RetroBar VS hardened_malloc

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)

Relevant copypasta:

Fellow humans, there are alternatives to Google and Apple! Your neck need not be under anyone's boot! You don't even need to give up any functionality:

Data service:

The simplest thing is to buy a prepaid SIM and top it off with cash. The lovely people over at /r/nocontract maintain a big spreadsheet so you can filter by various properties of the available contracts.

Another way to go is to pay for a postpaid plan with a virtual credit card (VCC) like at privacy.com. It won't be linked to your name at the telco, but of course privacy.com knows who you are. There is also Abine Blur, and some others.

Yet a third way to go, which is nascent, is buy an eSIM with crypto. You can also buy prepaid VCCs with crypto.

An interesting new choice is PGPP https://invisv.com/pgpp/ who rotate your IMSI and do some other cool stuff. It works by e-sims.

All these methods make you /pseudo/nymous, but obviously you're still identifiable by subscriber number and possibly IMEI, to put aside correlational things like your traffic profile. You can help this problem by routing everything through a VPN. Then you're pseudonymous but the cell carrier knows nothing about you other than that you use a VPN. Pay for the VPN with crypto. Of course now the VPN provider knows your traffic, but you're much more anonymous to them than you are to a telco. You make your choices. Defense in depth. Etc.

OS:

GrapheneOS: https://grapheneos.org/ Very much like Calyx, but extra-hardened and with no MicroG. No involvement with Google at all by default. You can make a secondary profile in which you install Google Play Services to set up an environment where you can run unprivileged Play services + whatever crapware you need that requires them. Unprivileged here means it's like any other app: if you don't give it access to your location, it won't know where you are. If you end the profile session when you leave, Play Services stops running and stops talking to Google.

CalyxOS: https://calyxos.org/ Privacy-respecting Android distribution that replaces Google spyware with MicroG, so you can have your cake and eat it too. Most everything will work as you're used to, but it does still talk to Google to make that happen.

LineageOS: https://lineageos.org/ The successor to CyanogenMod, will work with many different phones. More privacy and control than stock Android.

There are also many others: Sailfish, Replicant, e

Hardware:

CalyxOS and GrapheneOS run best on Pixels. The path of least resistance is to get one of these phones and run GrapheneOS with Google Services installed in one profile or other.

You could also buy a Librem 5 https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/ If privacy and security and hacking are really important to you.

Or a pinephone: https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/

Neither work very well by regular standards, but they're cool :-)

It might be worth to switch to GrapheneOS if you have Pixel phones: https://grapheneos.org/

It is a more serious project than LineageOS in the sense that they take security very seriously and they take their development more professionally too. There are no disadvantages to using GrapheneOS compared to LineageOS.

You can see a comparison here: https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm

If it still powers up but just won't boot you could try installing https://grapheneos.org/.

On 4thgen Pixels and up you can install GrapheneOS which is a security and privacy focused Android build. It does not come with any Google services pre-installed but you can put them on. https://grapheneos.org/

yes... will also de-google it cuz we can install GrapheneOS and also close the bootloader