5 historic elements of Home windows 11 that have not been up to date in a long time

Windows 11 would possibly’ve solely been launched to the general public back in 2021, however the technical underpinnings of the desktop working system prolong a long time into the previous. The NT kernel, which lies on the coronary heart of the Windows platform, dates again to the ’90s, and subsequent generations of the OS have all constructed over prime of their predecessors.

With all these layers of code — each fashionable and legacy — stacked on prime of each other, it is maybe no shock that 2025-era Home windows 11 suffers from notable visible design inconsistencies. Some elements of the system, just like the Home windows Shell (taskbar, Start Menu, and different user-facing UI surfaces) are constructed utilizing modern codebases; many different system parts, against this, have not been refreshed in a number of years.

Fortunately, Microsoft is slowly however certainly engaged on modernizing the whole thing of Home windows 11, with the corporate continuing to bring dark mode support and refreshed Fluent Design and WinUI 3 design ideas to previously-untouched elements of the OS. Listed here are 5 historic corners of Home windows that I hope to see be rejuvenated sooner slightly than later.

Laptop Administration

Managing a PC does not should be so drab

Laptop Administration is a core factor of the Home windows 11 platform, serving as a one-stop-shop for managing system administration instruments, viewing occasion logs, scheduling duties, controlling consumer accounts, monitoring {hardware} efficiency, and far more. Admittedly, most informal PC customers have no need for Laptop Administration’s function set, but it surely’s nonetheless an vital a part of the working system that deserves to appear and feel up-to-date.

Because it at the moment stands, Laptop Administration is among the oldest-looking elements of Home windows 11 from a consumer interface perspective. Apart from missing darkish mode and coloration theming help, the appliance is stylized with archaic icons, it contains a UX that is adversarial to the touch interactions, and it is not in the least aware of window resizing. Worst of all, the app’s textual content seems barely blurry on fashionable PCs with high-DPI shows, owing to an absence of optimization for modern-day display screen resolutions.

Registry Editor

Even energy consumer interfaces need to look good

The Home windows Registry Editor is an influence consumer function inside Home windows 11 that means that you can modify and configure varied parts of the working system’s settings and applications. Through its hierarchical organizational construction and its use of administrative privileges, the Registry Editor is extremely highly effective (and probably harmful to fiddle with if you do not know what you are doing).

Sadly, the trendy Registry Editor is a traditional Win32-style software through-and-through, with no darkish mode or coloration theming, subpar contact help and home windows scalability, and a critical lack of animations or different user-friendly UX design concerns. Certain, Microsoft would most likely choose you keep distant from the Registry Editor altogether, however that does not imply it does not deserve a contemporary, modern-feeling interface to name its personal.

Character Map

In want of a critical UI revamp

Character Map is a legacy a part of the Home windows 11 OS that swimming pools collectively symbols, particular characters, accented letters, and different lesser-used glyphs inside a single, centralized location. The utility can come in useful when the occasional have to sort an obscure character arises, however its end-user expertise is regrettably fairly antiquated. As with different entries on this record, Character Map’s consumer interface hasn’t been touched in years, and it stands out like a sore thumb in 2025.

To be truthful to Microsoft, it does present a contemporary character choice software within the type of the Emojis and extra panel, which lets you choose emojis, GIFs, symbols, and extra from inside a flyout that additionally comprises your current clipboard exercise. After all, this is not a full-fledged substitute for Character Map, neither is it attempting to be. In the meanwhile, in case you’re searching for a really fashionable character picker expertise for Home windows 11, contemplate downloading the third-party Character Map UWP app without spending a dime from the Microsoft Retailer.

Mobility Heart

Does this even have to exist anymore?

Home windows Mobility Heart is a single-windowed dashboard that gives fast entry to show brightness, quantity, energy profiles, display screen orientation, and several other different helpful instruments, every contained inside its personal tile. The function first arrived on the scene within the Home windows Vista days, serving as an analog to modern-day fast settings panels with the intent of getting used totally on pill PCs.

Sadly, Mobility Heart did not evolve with the occasions, now current as a relic of Home windows’ storied previous. At this time, the function has been properly and actually outdated by the Home windows 11 Fast Settings panel, making for the plain query: why hold this eyesore of an interface round when it serves such little function? To be truthful, Mobility Heart does permit third-party OEMs to plug into it with extra fast settings tiles; I would personally like to see a similar developer API for third-party tiles make its approach over to Home windows 11’s fashionable Fast Settings expertise.

Screensavers

Misplaced however removed from forgotten

I’ve lamented Microsoft’s shunning of the Windows screensaver experience previously, but it surely bears repeating. The function hasn’t been up to date in years, to the purpose the place the flyout shows a hilariously old style graphic of a cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitor inside its consumer interface. The flyout itself is downright historic trying, with no fashionable design ideas or integration with Home windows 11’s fashionable Settings software.

Worse nonetheless, the out-of-box collection of screensavers supplied by Microsoft in contemporary installations of Home windows 11 is downright miserable. Through the years, many iconic screensavers like Pipes, 3D Maze, Flying Home windows and Starfield Simulation have been gutted from the working system, leaving the present-day choice an emaciated shell of its former self. Certain, screensavers won’t be a technical necessity in right this moment’s day and age, however I am unable to be the one one who loves a good idle display animation on my PC.