r/windows • • 20d ago

Help Simple questions and Help thread - Month of October

6 Upvotes

Welcome to the monthly Simple questions and Help thread, for questions that don't need their own posts!

Before making a comment, we recommend you search your problem on Bing and check if your question is already answered on our Windows Frequently Asked Questions wiki page. This subreddit no longer accepts tech support requests outside of this post, if you are looking for additional assistance try r/TechSupport and r/WindowsHelp.

Some examples of questions to ask:

  • Is this super cheap Windows key legitimate? (probably not)

  • How can I install Windows 11?

  • Can you recommend a program to play music?

  • How do I get back to the old Sound Control Panel?

Sorting by New is recommend and is the default.


r/windows • • Jun 25 '25

ESU Information Windows 10 End of Support, what it means for you and what you can do.

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41 Upvotes

r/windows • • 5h ago

News Former Windows boss mocks Windows 8’s touch critics as Apple readies a touchscreen MacBook, 16 years after Steve Jobs said “your arm wants to fall off”

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44 Upvotes

r/windows • • 54m ago

Discussion "Never Always criticize An Operating System by how it work for you, they may have innovations, that even the good version of Windows Might not have that same innovations, if have they have it, they may not feel the same as the orignal one, They may have motivations that the good version might not"

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• Upvotes

No hate toward them btw

-LonghornKiddo


r/windows • • 1h ago

Discussion Windows 11, im impressed. 26h2 is amazing

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• Upvotes

My ram usage (32gb) is typically 44% while using windows, now its 29%?!


r/windows • • 1d ago

Discussion Is Windows Defender enough for Windows 11 setup?

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31 Upvotes

For those who pay for antivirus on Windows 11, what makes it worth keeping Defender? Are there extra features that you guys use regularly, or a particular reason that lead to a decision to switch?


r/windows • • 3d ago

Concept / Design Slightly riced Windows 11 (Windows 98)

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101 Upvotes

r/windows • • 3d ago

Concept / Design Trying to mimic old windows

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46 Upvotes

I love windows 95 except it's slow and outdated, so I guess I only like the style. it's a sleeper build until you see graphics or just the pc LOL.


r/windows • • 3d ago

Concept / Design What version of windows is this judging by the buttons?

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155 Upvotes

Is this a custom windows xp theme? If it's windows 7, what version of firefox is used to make the buttons look like that? This was in windows classic UI before and now its this. The cursor uses the old windows xp one.


r/windows • • 3d ago

Discussion Does the popularity of Windows make its community much more user-friendly than community of operating systems that are considered 'free', or does a user-friendly UI make Windows users much more friendly to each other?

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52 Upvotes

While browsing other communities dedicated to different operating systems than Windows I couldn't help but notice that Windows users as well as users of other commercial operating systems are much more likely to help and suggest solutions than users of operating systems that are called 'free'.


r/windows • • 2d ago

Concept / Design This is my idea of a Windows 9 (Windows 7 and 10 combined)

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0 Upvotes

r/windows • • 3d ago

Concept / Design My Windows 12 Concept (more)

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70 Upvotes

I forgot to include these in my last post. What do you think about them?


r/windows • • 4d ago

Discussion My Windows 95+ themed iPhone I just finished customizing🤓

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184 Upvotes

I'm a 90's kid est. 1987 Central Europe so naturally I'm big on the 90s/Y2K nostalgia. I randomly came across this phone case on Etsy a couple weeks ago which also showed custom Windows theme iOS so I went down the rabbit hole...

l now have all my iPhone system sounds replaced by Windows system sounds, even have the mouse double click sound when I tap an app open.
Windows greeting tune when I plug my charger in, alert sounds when my battery gets low, text, ringtone, email and all other notification sounds etc the whole shebang. This was the easy part, a little time consuming but all I needed is the sound files, “Garage Band” app and “Shortcuts”.

