DeskMakeover vs DesktopBox

DeskMakeover is a free Windows desktop customization app for changing icon appearance and arranging icons in zones drawn over wallpaper. It offers nine hand-tuned looks: Squircle, Blueprint, Pixel Era, Gleam, Glaze, Die-Cut, Porthole, Scrapbook, and Creekstone. Shape, coloring, plate, finish, and shortcut mark can be adjusted independently. For organization, users can choose Workbench or Quadrants templates or draw zones themselves, with five materials and four title styles. The studio mirrors the desktop live, supports undo and redo, and can reread icons, arrangement, and wallpaper in one click. Style combinations can be saved, exported as files, and imported as style packs. DeskMakeover snapshots the Windows desktop before changes and says each change can be undone with one click. It installs per-user and runs locally without an account, telemetry, or uploads, according to its maker. The app supports 64-bit Windows 10 version 1809 or newer and Windows 11, not macOS or Linux.

DesktopBox is a free, open-source organizer for 64-bit Windows 10 and 11. One-click Tidy sorts desktop files by type into a tabbed box, and later runs process only new files. Boxes store file paths rather than copies, so arranging items does not move the originals. Users can create boxes for apps, files, folders, shortcuts, and URLs, then convert, merge, or split them into tabbed containers. Tabs can be reordered by dragging. The app can hide or show desktop icons and place This PC, Recycle Bin, Control Panel, and Network in a box. A separate optional helper adds the native Windows right-click menu; the main app runs without it. Downloads include a portable executable, installer, and optional helper. The portable build includes its runtime, so a separate.NET installation is unnecessary. The project says DesktopBox has no telemetry and makes no network connections. Its repository uses the MIT license. The README lists the portable executable as 74 MB and warns that the unsigned program may trigger a SmartScreen warning on first run. The Free plan costs nothing.