14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 10 version 1903, currently codenamed 19H1 and likely to launch as April 2019 Update, will come with quite an impressive feature update, but as it happens every time, users still hope for more.
This is exactly my case, as I’m using Windows 10 both at home and at work, and although the operating system already comes with almost everything I need for my daily routine, there still are things to improve here and there.
The features I’m going to discuss below aren’t necessarily productivity improvements, but things that many users have been asking for. As I believe they should be part of the Windows 10 feature lineup, I also looked for third-party solutions to get the same features, and fortunately, I found them.
Full taskbar transparency
First and foremost, the taskbar will get a new look with the release of the light theme in Windows 10 version 1903, and it’s partially thanks to the new set of icons that will be released by Microsoft in this update.
But at the same time, I think a fully transparent taskbar looks and feels much more modern, as many users discovered the hard way lately.
Due to bugs with graphics drivers, the full taskbar transparency was somehow enabled on a number of PCs, and while this was resolved with updates, many users actually hoped the issue would remain unfixed.
Microsoft doesn’t seem to be too interested in making the taskbar fully transparent, but there’s an app for that. It’s called TranslucentTB and it does just that, without any unnecessary options or with cluttered menus.
Minimize all windows to tray
As a heavy Windows user, I run lots of apps at the same time, so jumping from one to another is something that I want to do fast at any point during my work.
To do this, I equally rely on the system tray and the taskbar, and a feature that would come in very handy is support for minimizing all windows to tray. Right now, this is only possible for those applications that come with such functionality built-in, and Microsoft’s apps, like File Explorer, for instance, lacks this option.
While I think Windows 10 should offer support for such an option, there are third-party apps that take care of everything. One of them is MinimizeToTray, which comes with a very simple approach and even supports hotkeys to easily restore apps when needed.
There are lots of similar alternatives out there, so it’s pretty easy to find out that does this job easily.
Live tiles on the desktop
I haven’t found an alternative to this one, and there’s a good chance this won’t be possible, as Microsoft is killing off live tiles in Windows 10.
Live tiles are seen by many as the successors to gadgets, and bringing them to the desktop would certainly make sense. Basically, live tiles on the desktop would allow users to take a peek at the desktop without having to do anything and not even a click on the Start menu would be needed, as it is right now.
But according to recent reports, Microsoft wants to create a new static Start menu that wouldn’t boast any live tiles for the simple reason that users don’t seem to be such big fans of this feature.
It remains to be seen how soon live tiles would go away from Windows, but for now, it just seems like they won’t be here in the long term. For now, there are other ways to get desktop gadgets, like Rainmeter, and depending on how much time you want to spend for customizing the looks and features, the result could be really impressive.
