I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I would buy DLC for Windows 11

A little before Thanksgiving, my colleague Mark Hachman sent me a Threads link. It showed a cute little animated cat running across your taskbar. The GitHub add-on claims to display your CPU load, with the feline running faster the harder your CPU works.

Comments on the thread range from wary to enthusiastic. (My favorite, from a user named gerb: “It might be malware, but at least it’s cute“) But most people liked the idea. Maybe not specifically a cat (dogs were nominated as an idea), but they were OK with an adorable addition to the taskbar.

Why hasn’t Microsoft started selling this stuff?

(Hold your pitchforks.)

In the past, I could have added something like this with less fear of infecting my computer. (It wasn’t entirely safe, but a general sense of civility still prevailed when fewer people were online.) Hell, even a year ago I would have told people to at least investigate the source and see if anyone else had looked at the code.

But bad actors have quickly integrated AI into their attacks, making it easier and faster to deploy. And more sophisticated too. For example, Google has already spotted malware that can evolve dynamically in real time and is harder to detect. The methods have also become more devious. Several times this year, legitimate games on Steam ended up spreading malware.

At the same time, Microsoft owns several game studios, some of which have created a lot bucks do precisely what I suggest: sell skins and accessories. Additionally, he runs a small storefront for his Xbox console ecosystem, so he’s no stranger to this business. The Microsoft Store is also doing well.

Microsoft / Steam

And yet. I can’t buy small pieces of code that would allow my version of Windows to have:

• Cat Nyan, flying in space on my taskbar
• Microsoft’s Ninjacat as an animated screensaver
• Animated Ori and the Blind Forest wallpaper
• A whole Ori theme where there are animated elements, icon packs, multiple wallpaper choices, a properly coordinated screensaver and background and an accent color chosen because I’m bad at that
• Animated turtle that wanders around the left corner of the taskbar when it’s hot and hides when it’s cold

(This is not an exhaustive list of what I might be enticed to buy. Not remotely.)

Before anyone badmouths me for suggesting Windows microtransactions, let me be very clear. I never want Microsoft to put a price on individual features related to Windows operations. Not even the most minor ones. That would suck, and I want to emphasize that I am deeply grateful that PowerToys exist. (Thanks again to the developers working on it.)

All I’m saying is that I have a growing collection of ugly sweaters. I bought the Microsoft XP Crocs (and thought for a second if I would ever buy the Xbox Crocs). What a wasted opportunity to bring back the true 90s vibes, when we all spent hours collecting (and browsing) different Winamp skins.

People like aesthetic customizations. You know how people don’t want to pay $30 to extend Windows 10 licenses? I bet a bunch of something from one of Microsoft’s big gaming franchises could bring in a lot of money. Probably more than the $30 for an extended license.

I don’t even buy Moira skins and I’m hundreds of hours later Monitoring as Moira OTP. But I would buy fun Windows customizations from a reputable source. No other developer would be more trustworthy than Microsoft itself. (At least that’s what we hope.)

In this episode of The Full Nerd

In this episode of The Full Nerd, Brad Chacos, Adam Patrick Murray, Alaina Yee and Will Smith have to eat their words. Yes, our annual tradition returns, in which we all suffer the consequences of not making accurate predictions for 2025.

For those new to our show, our prediction episodes work like this: In part one, we review last year’s predictions. For every wrong answer, the traditional punishment is to literally eat your words—you write the incorrect guess on a piece of paper and it falls out the trapdoor—but some of us have since moved away from Gordon’s methodology. Then, in the second part of the show, we make new predictions for the year ahead. The cycle continues.

With the many twists and turns of 2025, I was surprised that we got any the predictions are correct. Yet we missed enough that Brad, normally the guy who escapes a lot of pain, ended up deeply regretting his choice to down Da Bomb Beyond Insanity hot sauce for every bad choice.

I’m not just talking about the discomfort during the show. About three hours later, we received a message in our workgroup that said:

“ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff I forgot to wash my hands before going to the bathroom 😭😭”

On Wednesday, he said he was still not fully recovered. Also, remember to wash your hands after cleaning off the hot sauce. Understood, boss.

Willis Lai / Foundry

Did you miss our live? Subscribe now to The Full Nerd Network YouTube channel and enable notifications. We also answer viewers’ questions in real time!

Don’t miss our NEW shows either: you can watch episodes of Dual Boot Diaries and The Full Nerd: Extra Edition right now!

And if you need more gear talk during the rest of the week, join our Discord community: it’s full of cool, laid-back nerds.

This week’s disturbing nerd news

I had hoped for a quiet period between Christmas and New Year, but apparently Ghost of PC Building Future had different ideas. Maingear announced Tuesday that it will begin offering custom systems without RAM, if you prefer to save money and BYOR. (Bring your own RAM.)

…Where exactly do you find this affordable, independently sourced DDR5 RAM?

XPG

• BYOR hurts as a concept: we actually discussed this prediction the same day Maingear made its announcement about Bring Your Own Ram setups. Strap in, 2026 is going to be quite an adventure.

• Reduced SSD performance in Windows 11 may finally end: Remember the switch to software encryption in BitLocker and the increase in SSD speeds? Well, Microsoft is now promising that the next hardware encryption will solve most of this problem. So much for hope.

• LimeWire was not on my 2025 bingo card: especially not as a tool to circumvent potential censorship and keep information freely available.

• Maybe nostalgia does us good: I will interpret this study showing that the happiness of reliving good childhood memories (via console games like Super Mario Bros.) means that I am absolutely right to buy retro consoles and not really progress in my games backlog.

• Take a look at this vintage Texas Instruments computer! Will got a really cool look at the TI-99/4A, thanks to Huxley from Retro Roadshow who stopped by our office and brought his childhood computer with him.

• Long live OLED: I’ve been waiting for an affordable OLED TV, but I have to admit I was a little hesitant due to burn-in issues. Looks like I don’t have much to worry about. Hmm…

• Cheers to the OG: Valve is ditching the LCD version of the Steam Deck, leaving the OLED version as the default champion of portable gaming. Rest in peace, pioneer.

Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it – and I’ll catch up with everyone right after the New Year, with some thoughts on 2026 (and maybe a few related resolutions). For now, I’m off to enjoy family time, video games, and a ton of great food!

~Alaina

This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Mah Ungfounder and host of The Full Nerd, and Hardware Editor at PCWorld.