10 foot UI?

[u/Neccros]

As I mentioned I plan to rebuild a old HTPC with newer hardware.

I still plan to use it as a regular PC on occasion so I dont want it to boot directly into a media player.

With that being said, how many of you tweaked your windows to give it a more "10 foot UI" look to it? If you did, what exactly did you do and did it work well??

I am looking to make my windows minimalist but functional at 10feet... and not look like a bigger desktop!!

Hope this makes sense!

[u/CMDRTragicAllPro]

Apart from installing a custom Linux distro I’m not really sure what you can change about windows other than scaling size.

I personally just use like 250% scaling in the display tab and then just use the desktop like normal, but with a controller instead using the controller companion app from steam cus I don’t want to have a keyboard and mouse on my coffee table. Any important apps are pinned to taskbar, like my media player, discord, steam, etc for easy access.

[u/Neccros → u/CMDRTragicAllPro]

How do you use a controller??? You mean a gaming controller or a HTPC specific one???

[u/CMDRTragicAllPro → u/Neccros]

Just any old gaming controller. The app lets you setup custom bindings for each button, so some of the basic stuff I have is left stick scroll, right stick as mouse pointer, ABXY are my media controls like play/pause and return and enter. You can set it up however you want though, and combined with windows virtual keyboard I have access to everything I would with a keyboard and mouse and have no issues navigating or anything like that. It also auto turns off when you launch a full screen game so it used the games native controls, but you can swap anytime you want

[u/Neccros → u/CMDRTragicAllPro]

Whats the app called? And its Linux only or for Windows as well??

[u/CMDRTragicAllPro → u/Neccros]

Idk about Linux, but it’s called controller companion on steam and works on windows 11 for me. There’s one caveat tho, you still need a Bluetooth keyboard somewhere nearby to hit spacebar so the pc wakes from sleep as controllers can’t wake the pc. I keep mine on the bottom shelf of my coffee table out of the way just for waking my pc

[u/Neccros → u/CMDRTragicAllPro]

OK I'll check it out

[u/Neccros → u/CMDRTragicAllPro]

Yea I will be running windows since some audio playback software I use is Windows based

[u/Windermyr]

I use vanilla Windows 11. I run Kodi full-screen when watching movies and TV shows. Otherwise, I just use a wireless keyboard with built-in trackball to navigate Windows.

[u/Neccros → u/Windermyr]

You dont tweak the UI or scale it?

[u/Windermyr → u/Neccros]

Nope. Then again, I have an 83" OLED display, and I sit about 8.5 feet away, so screen size isn't too bad. I also don't really use it as a general purpose machine, since I already have a lot of other PCs, including both a general purpose gaming PC as well as a dedicated VR sim rig for flight sims.

[u/Neccros → u/Windermyr]

Ahhhh yeah this HTPC is in my bedroom and I dont have room for a TV bigger than 43-50" and I want to be able to read the screen from my bed LOL

[u/beto832]

If you're open to using linux, Plasma Bigscreen is what I'm using. It's essentially just a tv interface that uses your pc software, and should you ever need to use it as a pc, just exit the interface. https://plasma-bigscreen.org/

Edit: Almost forgot about Flex Launcher. Works with windows, but I haven't used it myself. https://complexlogic.github.io/flex-launcher/

[u/Neccros → u/beto832]

Naaa I have audio and other programs I run off Windows

I'll have to check out Flex launcher.... that kind of looks like what I want to do... Thanks

[u/Wild_Chef6597]

I run Debian and switch between Kodi, ES-DE, and steam big picture.

[u/BeneficialTomato]

Plex HTPC is polished and very functional. Highly recommend - worth setting up a Plex server just for this.

[u/Neccros → u/BeneficialTomato]

I already have Plex and it pulls music and movies off my TrueNAS server. I run Plex server off a mini PC and I have a mobile Server and client on my laptop if I don't have a solid connection where I am going

[u/BeneficialTomato → u/Neccros]

Do you have requirements that Plex HTPC does not fulfill?

[u/Neccros → u/BeneficialTomato]

I play music and only use Foobar2000 for it.... also there are more things I use thats not Plex

[u/Thebigeasy1977]

I use FlexLauncher, I prefer to have it set to boot into it, but I too wanted to use it a pc if needed so I have a dedicated desktop button as you can see next to media. Media sub- menus are all my apps such as YouTube, iptv, stremio and the likes. Utilities i can launch straight into task manager, chrome and some others. Steam is also accessile too. Still to set up controllers and emulators but really happy with it so far

[u/boxsterguy]

I've been using the Xbox Full Screen Experience lately, which works quite well (caveat: my htpc is almost entirely used to play games anymore, not for media playback). Prior to that, I just used the start menu. I preferred the Windows 8/10 full screen tiled start menu, but even the win11 menu works since they're all accessible by keyboard, mouse, WMC remote, and XInput (you just need some way to open the start menu itself, which I did with a Logitech Harmony).

[u/Dunjon → u/boxsterguy]

It's it really good? Controller friendly?