One of the best tools for customizing Windows 11 is now optimized for Snapdragon PCs running on ARM64 processors. Windhawk just received an update to version 1.6, allowing the app to be installed on the best Windows on Arm laptops.
Windhawk is a popular customization marketplace for Windows and other programs. It offers several Windows 11 themes, including a Windows Vista theme that gave users a blast of nostalgia earlier this year.
Windhawk is an open-source platform with a massive library of mods and themes shared by developers. Some of the most popular Windows 11 mods are Windows 11 Start Menu Styler, Taskbar height and icon size, and Windows 11 Taskbar Styler.
While quite a few of the mods are cosmetic, many of them add functionality as well. For example, the Taskbar Volume Control mod allows you to hover over the Windows 11 taskbar and then use your mouse’s scroll wheel to adjust your system’s volume (Windows 11 lets you do something similar by default but the feature requires you to hover over the volume icon specifically).
The Windows 11 Start Menu Styler is the most popular mod and, I believe, the main reason many people use Windhawk. With that styler, you can do things like remove the Recommended section within the Start menu.
The makers of Windhawk shared a changelog for the recent update on the app’s GitHub page.
Windhawk v1.6
- ARM64 support. Windhawk can now be installed on ARM64 versions of Windows, and customization of native ARM64 programs is fully supported. Customization of x86 and x64 programs on ARM64 Windows has some limitations, which might be improved in the future. Some mods may need to be adjusted by their authors to work correctly on ARM64 Windows.
- Updated the default process exclusion rules to exclude known incompatible programs and some well-known games. Additionally, the special handling of pattern inclusion rules for critical system processes is now configurable per mod. For details, please refer to the documentation.
- When exploring mods, the selected language is now used for the names and descriptions of localized mods. Previously, English was always used on the “Explore” page.
- The toolkit dialog is no longer shown automatically when a fullscreen program or game is running.
- The Windhawk UI no longer restarts when advanced settings are changed — only the background processes are.
- Added the -safe-mode command-line switch.
- Improved debug symbol iteration speed, especially noticeable with very large symbol files.
- Improved mod unloading. Windhawk now attempts to wait for mods to finish running before unloading them, which could otherwise cause a crash.
- Added support for non-ASCII text in debug logs.
- Fixed an error caused by Windhawk in some cases: “Not enough space for thread data.” To apply the fix, install or update at least one mod after the Windhawk update, then restart Windhawk.
- Fixed an incompatibility error that could occur in some programs when certain mods were used: “The procedure entry point … could not be located.” To apply the fix, reinstall or update all affected mods.
- Fixed an issue where Windhawk attempted to load winhttp.dll from the current directory, causing incompatibility problems in some cases.
- Fixed an issue where Windhawk caused console programs to fail to launch in rare Windows configurations.
- Added the following translations: Croatian, Czech, Danish, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Tamil, and Vietnamese.
- Other minor bug fixes and improvements.
The update also adds new rules to exclude known incompatible programs. A handful of other quality of life improvements help create a better experience as well, such as Windhawk’s interface no longer needing to restart when advanced settings are changed.
As with any program that modifies a system, you should take proper steps to protect your PC, such as backing up your system. Sticking to well-reviewed mods should also help ensure stability.
Before installing Windhawk, note that it can affect your ability to play certain PC games. The makers of Windhawk worked to minimize this issue by updating the default process exclusion rules to exclude some popular games.
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