Question Programming plugins to customise Windows 10

[d239919]

Dear Community,

I would like to ask a question regarding Windows 10 customisation. There is plenty of addons and themes online which can change the look of your desktop, but I could not find a guide on how to create your own "plugins" if that is the right term to be used. Any resources would be appreciated.

One of the recent updates made this change to the search box:

Not that I use Cortana that often but even if I am quickly searching for an application, it takes me to this window. Down below is a screenshot of how it used to be before. The left menu has been hidden and I would like to bring it back or possibly use the one from the start menu, but I do not know how.

As an example, an application called TransparentTB makes the taskbar completely transparent. I would like to find out how does it work because there is an option in the regular Windows 10 setting to make the taskbar transparent, but it only reduces the opacity by a small amount. Is the application making changes in the registry editor and would I be able to make such changes manually without having to run this plugin? I have some knowledge of C# and as I mentioned previously, any links to resources would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

 

[Ralston18]

Just to be sure about the situation/problem:

So you want to see the menu in the first/upper image that is now being covered by Cortana as show in the second/lower image.

You should be able to disable remove Cortana.

E.g.:

https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-turn-off-cortana-windows-10

https://www.howtogeek.com/265027/how-to-disable-cortana-in-windows-10/

Registry editing is not recommended and should be only a last resort.

And only after backing up everything and verifying the backups are recoverable and readable.

 

[d239919]

Well, those are just examples of what kind of customisation I would like to make. My question is more about how to create an application such as the one mentioned above called TransparentTB which makes the taskbar completely transparent and has some additional features as well. How am I able to make changes to attributes to customise taskbar or any other classes? I found the source code for this application, but I do not understand which files to look at as there are quite a few of them.

Just to be sure about the situation/problem:

So you want to see the menu in the first/upper image that is now being covered by Cortana as show in the second/lower image.

You should be able to disable remove Cortana.

And after disabling Cortana, when I try to search for an application in the regular start menu, it transfers me to this other window. I just find it easier and faster to search for an application than if I would have to look for it in the list if it is not pinned. I might go back to the classic menu. There is an application for this too and I am basically trying to find out how do those applications work. I could not find anything on the web, so I thought I might ask here.