Stealth Theme

Stealth Theme (Alpha) is an optional Windows-only shell experience inside Stealth. When enabled, it can replace the default taskbar, Start menu, and system tray with Stealth-owned surfaces so your desktop matches the rest of the app, while your applications keep running as usual.

Open the configurator from Settings → Tools → Stealth Theme (or from the Dashboard and Expanded Settings). Use the master switch at the top of the window to turn the entire shell on or off. Turning it off is designed to restore the original Windows taskbar and stop Stealth shell windows; the app can also perform cleanup on exit.

Alpha status

This feature is labeled Alpha in the app. Some behaviors that depend on third-party or legacy shell integrations (for example, every variety of tray plugin, jump list edge cases, or custom Explorer extensions) may not match Windows 1:1 yet. Report issues through the normal bug report path so the team can prioritize them.

Configurator: tab overview

The Stealth Theme window is organized into tabs. Each area maps to persistent settings (stored in the app) and applies live when the theme is running.

Appearance

  • Theme preset: One-click bundles (Stealth, Apple Dock, Classic Windows 10, and Modern Windows 11) that set multiple options at once. You can still override any value afterward.
  • Bar style: Icon art style (Apple vs classic Windows) and background mode: glass, gradient, or solid.
  • Color & glass: Accent color, background tint, background opacity, blur strength, optional rounded corners (per-corner toggles) and border.
  • Typography: Font family presets (Open Sans, Segoe UI, Inter, and others) plus a custom font field for any typeface installed on the PC. The UI applies your choice to the taskbar, Start, flyouts, and the configurator, with fallbacks if a font is missing.
  • Animations & polish: Apple-style bounce on launch, optional hover edge glow on the bar with intensity control, and a live mini preview of the bar against a wallpaper stand-in.

Taskbar (layout and running apps)

  • Position & size: Bar on the bottom, top, left, or right; adjustable thickness, length (full edge vs centered “dock”), icon size, spacing, and centered vs leading alignment.
  • Running apps: Group multiple windows by app, show a running indicator (dot, bar, or underline) in accent or custom color, hover preview (title and quick close), and icon chrome (rounded pill background vs bare icons).
  • Start button on the bar: The Windows/Start control is fully configurable: show or hide, filled/outline/ghost, color, and icon (Stealth, Windows, Apple, grid, shield, home, custom uploaded image, letter glyph, or none) plus optional custom tooltip.

Start menu

  • Layouts: Modern (pinned + recent), full grid, or compact list; adjustable width and height; optional centered Start button so the menu opens from the middle of a dock-style bar.
  • Sections: Toggles for search, pinned, all apps, recents, account header, and power actions.
  • Search: App search; optional indexed file results via the Windows Search index, with scope user profile or entire computer.
  • Pinned to Start: A separate pin list (managed in the Pinned Apps tab: pinning to the Start menu vs the taskbar) so your launcher can mirror how you work.

System tray

  • Clock & calendar: Show or hide the clock, optional seconds, 12/24-hour, calendar on hover/click, and the day the week starts (Sunday/Monday).
  • Quick controls: Access to volume, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, battery, brightness, and more through the tray area. Many can be surfaced in the main tray pop-out or pinned inline on the bar when you choose.
  • Information: Optional security info (VPN, firewall, Defender style summary as exposed by the integration), system pulse (live CPU and RAM on the bar with deeper view on click), and notifications. You can also show the native Windows overflow tray and hide individual third-party icons you do not need.
  • Custom label field for a short string next to the tray if you want a signature or status line.

Pinned Apps

Search installed applications, pin to the taskbar or to the Start menu list, unpin, and drag to reorder pinned taskbar items. A rescan refreshes the app catalog. Icons can be re-decorated for consistency with the current theme when needed.

Behavior

  • Hide the original Windows taskbar (recommended when Stealth Theme is active; the stock bar is brought back when you disable the feature).
  • Multi-monitor: Option to show the bar on all displays.
  • Auto-hide the bar until the cursor touches the screen edge.
  • Reset to defaults clears custom pins, hidden tray icon choices, and reverts all Stealth Theme settings. Use this if the shell gets into a confusing state.

Launching apps and search

From the running shell, Stealth can launch Win32, UWP, and shortcut targets through the same IPC that powers the configurator. Search can query the indexed application list and, when enabled, the Windows Search index for files, according to your scope setting.

Power and session

Tray and Start menu surfaces expose power actions (sign out, sleep, shut down, restart) where supported by the OS integration, consistent with a normal session.

Shutting down Stealth and shell cleanup

When you quit Stealth, the main process attempts to stop Stealth Theme and restore the native shell where possible so you are not left without a taskbar. If the shell was mid-transition, a reboot always returns Windows to its standard shell.