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 on your taskbar. The add-on from GitHub claims to show your CPU load, with the feline running faster the harder your processor works.

The comments on the thread run the gamut of 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 got nominated as an idea—but they were onboard with an adorable addition to the taskbar.

Why hasn’t Microsoft started selling this kind of thing? 

(Hold your pitchforks.)

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

But bad actors have rapidly incorporated AI into their attacks, making them easier to deploy faster and more sophisticated, too. For example, Google has already spotted malware that can dynamically change in real-time and is harder to detect. The methods have become sneakier as well. Several times this year, legitimate games on Steam ended up spreading malware.

Meanwhile, Microsoft owns multiple game studios, some of which have made beaucoup bucks doing precisely what I’m suggesting—selling skins and accessories. Also, it runs a little storefront for its Xbox console ecosystem, so it’s not a stranger to this business. The Microsoft Store is doing okay for itself, too.

Microsoft / Steam

And yet. I can’t buy little bits of code that would let my version of Windows have:

• Nyan cat, flying through 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 bits, icon packs, several wallpaper choices, a screensaver, and a properly color coordinated background and accent color chosen because I suck at that
• Animated turtle that walks around in the left corner of the taskbar when it’s warm and hides when it’s cold

(This is not an exhaustive list of what I could be enticed into purchasing. Not remotely.)

Before anyone hurts me for suggesting Windows microtransactions, let me be very clear. I never want Microsoft to slap a price tag on individual features related to Windows operations. Not even minor ones. That would suck, and I want to stress that I’m deeply grateful that PowerToys exist. (Thank you again to the devs who work on those.)

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

People love aesthetic customizations. You know how people don’t want to pay $30 to extend Windows 10 licenses? I bet a pack of something from any one of Microsoft’s big game franchises could make some serious money. Probably more than the $30 for an Extended License.

I don’t even buy Moira skins and I’m <mumblemuble> hundreds of hours into Overwatch as a Moira OTP. But I would buy fun Windows customizations from a reputable source. No other developer would be more trustworthy than Microsoft itself. (Or so one hopes.)

In this episode of The Full Nerd

In this episode of The Full Nerd, Brad Chacos, Adam Patrick Murray, Alaina Yee, and Will Smith must eat their words. Yep, 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 predictions episodes work like this: In the first part, we review last year’s forecasts. For every wrong one, the traditional punishment is to literally eat your words—you write the inaccurate guess down on a piece of paper and down the hatch it goes—but some of us have since spun off from Gordon’s methodology. Then, in the second part of the show, we make new predictions for the coming year. The cycle continues.

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

I don’t mean just discomfort while on the show. About three hours later, we received a message in our work group chat that said:

“ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff i forgot to wash my hands before using the bathroom 😭😭”

On Wednesday, he said he still hadn’t fully recovered. Also, to remember washing your hands after cleaning up hot sauce. Heard, boss.

Willis Lai / Foundry

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This week’s unsettling nerd news

I had hoped for a quiet stretch between Christmas and New Year’s, but uh, apparently the Ghost of PC Building Future had different ideas. Maingear announced on Tuesday that it would begin offering custom systems without RAM, if you prefer to save some cash and BYOR instead. (Bring your own RAM.)

…Where does one find that independently sourced affordable DDR5 RAM, exactly?

XPG

• BYOR hurts as a concept: We actually discussed this prediction the very same day that Maingear made its announcement about Bring Your Own Ram configurations. Strap in, 2026’s going to be quite a ride.

• Nerfed SSD performance in Windows 11 may finally end: Remember the move to software-based encryption in BitLocker, and it tanking SSD speeds? Well, Microsoft is now promising that coming hardware-based encryption will undo most of that issue. Here’s to hoping.

• Perhaps nostalgia is good for us: I’m going to interpret this study showing that happiness from reliving good childhood memories (via console games like Super Mario Bros.) means I’m perfectly justified in buying retro consoles and not actually making progress on my games backlog.

• Long live OLED: I’ve been holding out for an affordable OLED TV, but I have to admit I’ve been a bit hesitant due to burn-in concerns. Looks like I may have little to worry about. Hmm…

• Shoutout to the OG: Valve is discontinuing the LCD version of the Steam Deck, leaving the OLED version as its default champion of handheld gaming. Rest in peace, trailblazer.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate—and I’ll catch everyone again just after New Year’s, with some thoughts about 2026 (and possibly some related resolutions). For now, I’m off to enjoy family time, video games, and a ton of excellent food!

~Alaina

This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Mah Ung, founder and host of The Full Nerd, and executive editor of hardware at PCWorld.