Windows 10 reached the end of support on October 14th, 2025, yet nearly 30% of Windows users are still on the now-discontinued OS — including a few folks at MakeUseOf! For many, upgrading is impossible because hardware restrictions imposed by the TPM 2.0 requirement prevent it, and others aren’t ready to move to Windows 11 because they believe it is filled with bloatware and lacks customization.

Not everyone is a fan of Windows 11’s over-the-top feel either, and some prefer the simplicity and classic feel of Windows 10. However, downgrading simply isn’t an option because nobody would willingly pay $30 for the Extended Security Update program and miss out on tons of apps and features.

Fortunately, Windows 11 is a reskin of Windows 10 under the hood, and tons of legacy OS features are hidden underneath that can be surfaced again. The best part is that they don’t even require software changes, just a few registry tweaks.

One registry tweak and half the clicks

Credit: Shaheer Khan/MUO

I think we can all agree that Windows 11’s right-click context menu sucks. It’s very cluttered and complex, and it requires two clicks to reach the actual options you’re looking for. It’s too overengineered and impractical for my liking, and, frankly, I miss how minimalist and convenient the Windows 10 right-click menu was. Microsoft has now enabled context menu customization, but it’s still untidy, and additional options require an extra click, which is why I prefer going back to Windows 10’s right-click menu.

Instead of manually crawling around in the Registry Editor looking for the relevant key, just open CMD as an administrator and enter the following command:

reg.exe add "HKCUSoftwareClassesCLSID{86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2}InprocServer32" /f /ve

Now, either restart File Explorer or restart your PC for the settings to take effect, and you’ll have the old Windows 10 right-click menu in the latest Windows 11.

Turn off Copilot and Microsoft’s AI

No more AI buttons cluttering nearly all first-party apps

Microsoft has been shoving AI elements into Windows 11, which is one of the biggest reasons why the OS feels so sluggish and resource-intensive. The Copilot assistant is a big part of the Windows 11 experience, but most users disregard it.

Copilot has gone from a standalone experience to being integrated throughout Windows 11 in nearly all first-party apps, including File Explorer, Notepad, and Paint.

To date, Copilot might be the most hated Windows feature, and it isn’t even that it’s inherently bad; people just don’t like the annoyance it causes throughout the OS and the fact that it’s resource-intensive. Fortunately, you can disable Copilot completely from the Registry Editor by entering the following address: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftWindows, creating a new key TurnOffWindowsCopilot and then changing its value to 1. You can free up 200 MB of RAM, CPU resources, and space on your taskbar by disabling Copilot.

If you want to remove other AI features, such as the action buttons or the AI features inside Notepad, Photos, and other first-party apps, this GitHub script can do that in seconds, without you manually having to toggle off the features inside each app.

Recreate Windows 10’s look and feel

Fix taskbar, no widgets, and no transparent elements

Credit: Shaheer Khan/MUO

Though there’s not much difference between Windows 10 and Windows 11 under the hood, the newer OS looks very different and is more complex. This same complexity in graphics brings friction and heavy resource consumption. Even with all the changes mentioned above, Windows 11 could never really look like Windows 10 because of the additional taskbar elements that weren’t there in the older OS.

For starters, you can align the taskbar to the far left instead of the center for a more Windows 10-like appearance. For that, follow these steps:

1. Open Registry Editor.
2. Enter the path HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced
3. Now, create a D-word 32-bit value TaskbarAl and change its value to 0.

You could also try removing the Widgets icon entirely by changing TaskbarDa to 0 at the aforementioned address.

Windows 11 also has a slightly translucent look across all of its elements, and you could try to flatten the UI back to how it was in Windows 10 in the Registry Editor by navigating to HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionThemesPersonalize, selecting EnableTransparency, and setting its value to 0.

Then, you could also turn off the taskbar search bar, which is the annoying large Windows 11 search box that takes up a major portion of the taskbar itself, by typing this address: HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionSearch and changing SearchboxTaskbarMode to 0.

Sorry, Microsoft, I’m still not completely sold on Windows 11

These registry tweaks only reveal the hidden legacy features right there in Windows 11, and even if you try to revert the design to what it used to be, some elements cannot be changed without third-party software, which can be inconsistent and a hassle to use. Nevertheless, I’ve made these changes to my Windows 11, and even though it’s not an exact one-to-one recreation or reminder of Windows 10, it’s still nostalgic and reminds me that Microsoft made its worst OS right after making its best one.