I found most of the stuff on “RetronPrint .com” like the wallpapers, some widgets, and a couple of system sounds and all the OG icons but then I had to tweak them a bit to make it work and source more system sounds elsewhere. All icons came with a teal square background so I had to create new PNG files with Procreate of each of them individually and erase the background usually manually so I can have true transparent background icons and have the freedom to swap between the OG teal desktop or the blue clouds Windows wallpaper. And while I was at it I figured I might as well add the folder names too with the authentic Windows font so I downloaded that too. So essentially i would start with a teal background OG icon, erase the teal, add text to the same layer with the corresponding name tag, such as “My Computer” in white color which then i would duplicate and offset for a black shadow under the white text to achieve the authentic look. Then save the file as PNG. Now I had custom true transparent background Windows icons with the corresponding name tag which I could assign to any of my iOS apps on my iPhone Home Screen in “App folder Launcher Widget Loft”. So for example my iOS “Settings” is now showing up on my home screen as “My Computer” and has a built in shortcut that instantly launches and takes me straight to my Settings. I tried to keep the icon replacements thematically make sense. So not assigning random Windows icons to my iOS apps but rather a fitting one. So Google became Internet Explorer, Safari became Netscape, Gmail became Mailbox, Apple Music became Winamp, etc. I tried to pick icons that functionally and/or visually match what the app is doing. Of course there had to be some custom icons made like Venmo or Reddit and such, some of which was already created by “RetronPrint” and some I created myself.

Then I have one big photo widget that takes me to my photos app. This was done with “Widgy” app, but I’m not 100% happy with that one because the shortcut takes me to Widgy momentarily then to photos. So I’m gonna still tweak that one, might have to use a different widget app.

I also have the “Arcade 95” app which is basically a little functional Windows 95+ desktop with all functioning OG stuff like Paint, Calculator, Notebook, Netscape browser, etc, games like Solitaire, Pinball, Minesweeper and so on. But I also downloaded those games separately so I’ll probably add those in a Games folder on my Home Screen.

Overall super stoked🤩Did I miss anything? Y’all have any recs for some other stuff I could do with this? I saw that you can actually download a real Windows system on your phone but eeh, I don’t think I need that lol.

Anyway, hope this will bring some fun moments in people’s lives whether you’re just amused by mine or get inspired to do your own or alert the Windows enthusiast in your life about this option so they can live out their 90s/Y2K dreams🤓!


r/windows • • 4d ago

News 13 Years ago, Windows 8.1 was Released

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917 Upvotes

r/windows • • 4d ago

Concept / Design I made a Windows 12 concept

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10 Upvotes

I made another concept since the last one wasn't really good. What do you guys think about it? Any suggestions?🥰


r/windows • • 5d ago

Discussion What are your distractions today? (only for win95/win98/winXP era)

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65 Upvotes

okay guys, let's go back for a second to the 80s, 90s, and 2000s: browsing the internet with the old Internet Explorer, installing MS-DOS games, exploring CDs, dealing with slow internet, using floppy disks, etc. That was a great and unique time. But what are your distractions today? in the big 2026, what things do you love ?? are you still staying in the 90s, or do you guys also enjoy modern content and modern technology? lemme know, i am curious :)


r/windows • • 6d ago

Discussion One year later, how do you feel about Windows 10 reaching end of support?

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175 Upvotes

Windows 10 reached end of support on October 14, 2025, and it's crazy to think that it's already been a whole year.

I'm curious what everyone thinks about it now. Some people have switched to Windows 11, while others are still using Windows 10, including LTSC.

Do you think Windows 11 was a good upgrade, or would you rather stick with Windows 10? I'm curious what everyone's using in 2026 and why.


r/windows • • 6d ago

Discussion Windows archive I’m making

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98 Upvotes

Im archiving windows 95-7 for personal reasons. I have only one disk. Any tips? Im planning to put them on a shelf. On the front is the big title and on one side is “WIN 98 .ISO” and on the other side is the Product Key.


r/windows • • 6d ago

Discussion Tell me inaccuracies on my windows 10-windows xp thing

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61 Upvotes

Windows 10 computer


r/windows • • 7d ago

Feature Windows 7 could draw a map of your home network. I'd love to have this back.

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1.3k Upvotes

r/windows • • 6d ago

Official News What’s new in Windows 11: Everyday experiences, reimagined

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29 Upvotes

r/windows • • 7d ago

Discussion The PS5 can now emulate Windows 7

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230 Upvotes

r/windows • • 6d ago

App Meet the new Photos app on Windows 11

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14 Upvotes

r/windows • • 7d ago

Feature Windows NT gets USB 3.0 support: keyboards, mice, and flash drives now work natively

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183 Upvotes

Just tested USBNT, a new USB driver for Windows NT that supports modern xHCI USB controllers, and it simply works. My test system was based on a B360 motherboard and an i5-9500 CPU & and NT 4.0. USB support for NT remains limited, but being able to plug a keyboard, mouse, or flash drive directly into a USB 3.0 port makes life much easier when experimenting with NT on modern hardware.


r/windows • • 7d ago

News Historic milestone for Windows in 2026. The end of an era.

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176 Upvotes