Hello! With these tricks, you are going to make the Windows 11 desktop look much more minimalist than it currently does. If we are people who spend many hours at the computer, it is always appreciated that the desktop is not overly full of icons, documents, or folder. In fact, although we do not notice it at the time, it is something that ends up generating stress. Having an uncluttered main interface is very necessary in order not to fall into the mental disorder caused by the Windows desktop itself. You may not believe it, but this influences our behavior in front of the computer. Fortunately, Windows 11 has several very useful configurations. Some of them allow you to easily change the appearance of the desktop. In addition, we will be able to make it of much more minimalist and less stressful.
On the other hand, these are changes that are simpler than you might at first imagine. In addition, without the need to download any application or spend any money. In fact, it is enough to use what Microsoft’s own operating system offers. Let’s see what are those tricks and configurations that we can carry out so that our desktop has a minimalist look. But, firstly, we advise you to have the operating system fully updated.
How to have a more minimalist look in Windows 11
As mentioned above, we will not have to resort to third-party software or make any payment. With the same tools that Windows 11 provides, we will be able to give him a wash of face to the operating system.
Desktop Theme
The first thing to do is to choose a Windows desktop background and color scheme that is compatible with a minimalist design. Windows 11 will allow us to do this if we do the following:
- Press Win + I and go to Windows Settings.
- After that, we go to Personalization.
- Then we go to Themes and choose a combination of wallpapers and colors from the suggested themes. Also, those that we will be able to obtain of the Microsoft Store that shows a sober design, without stridency and linear.
Next, we have the option to modify the wallpaper that comes with the theme we just applied. So you could make it even more minimalist:
- Go to the Personalization tab of the Settings page as before.
- Select Background.
- We click on the drop-down menu next to Personalize your background and choose the preferred option.
- If we really want to be completely minimalist, you should opt for Solid Color and select a dark shade.
Avoiding clutter
In many cases, the desktop is usually the destination of any file that needs to be saved or accessed quickly at a given moment. Therefore, it is likely to remain there for a long time and unused. If we have a lot of icons, folders, and files on the desktop, the best thing to do is to remove them (delete them or save them somewhere else). In this way, the desktop will be unoccupied or practically unoccupied.
However, we can be more radical. That is, quickly hide absolutely everything that is currently on our Windows 11 desktop:
- Right-click on an empty space on your main desktop.
- Select View and uncheck Show desktop icons.
Does this seem too radical to you? Then I propose another alternative. Another option is to place desktop icons in a single folder and make that the only visible element on the screen. This way, we will have a very minimalist desktop. However, also the icons and files that we had occupying everything at hand.
Hide the Recycle Bin.
If you have done the above, you will notice that the recycle bin icon, did not disappear. In addition, what we have in that folder where we have saved everything is a simple shortcut. Don’t worry, it can be hidden if we do the following:
- Go to Settings, choose Personalization and go to Themes.
- Then click on Desktop Icon Settings.
- Now it only remains to uncheck the Recycle Bin and click on OK.
Customize the taskbar
To have a minimalist style, we must make sure that the taskbar also follows this concept. In this way, we will make sure that only the essential programs are present. Follow these steps to customize your taskbar:
- Right-click on the taskbar and click on Taskbar Settings.
- If we don’t use them (which is normal) you should turn off both Chat and Task View, and even Widgets.
- Expand the Other system tray icons section and disable any icons you don’t use frequently so that they don’t appear in the taskbar and are as minimalist as possible.
- We expand Taskbar Behaviors and configure the taskbar to our liking, always making the minimalist prevail.
Modify start menu
After modifying everything we have done, the only thing left to do is to try to make the start menu more minimalist. We are going to do it in the following way:
- We click on the Start menu button, and then we click with the right button in some zone of this one where there is nothing.
- Click on Start Settings.
- In Personalization, we select More pins, since it is the most simplified option available.
- While modifying the configuration of the Start menu, we can deactivate the unnecessary options, like Show recently added applications or Show most used applications, although we make clear that this is to each one’s choice.
The next time we open the Start menu, we must right-click on any icon that we do not want to appear. As a result, we will be able to unpin them from the launcher so that only the most necessary ones appear immediately.
