Windows 11 customization is fairly limited out of the box, and even more so with Windows 11 making it harder for some apps to operate the way they used to. One thing not many apps to try to do is just replace the entire Windows 11 desktop experience, which also sounds pretty hard. But in comes Seelen UI, a web-based app that tries to replace the taskbar, window manager, and more with totally new implementations.

We covered Seelen UI last week, and my interest was immediately piqued, so I had to give it a shot. What I got was a surprisingly ambitious tool. I could see Seelen UI as an awesome solution if you don't like the look and feel of Windows. I don't have a lot of experience with macOS, but I definitely get some of those vibes with this app. However, there are also a lot of things that made the experience a little too frustrating in my short time trying this tool.

It really replaces everything

There's so much potential here

When it comes to Windows customization, I rarely expect a whole lot, especially from a relatively no-name developer. I mean, an app like ObjectDock is pretty cool, but even a relatively large company like Stardock didn't make that feel more than half-baked, so my expectations aren't that high. But Seelen UI is surprisingly ambitious, and to some extent, it does deliver on its promises.

This tool replaces the Windows desktop as you know it with a totally custom UI, which includes a floating taskbar where you not only see your open apps, but also some pinned apps and media controls, so you can easily pause and play music at any time. At the top of the screen, you get a menu bar, similar to what macOS has, where you can see things like your currently open apps, the current time and date, and access settings like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

This is where things started to impress me, because for many of these things, not only do you have an icon to access the settings, but a custom built flyout. For example, I could see my Wi-Fi networks in a UI that completely blends into the Seelen UI look. Similarly, volume controls also feel totally native to Seelen, even including the ability to switch input and output devices quickly (more so than Windows lets you, really). Other things, like Bluetooth and power settings, just open the Settings app.

Seelen even goes as far as (kind of) replacing the window manager in Windows. You can still access Snap layouts through the normal means, but Seelen will try to snap windows side-by-side by default. There are also workspaces, which are kind of an equivalent of virtual desktops, where apps will be grouped and you can quickly switch between them as needed. You can even do things like binding apps to specific monitors and workspaces for easier management. And while it doesn't exactly replace the It's really impressive to see just how much you can do with it in the current version.

It's highly customizable

You can change a lot of options

One of the big selling points of Seelen is that it's highly customizable, and that's also great to see. It starts with basic stuff, like how you can rearrange the elements of the toolbar, so if you want the date in the top right corner, you can put it there. Or you can remove the app title from the menu bar altogether, for example.

The dock (or taskbar) can also be moved to any side of the screen, and you can change if you want it to take the full width of the screen or keep it centered around the icons you have on there at that time. You can set it to auto hide, too. However, the Start menu itself doesn't move, so if you click the icon on the taskbar, you then have to move the mouse to the right place. The ideal way to use Seelen is to just rely on the included app launcher.

Then there's themes, which aren't that crazy right now, but you can add things like a rainbow effect that appears in various surfaces of the app UI, or a Bubbles theme that turns the elements of the menu bar into individual bubbles rather than having them appear as an integrated bar. Hopefully this gets more options, because the potential for some fun customization is there. You can set a rotating background or simple use the default one, which will automatically adapt to the theme color you choose in Windows (another nice touch).

Finally, you have keyboard shortcuts, so you can access certain features more quickly. There's a lot to this app, and it can be a little overwhelming, but it's very interesting.

It's web-based

I didn't know this was possible

An aspect of Seelen that I feel like I need to mention is that it relies heavily on web technologies, which is kind of mind-blowing to me. I know web technologies can do a lot, but when Windows customization solutions are so limited, I was really surprised that the one tool that tries to radically shake up the desktop as much as Seelen does relies so heavily on a WebView.

In fact, that's the big requirement for this app to even work. You need to have Microsoft Edge and the WebView 2 installed (it's included in Windows 11 by default). Sure, using Edge sounds lame, but it's not like you'll actually be using the browser itself, just the platform that powers the web experiences in that browser, and it's really imprerssive what can be done with something like this.

It doesn't always work how you'd expect

It's hard to get to grips with Seelen

The problems with Seelen start with the fact that it does a poor job educating the user. Even taking a quick look at the GitHub page, there isn't a lot there to help guide you in the right direction. I feel like it's not really clear what some features do when you get into them.

For example, in the app's settings for the Window manager, you can find a list of options for the layout you want, but there's no way to actually preview what that layout looks like without just trying it for yourself. You're also never told that you can rearrange the positions of things in the toolbar, or how to create separators between icons in the dock. It's all kind of haphazardly thrown in there.

You can also switch between workspaces using keyboard shortcuts, but the concept of workspaces is never explained to you, and as far as I've been able to see, there's no indicator of what workspace you're in. The GitHub screenshots actually show what appears to be that indicator, but I don't know how to get it to appear. Which reminds me of another confusing bit: you can remove items from the toolbar by right-clicking them, but there's no place in the settings where you can re-add items.

Figuring out the window manager is tough, too, because it seems like most apps don't respect it by default, so they'll still open normally instead of automatically arranging themselves in the layout you chose. Initially, assumed I was supposed to manually arrange them, but no, the layouts are actually locked, so you can't do anything that Seelen doesn't do automatically. None of this is explained to you, and it doesn't work how it really should, so it's just a confusing mess to get started. I think if workspaces could be manually organized, that would be a great start.

One last confusing bit is the vaguely named "Specific apps" section of Seelen's settings. This lets you customize the behavior of certain apps inside Seelen, though you'd have a hard time inferring that. And it's made even weirder by the fact that it's prepopulated with a ton of apps that aren't even installed on your system, while apps that are installed aren't listed anywhere, so you can't change their behavior easily. This section can help you force certain windows to be manageable by Seelen's window manager, or exempt them from being managed, among a few other options I frankly couldn't figure out. It sounds like it would be useful, but again, the app just does nothing to educate the user on what to do. This is all without mentioning some bugs I experienced with the window manager, too.

Seelen is a very exciting project

I know I piled on the negativity towards the end, but Seelen is an incredibly cool idea that is executed... acceptably. I think the fact that you do have all these options and you can see them function is very important because it shows that the app is not just a promise. These concepts can be executed, and they're truly interesting, to the point where I really want to revisit this app in the future.

There are major issues with the app as that make it impossible to recommend it to most people, but that's not to say I think the developer should stop. There's a diamond in the rough here that just needs to be polished up to offer a totally new experience for Windows users. I hope that enough people give a try and the developer is encouraged to keep working on it, because I'd love to see where this goes. The developer is already promising things like custom widgets and improvements to multitasking, so I'm looking forward to it.