the taskbar

Windows 11 has a lot of pinned icons on the taskbar by default. These include Search, Widgets, Task View, Copilot, and Chat (soon to be removed). You can also disable these easily.

1. Right-click an empty area of the taskbar and choose Taskbar settings.
2. Click the dropdown menu next to Search (under Taskbar items) and choose None.
3. Change the toggles for the remaining items to Off.
   

   

   Screenshot of the Windows 11 desktop and Settings showing all the taskbar icons disabled© Provided by XDA Developers

Change the wallpaper

If you want to take an extra step in making Windows 11 look like Windows 10, you can always bring back the Windows 10 hero wallpaper. It's no longer included with Windows, but thankfully, it's easy to find online.

1. Download the Windows 10 wallpaper here or from another source you trust.
   • The light version added later can be found here.

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Go to Personalization in the menu on the left.
3. Choose Background.
   

   

   Screenshot of the Windows 11 Settings Personalization page with the Background option highlighted© Provided by XDA Developers
4. Click the context menu next to Personalize your background and choose Picture.
5. Click Browse photos to find the wallpaper you downloaded.
   

   

   Screenshot of background personalization in Windows 11 with a Windows 10 wallpaper set as the desktop background© Provided by XDA Developers
6. Choose a fit for the desktop image in case it's not the ideal size.

Use custom icons and sounds

This last part is the most convoluted and not something we recommend doing unless you really want the look of Windows 10, even when it doesn't affect functionality. If this is the case, though, you can download custom icons for your folders, drives, and more. Similarly, you can download custom sounds, too.

Using custom folder icons

Microsoft doesn't provide Windows 10 icons you can use for your folders, so if you want to use custom ones, you'll need to find your own source. WinAero seems to have some icons similar to Windows 10's final release, which you can find here, but since icons changed a bit over time, you'll need to look around to get the right ones.

Once you have the icons you want, you can follow these steps to change a folder's icon:

1. Right-click the folder whose icon you want to change, and choose Properties.
   

   

   Screenshot of File Explorer in Windows 11 with a context menu showing the option to see a folder's properties© Provided by XDA Developers
2. Switch to the Customize tab at the top.
3. Choose the Change icon button near the bottom of the window.
   

   

   Screenshot of folder properties in Windows 11 with the option to change a folder icon© Provided by XDA Developers
4. Click Browse... and select the icon you downloaded.
5. Click OK on both windows to confirm your changes.

You'll need to repeat the process for every folder you want to customize. Do note that you won't be able to see previews of a folder's contents by changing to a custom icon. Also, some icons can't be changed.

Using custom desktop icons

Some icons require slightly different steps to customize. If you want to change the look of This PC,, Network, the Recycle Bin, and your user folder, you can follow these steps instead:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Go to the Personalization tab on the left-side menu.
   

   

   Screenshot of Windows 11 Settings with the Personalization section highlighted© Provided by XDA Developers
3. Click the Themes button.
   

   

   Screenshot of Windows 11 Personalization settings with the Themes button highlighted© Provided by XDA Developers
4. Choose Desktop icon settings.
   

   

   Screenshot of Windows 11 theme settings with the option to change desktop icons highlighted© Provided by XDA Developers
5. For each of the icons you want to customize, click the icon and then choose Change icon...
   

   

   Screenshot of Desktop Icon Settings in Windows 11© Provided by XDA Developers
6. Click Browse... and choose the files you want to use for each option.

Using custom drive icons

Drive icons can't be customized through the methods above, but it's still possible to customize them using the Registry Editor. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Find the icon file you want to use, right-click it and choose Copy as path.
   

   

   Screenshot of Windows 11 File Explorer with a context menu showing the option to copy as path© Provided by XDA Developers
2. Open the Start menu and search for regedit, then press Enter to open the Registry Editor.
3. In Registry Editor, navigate to the following folder (you can also copy the path below and paste it in the address bar). HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\DriveIcons
4. Right-click the DriveIcons folder in the sidebar and choose New > Key.
   

   

   Screenshot of Registry Editor showing the option to add a new key© Provided by XDA Developers
5. Name the key after the drive letter you want to customize (say C or D, for example)
6. Right-click this new key and once again select New > Key.
7. Name this new key DefaultIcon. The folder structure should look like this:
   

   

   Screenshot of Registry Editor showing the folder structure to change a drive folder icon© Provided by XDA Developers
8. Select the new key and in the main pane on the right, double-click the (Default) value to edit it.
9. In the Value data field, paste the path you copied in step 1. Click OK.
   

   

   Screenshot of Registry Editor with value data setting a drive icon© Provided by XDA Developers

You should see the new icon immediately in File Explorer.

Using custom Windows 10 sounds

Finally, if you also want Windows 11 to sound like Windows 10, you can also change a lot of the system sounds, if you can find alternatives. VSThemes has a Windows 10 sound pack, which is probably the easiest way to do this. Once you have the sound files, follow these steps:

1. Extract the files into a folder of your choice. You may need a third-party app like WinRAR.
2. Open the Start menu and search for mmsys.cpl to open the Sound properties panel.
3. Switch to the Sounds tab.
4. One at a time, select each of the events under Windows in the bottom half of the window.
   

   

   Screenshot of the Windows 11 Sound panel with the Sounds tab open© Provided by XDA Developers
5. For each of the items, click the Browse... button at the bottom of the window, and choose the appropriate sound file for each event.
6. When you're done, click Save As and give your set of sounds a new name.
   

   

   Screenshot of sound scheme settings with the option to save the scheme as a new file© Provided by XDA Developers
7. Click OK.

Your changes will be applied immediately without the need to reboot. If you download the sounds from the link above, you'll find a registry file and instructions you can use to change all the sounds at once, and you can simply head to the Sound properties panel to change to the new Windows 10 sound scheme.

Some parts of Windows 11 can't really be changed, so you can't get the proper Windows 10 look in its entirety, but these steps should help make Windows 11 feel much more familiar. We definitely recommend Start11 if you're serious about getting as close as possible to the Windows 10 experience, though it's understandable if you're not willing to pay for something like that.

Windows 10 itself still has a couple of years of support left, so you can opt to stay on it for a while longer. However, most laptops these days are optimized for Windows 11, so the tips above should help make the experience a bit better.