RetroBar VS espanso

Whenever I set up a new computer for older family members, despite it being windows 11, I always install open shell[1] and retro bar[2]. Between the two, I've made the operating system look very close to Windows XP visually, and they always appreciate it.

[1] https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu

[2] https://github.com/dremin/RetroBar

https://github.com/dremin/RetroBar replicates all old taskbar and I have been using it for a long time now. Works perfectly on Windows 10.

I wanted that toolbar for a very long time, didn't know it now exists. Thanks for recommending. I have switched to https://github.com/dremin/RetroBar/ for a very a while now but this is very intriguing.

Classic taskbar

Gibt's auch in OpenSource: https://github.com/dremin/RetroBar

not sure if this is the right place to post but windows 11 was restricted and the description says that anything that has the microsoft windows xp look and feel is welcome here so here i go. this here is a guide on how to make windows 11 (and maybe 10, didnt test it on that) look like windows xp, but slightly more modern. first get retrobar, from here. then once youve done that run the setup (it might ask you to install dotnet, so do that.) then run it. now right click your taskbar and click on properties. then youre gonna leave everything the same except for the theme, wich youll set to windows xp royale. once youve done that click ok. now you need openshell. you can get it right here. then install that and go launch "open shell menu settings." now in start menu style set it to classic with 2 collumns then click select skin (right under the option i just told you to click) and set it to windows aero, and have the options like this. no icons in second column on, show user picture on, show username on, center usernname optional but i reccoment off, small icons on, large font off, reduce glass color off, and finally, white sub menu's on. then click ok. now get the dark theme bliss from my google drive over here, and set it as your wallpaper, you dont have to, but it makes it look better. then get the recycle bin icon somewhere on the interwebs and go to settings>personalisation>themes>desktop icon settings. then set the empty bin to an empty windows xp bin ico file. and set the full one to the same one, or if you have time (and disk space) to waste, set it to a full version of it. now youre done! ill try to figure out how to change the windows 11 logo in about windows and give an update once i get that done. thats it for now, bye!

It's a bit complicated, but I mainly used some 3rd-party tools like Winaero Tweaker, WinClassic's SimpleThemeTray, RetroBar, and OpenShell to achieve this effect. As for the icons, I used a fresh Windows XP install for this, which someone extracted all the icons from said fresh install and put them on the Internet Archive. :)

RetroBar (Windows 9x/XP like status bar)

If you want a standalone cross platform text expander I currently enjoy using Espanso[1]

[1]: https://espanso.org/

# espanso match file # For a complete introduction, visit the official docs at: https://espanso.org/docs/ # You can use this file to define the base matches (aka snippets) # that will be available in every application when using espanso. # Matches are substitution rules: when you type the "trigger" string # it gets replaced by the "replace" string. matches: # signatures - trigger: ";n" replace: "Nikola" - trigger: ";b" replace: "Brežnjak" - trigger: ";li" replace: "https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikola-bre%C5%BEnjak-892b9a24/" - trigger: ";sn" replace: "Kind regards,\nNikola Brežnjak\nhttp://www.nikola-breznjak.com/blog" - trigger: ";web" replace: "http://www.nikola-breznjak.com/" - trigger: ";em" replace: "[email protected]" ## git - trigger: ";ga" replace: "git add ." - trigger: ";gb" replace: "git branch" - trigger: ";gc" replace: "git commit -m " - trigger: ";gd" replace: "git diff --color " - trigger: ";gf" replace: "git fetch --all" - trigger: ";gi" replace: "find . -name '.DS_Store' -type f -delete" - trigger: ";gl" replace: "git log" - trigger: ";gp" replace: "git push origin main" - trigger: ";gs" replace: "git status" - trigger: ";gt" replace: "git remote -v" - trigger: ";gu" replace: "git pull origin main" ## blog - trigger: ";bimp" replace: "https://nikola-breznjak.com/blog/books/want-improve-read-books/" - trigger: ";brem" replace: "https://nikola-breznjak.com/blog/miscellaneou/make-remote-developer/" ## emojis - trigger: ";eew" replace: "⚠️" - trigger: ";eet" replace: "🤔" - trigger: ";eeb" replace: "💰" - trigger: ";eem" replace: "💪" - trigger: ";eetm" replace: "™" - trigger: ";eeh" replace: "❤️" - trigger: ";eeu" replace: "👍" - trigger: ";eep" replace: "🙏" - trigger: ";eef" replace: "🤦" - trigger: ";ees" replace: "🙂" - trigger: ";eeg" replace: "😎" - trigger: ";eev" replace: "👋" - trigger: ";eel" replace: "😂" - trigger: ";eec" replace: "👏" - trigger: ";eeo" replace: "✅" - trigger: ";eer" replace: "🚀" - trigger: ";eex" replace: "⏭️" ## replies - trigger: ";ryw" replace: "You’re welcome 👍" - trigger: ";rlmk" replace: "Please let me know 👍" - trigger: ";rbtw" replace: "Btw, how are things on your end?" - trigger: ";rt" replace: "Thank you! 👍" ## misc - trigger: ";fd" replace: "firebase deploy" - trigger: ";wed" replace: "Happy Wednesday (a dy on which, historically, most people wed on - thus: Wed nes day). Not really, but it would be a fun fact actually 🙂" - trigger: ";cl" replace: "console.log(" - trigger: ";se" replace: "select * from " - trigger: ";o" replace: "open ." - trigger: ";im" replace: "" vars: - name: "clipb" type: "clipboard" - trigger: ";ch" replace: "chrome://history" - trigger: ";;c" replace: "code ."

This should work for you. Free, cross-platform and works everywhere not just the browser. https://espanso.org/

Huh, didn't know abbrev had that limitation (wonder why?). Gave it a go in espanso (https://espanso.org/), and it does work there.

I use a tool called "Espanso" to accomplish something similar at work. It only runs locally, so no weird data scraping issues to worry about. And it's easy to update as things changes becauase everything lives in a simple yml file.

https://espanso.org/

It can do simple text replacement, so I have words, phrases, and sentences I use frequently compressed into a few keyboard clicks. It can also grab what is in your clipboard, so that can be incorporated into responses, which is simple but very handy.

A simple text replacement looks like this in the yaml file:

If you don't know what a text expander is, see: https://espanso.org