Nothing against Windows 10, but meIf you want to simplify it a bit by giving it the Chromebook treatment: by tweaking various settings and UI elements to make them a bit easier to use, or by integrating some of the more useful features of a Chromebook directly into Windows 10 itself , no one is going to cause you any sorrow. It’s your pc, you can do whatever you want with it
Michael Perrigo with Chrome Unboxed has an excellent guide to bringing the best of the Chrome OS experience to Windows 10. I won’t steal its bullshit by replaying everything, but I wanted to draw your attention to a handful of apps you might want to install, regardless of your feelings towards Google’s operating system. Some of these are Michael’s suggestions, and others are the ones I’ve encountered.
Chrometana Pro and EdgeDeflector
You’ll want to grab this combination of a Chrome extension and a Windows 10 app to redirect your Start Menu searches to Google instead of Bing. (Nothing against Microsoft’s search engine; we’ve always had a better experience with Google, despite whopping zero rewards to use it.)
YOUsee the extension to redirect all Bing and Cortana searches to Google (in the browser). You can then install EdgeDeflector to redirect Windows 10 every time it tries to open a website in Edge or Edge Chromium instead of Chrome. Really, it redirects these requests to what you’ve set as your default browser in Windows 10, so make sure you’ve adjusted that correctly.
Finally you can make sure to open windows searches in EdgeDeflector, rather than a browser. You could be one popup the next time you click on a web result from a start menu search.
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If you’d rather redirect these searches to Mozilla’s Firefox browser, you’ll want to use the eponymous name Foxtana Pro extension instead of Chrometana Pro.
Twinkle Tray
This one is easy: Install this little utility from the Windows Store and you can control the brightness level of any DDC / CI compliant monitor directly from an icon in your drawer. Never worry about annoying buttons on your monitor again.
TaskbarX
Second verse, same as the first: This app takes all of your left-aligned taskbar icons and centers, and yYou can then make the entire taskbar transparent to give it more of a Chrome OS look and feel. (And if that is all you want to give without centered icons Translucent TB an attempt.)
Windows 10 Automatic dark mode Luna
Both apps basically do the same thing: They give you the (much needed) option to schedule times for light and dark mode on your Windows 10 system. I guess you could do this through the Task Scheduler too, but it’s a lot more work.
WinDynamicDesktop
This handy utility borrows a page from macOS, not Chrome OS, to allow you to set dynamic wallpapers that change based on the time of day. You may want something darker in the morning, followed by a brighter wallpaper at lunchtime. Whatever your preference, a little extra spice to your Windows background never hurts.