How to Make Your Windows 11 PC Look Like Pixel UI

Windows 11 UI is good, but it certainly feels inferior if you compare it with macOS or a phone like Google Pixel. Customizing Windows has been a thing for the last two decades, and there’s no reason for you to stick to the default Windows 11 UI.

You can use customization software for Windows 11 that can help you achieve a personalized visual appearance. We love the Pixel UI for its simplicity and great use of pastel colors that make each screen element pop out.

In this case, we will explore getting the Pixel phone UI on your Windows 11 PC. It will change the Desktop icons, fonts, and Taskbar position.

Requirements:

To create or rather imitate the Pixel UI look on Windows 11, you need the following things:

  • Rainmeter (a customization software)
  • MD3 (the skin package containing all the elements like fonts, colors, widgets, etc, to create the Pixel experience).

Note: Before beginning the customization, create a system restore point. If anything goes wrong, you can revert to the current system state without losing data.


How to Apply the Pixel UI Theme on Windows 11

Firstly, you need to download and install Rainmeter. Head to the official site, download, and run the installer file. Once finished, you’ll see some Rainmeter elements on the desktop. Without this app, you cannot use the Pixel UI package.

After that, download the Basic Version of the MD3 package from GitHub. Then, repeat the following steps:

Step 1: Right-click on it and select the Extract all option.

Step 2: Open the extracted folder and double-click on the MD3 Basic version skin file.

Step 3: The Rainmeter skin installer window will open. Don’t change anything; click on the Install option.

Step 4: It’ll take a few seconds to install. Click on the Done button.


How to Customize the Pixel Skin in Windows 11

Now, the installation part is complete. We can add and modify the skin elements for the Pixel UI look.

Taskbar and Menus

Windows 11’s menus and Taskbar are the most commonly used system elements, so we’ll change them first. Before doing that, right-click the Taskbar and select the Taskbar settings option.

Expand Taskbar behaviors and select the Auto-hide Taskbar option. It will make space for the new Pixel taskbar. Also, hide all the desktop icons by right-clicking on the desktop > View > Show desktop icons.

In the Rainmeter skin, open the Taskbar and menu option and click on Taskbar. Select Style 1, and a new Taskbar will appear at the top. Remember, clicking on any style button again disables the element.

Right-click on the Taskbar and hover on the Variant option. Select Light or Dark, whichever style you prefer. We like the Dark one. The skin adapts to the PC’s color scheme so that you can experiment with it.

By default, the Taskbar appears at the top, but you can drag it to the bottom to replicate the classic look.

Some buttons on the Taskbar work as intended, while others do nothing. Clicking on the Power button shuts the PC down without a warning, and we hope the developer will change it to something better.

Similarly, the Copilot and Task View buttons work fine, but the Start menu button brings the normal one up. To get the Pixel version, you must buy the Pro subscription, which is the case with other elements like the Power Menu and Tools menu.

Widgets and styles

The second best part of this Pixel skin is the Widgets and styles. Windows 11 introduced a widget board, but that’s nothing like what we had in Windows 7. You can add multiple widgets to the desktop, available in this Pixel skin.

Open the Widgets & styles section. Click on any element and then select a style. For example, we clicked on Clock and then chose Style 1. A clock will appear. You can drag and position the widget to any location on the desktop.

Similarly, you can add Date, Weather, Events, Music, and more widgets. Most of them are free, but some require a Pro subscription.


Wrapping Up

MD3 is a fabulous Pixel skin for Windows 11 that turns your plain, bleak desktop into a thing to look at. You get the Android 14 style icons and look, and it’s hard to guess that it’s not an official Pixel theme for Windows 11.

Currently, this skin only transforms your desktop, but an overall theme that switches the File Explorer and Settings UI would be a game changer.

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AUTHOR.

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Abhishek Mishra

Abhishek fell in love with computers and consumer electronics a decade back. He has extensively covered popular operating systems, apps, and web services for the last five years at trusted publications including WindowsLatest, MakeUseOf, and Fossbytes. At YTECHB, he pens elaborate guides, emerging tech topics, and listicles.

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