If you want a minimal, modern, and productivity-focused Windows look, this Nord-themed setup is one of the cleanest designs you can build right now — combining subtle blur, frosted transparency, soft blue tones, and functional widgets without hurting performance.
This guide walks you through every part:
top bar → taskbar + menus → wallpaper → widgets → theme + icons → performance results
🎛️ Top Bar – YASB
We start with the element that instantly makes your desktop look professional and useful: the top status bar.
For this, we use YASB, a modular bar that supports custom widgets, animations, and themes.
I designed a custom Nord preset that perfectly matches the rest of the setup, including blur and soft gradients.
Once installed, you can enable widgets like:
- Network speed
- Weather
- Performance stats
- Music controls
- Battery
- Volume
Everything sits neatly in a single bar, saving space and reducing clutter on the desktop.
Despite offering live modules, it stays lightweight at under ~25MB RAM usage.
🖥️ Taskbar & Menus – Windhawk
Even though the new Windows 25H2 update improved some visuals, the default taskbar and start menu still feel flat and basic.
With Windhawk, you can install UI tweaks like:
- Transparent taskbar
- Frosted blur
- Modernized start menu
- Translucent quick settings + notifications
For this setup, we apply Taskbar Styler combined with my Nord code to achieve a soft glass effect and black-and-white dock layout that matches the bar above.
Windhawk is extremely light, using less than 1% CPU and ~10MB RAM.
🖼️ Wallpaper – Static or Live
Next, we bring visual cohesion using a minimal Nord mountain artwork that includes a built-in clock overlay.
You can either:
- use it as a static background, or
- apply Wallpaper Engine / Lively for animated subtle movement
The Nord palette here helps create a calm work environment, perfect for productivity, gaming, or editing.
Average impact stays around:
GPU: 1–2% | CPU: <2% (idle)
🎵 Media Widget – Square Player
To finish the desktop layer, we add one clean widget:
Square Player – a small frosted glass-style music player built with Rainmeter.
It shows:
- Track title
- Progress bar
- Play controls
- Cover art
You can position it anywhere on the screen to match your layout.
🎨 Theme & Icons
The last step is applying a full Nord matching icon and system theme so the entire OS follows the same look — not just the desktop.
We use a premium-quality DRK-25 Nord UI theme together with matching icon packs, applied via Windhawk’s UXTheme Hook + Resource Redirect.
This changes:
- File Explorer
- Folder icons
- Dialog windows
- Buttons & toggles
No additional resource usage after applied — it’s purely visual.
⚙️ Performance
This build is perfectly usable on mid-range hardware, even laptops.
| Feature | Idle CPU | RAM Usage |
|---|---|---|
| YASB | <1% | ~25MB |
| Windhawk | <1% | ~10MB |
| Wallpaper Engine | 1–2% | ~200MB |
| Rainmeter | <1% | ~80MB |
System stayed below 2% CPU total increase while recording.
Follow us on YouTube (@Unknown Tech) for video tutorials, tips, and full walkthroughs for every step.
Have questions or want the code/snippets used in this video? Join our Discord or check out the Downloads section below!
📺 Want to see it in action? Watch the full video on YouTube.
🔗 Downloads
📥 Download Custom Code!- Yasb
- Windhawk
- Wallpaper Engine – Minimalist mountain
- Rainmerter
- Square Player Media Widget
- Icons + Theme
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Disclaimer for Source Code / Tutorials
The code examples and tutorials are provided for educational purposes only. Use at your own risk. I do not accept any liability for damages resulting from the use of this code.
