5 historical 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 lengthen 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 up to date 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 everything of Home windows 11, with the corporate continuing to bring dark mode support and refreshed Fluent Design and WinUI 3 design rules to previously-untouched elements of the OS. Listed below are 5 historical corners of Home windows that I hope to see be rejuvenated sooner quite than later.

Laptop Administration

Managing a PC does not should be so drab

Laptop Administration is a core ingredient 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 way more. Admittedly, most informal PC customers have no use for Laptop Administration’s function set, nevertheless it’s nonetheless an necessary a part of the working system that deserves to appear and feel up-to-date.

Because it at present stands, Laptop Administration is among the oldest-looking elements of Home windows 11 from a consumer interface perspective. Other than missing darkish mode and shade theming assist, the appliance is stylized with archaic icons, it contains a UX that is adversarial to the touch interactions, and it is not in the slightest degree attentive to window resizing. Worst of all, the app’s textual content seems barely blurry on fashionable PCs with high-DPI shows, owing to a scarcity of optimization for modern-day display resolutions.

Registry Editor

Even energy consumer interfaces should look good

The Home windows Registry Editor is an influence consumer function inside Home windows 11 that means that you can modify and configure numerous 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 doubtlessly harmful to fiddle with if you do not know what you are doing).

Sadly, the trendy Registry Editor is a basic Win32-style utility through-and-through, with no darkish mode or shade theming, subpar contact assist and home windows scalability, and a severe lack of animations or different user-friendly UX design issues. Certain, Microsoft would most likely favor you keep far-off 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 severe 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 turn out to be 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 listing, 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 instrument 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. In fact, this is not a full-fledged substitute for Character Map, neither is it attempting to be. In the interim, should you’re searching for a very fashionable character picker expertise for Home windows 11, take into account downloading the third-party Character Map UWP app without spending a dime from the Microsoft Retailer.

Mobility Middle

Does this even have to exist anymore?

Home windows Mobility Middle is a single-windowed dashboard that gives fast entry to show brightness, quantity, energy profiles, display 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 Middle didn’t evolve with the occasions, now present as a relic of Home windows’ storied previous. At this time, the function has been effectively and actually outdated by the Home windows 11 Fast Settings panel, making for the plain query: why preserve this eyesore of an interface round when it serves such little function? To be truthful, Mobility Middle does permit third-party OEMs to plug into it with extra fast settings tiles; I would personally like to see an identical developer API for third-party tiles make its means 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 up to now, nevertheless it 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 historical wanting, with no fashionable design rules or integration with Home windows 11’s fashionable Settings utility.

Worse nonetheless, the out-of-box number of screensavers offered by Microsoft in contemporary installations of Home windows 11 is downright miserable. Over time, 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 may not 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.