Windows 11 may’ve solely been launched to the general public back in 2021, however the technical underpinnings of the desktop working system prolong a long time into the previous. The NT kernel, which lies on the coronary heart of the Windows platform, dates again to the ’90s, and subsequent generations of the OS have all constructed over prime of their predecessors.
With all these layers of code — each fashionable and legacy — stacked on prime of each other, it is maybe no shock that 2025-era Home windows 11 suffers from notable visible design inconsistencies. Some components of the system, just like the Home windows Shell (taskbar, Start Menu, and different user-facing UI surfaces) are constructed utilizing modern codebases; many different system components, in contrast, have not been refreshed in a number of years.
Fortunately, Microsoft is slowly however certainly engaged on modernizing everything of Home windows 11, with the corporate continuing to bring dark mode support and refreshed Fluent Design and WinUI 3 design rules to previously-untouched components of the OS. Listed here are 5 historic corners of Home windows that I hope to see be rejuvenated sooner quite than later.
Laptop Administration
Managing a PC does not must be so drab
Laptop Administration is a core aspect of the Home windows 11 platform, serving as a one-stop-shop for managing system administration instruments, viewing occasion logs, scheduling duties, controlling person accounts, monitoring {hardware} efficiency, and way more. Admittedly, most informal PC customers have no need for Laptop Administration’s function set, but it surely’s nonetheless an essential a part of the working system that deserves to feel and look up-to-date.
Because it at present stands, Laptop Administration is without doubt one of the oldest-looking components of Home windows 11 from a person interface perspective. Except for missing darkish mode and coloration theming help, the applying is stylized with archaic icons, it includes a UX that is adversarial to the touch interactions, and it is not in the slightest degree attentive to window resizing. Worst of all, the app’s textual content seems barely blurry on fashionable PCs with high-DPI shows, owing to an absence of optimization for modern-day display screen resolutions.
Registry Editor
Even energy person interfaces need to look good
The Home windows Registry Editor is an influence person function inside Home windows 11 that permits you to modify and configure varied components of the working system’s settings and packages. By way of its hierarchical organizational construction and its use of administrative privileges, the Registry Editor is extremely highly effective (and probably harmful to fiddle with if you do not know what you are doing).
Sadly, the fashionable Registry Editor is a traditional Win32-style utility through-and-through, with no darkish mode or coloration theming, subpar contact help and home windows scalability, and a critical lack of animations or different user-friendly UX design concerns. Positive, Microsoft would most likely desire you keep distant from the Registry Editor altogether, however that does not imply it does not deserve a recent, modern-feeling interface to name its personal.
Character Map
In want of a critical UI revamp
Character Map is a legacy a part of the Home windows 11 OS that swimming pools collectively symbols, particular characters, accented letters, and different lesser-used glyphs inside a single, centralized location. The utility can turn out to be useful when the occasional must sort an obscure character arises, however its end-user expertise is regrettably fairly antiquated. As with different entries on this listing, Character Map’s person interface hasn’t been touched in years, and it stands proud like a sore thumb in 2025.
To be honest to Microsoft, it does present a contemporary character choice software within the type of the Emojis and extra panel, which lets you choose emojis, GIFs, symbols, and extra from inside a flyout that additionally accommodates your latest clipboard exercise. In fact, this is not a full-fledged alternative for Character Map, neither is it making an attempt to be. In the meanwhile, should you’re on the lookout for a really fashionable character picker expertise for Home windows 11, think about downloading the third-party Character Map UWP app without spending a dime from the Microsoft Retailer.
Mobility Heart
Does this even must exist anymore?
Home windows Mobility Heart is a single-windowed dashboard that gives fast entry to show brightness, quantity, energy profiles, display screen orientation, and a number of other different helpful instruments, every contained inside its personal tile. The function first arrived on the scene within the Home windows Vista days, serving as an analog to modern-day fast settings panels with the intent of getting used totally on pill PCs.
Sadly, Mobility Heart did not evolve with the occasions, now current as a relic of Home windows’ storied previous. Right this moment, the function has been properly and really outmoded by the Home windows 11 Fast Settings panel, making for the apparent query: why preserve this eyesore of an interface round when it serves such little goal? To be honest, Mobility Heart does enable third-party OEMs to plug into it with further fast settings tiles; I would personally like to see a similar developer API for third-party tiles make its approach over to Home windows 11’s fashionable Fast Settings expertise.
Screensavers
Misplaced however removed from forgotten
I’ve lamented Microsoft’s shunning of the Windows screensaver experience previously, but it surely bears repeating. The function hasn’t been up to date in years, to the purpose the place the flyout shows a hilariously old school graphic of a cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitor inside its person interface. The flyout itself is downright historic wanting, with no fashionable design rules or integration with Home windows 11’s fashionable Settings utility.
Worse nonetheless, the out-of-box collection of screensavers supplied by Microsoft in recent installations of Home windows 11 is downright miserable. Over time, many iconic screensavers like Pipes, 3D Maze, Flying Home windows and Starfield Simulation have been gutted from the working system, leaving the present-day choice an emaciated shell of its former self. Positive, screensavers may not be a technical necessity in in the present day’s day and age, however I am unable to be the one one who loves a good idle display animation on my PC.
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