Windows 11 has its good points and its bad points, but just like Windows 10, there are also some that it lacks. One could say that they mainly have to do with information and control.
Precisely these two things are what the open source tool ThisIsWin11 seeks to enhance, a portable program for Windows 11 that can be used to customize the entire system from one place, either by removing what you don’t like or adding the things you need.
What is ThisIsWin11 for
An important detail is that this is a portable tool, that is, you don’t have to install it and just running the .exe is enough to start using it. ThisIsWin11 offers everything from information about what’s new in Windows 11 to options to remove telemetry and pre-installed apps which cannot be removed from Settings.
At the moment the app is only available in English but it is very easy to use. The side menu offers multiple options and each one serves different tasks:
- home: o “Start” shows you a tour of all the new features of Windows 11 and explains how to use them, it is much more complete than what the Introduction app that comes with the system offers itself.
- Customize: o “Customize” is used to apply all kinds of changes with OpenTweaks. You can use the “check” button for the app to do a quick check and suggest changes, or you can choose yourself from the menu on the right. Here you can do things like disable widgets, or Fluent Design’s acrylic effects, or enable things like hidden files and extensions. This is the most important section, where you can make most of the changes to the system, from disabling telemetry to enabling the Windows subsystem for Android.
- Apps: Used to uninstall any of the pre-installed Windows 11 apps, one by one or in a batch.
- Packages: o “Packages” is used to install all kinds of apps via winget, the Windows package manager. There are plenty of them available for one-click installation and they are in the official Microsoft repositories.
- Automate and Extensions: these are the most advanced options and allow from generating custom scripts to execute tasks, to installing extensions for ThisIsWin11 that allow you to do things like enable classic context menus or disable TPM 2.0 checking.
Before using this tool, we recommend creating a restore point. Something that the same app offers you when applying settings in the customization section. You can download the latest version on GitHub, the recommended one is the package TIW11.zipas it contains all the necessary files including the package databases.