DeskMakeover vs Paddock

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.

Paddock is a free, open-source Windows desktop icon organizer that groups icons into styled zones. Users can create resizable areas and set each zone’s transparency, background color, corner radius, and title visibility. Icons can be sorted by name, modification date, file type, or file size, in either direction. Zones can be hidden or shown from the tray icon or with the default Ctrl+F12 shortcut, then rolled up to their title strips. Named layout profiles can be saved, switched, and exported as .paddock files for sharing. Paddock adds native Windows context menus such as Open, Open With, and Properties. Items moved into zones are stored in hidden folders under the Desktop; removing a zone or dragging an item out returns them without deleting or overwriting files. It requires Windows 10 version 1903 or later, or Windows 11.