Stardock announces Curtains, letting you add new styles to Windows 10

Today, Stardock announced Curtains, a new customization app for Windows 10. Working similarly to how Windows 10 applies light and dark themes, it lets you add use a variety of built-in styles, or you can create and share your own.

The fact that it works similarly to how light and dark themes are applied is significant, because that's one of the key things that separates it from WindowBlinds. WindowBlinds works by taking over how the GUI draws windows, and a problem for modern devices is that you'd have to create a skin that supports different DPIs. Curtains is meant to be a lot more user-friendly.

"The advantage of using a program like Curtains is that it's essentially just adding new 'modes' to Windows," said Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock. "It already works with high DPI displays and your existing programs. This gives users a little extra touch of customizing the Windows experience."

The various styles will only work with UI elements that already support light and dark mode in Windows 10. It can skin the taskbar, apps that support the native settings, and so on. That means that apps that don't support Windows 10 themes can't be customized using Curtains, but that's also what makes the app lightweight and easy to use.

Some use cases pointed out are to make Windows 10 look more like Windows XP, Windows 95, or other operating systems. The beta version of Curtains will arrive next week as part of the Object Desktop suite, which also includes apps like Fences, Start10, Groupy, SoundPackager, DeskScapes, and Multiplicity.

Disclaimer: Neowin's relationship to Stardock