UnoDOS pc64

Themes & appearance

Ten live themes, a Dark-mode toggle, procedural wallpapers, TrueType fonts, and real resolution choice, all from the Control Panel and all without a reboot.

The Control Panel

The Control Panel is where you change how UnoDOS looks and behaves. It opens on first boot and from the Start menu, and its settings are grouped into six tabs:

TabWhat it holds
DisplayResolution, system-wide Font, UI scale (100–200%), and an "Aurora lite" switch that turns off live compositing on slower machines.
PersonalizationTheme, Dark mode, Wallpaper, and how the desktop icons arrange themselves.
NetworkThe connection summary in the Control Panel's words, and the network self-test behind a Run tests button. See Networking.
AudioThe Volume slider (it adjusts the output live, even mid-note, on HD Audio or AC'97 hardware) and the active output device.
Date & TimeSet the time and date, and choose a 24-hour or 12-hour clock.
SystemBattery display, session restore, lid-sleep, pointer speed, and buttons for accounts, licences and About.
The Control Panel's Display tab: resolution, font, UI scale. The tab strip runs across the top; the rest of this page walks through each tab.
NoteEverything works by keyboard. Tab first focuses the tab strip - switch tabs with ←/→ - then a further Tab steps into the controls on that tab, which you change with ↑/↓. The desktop re-skins instantly.

The ten themes

Aurora is the modern default, with soft shadows, rounded windows, a frosted taskbar and a coloured underline under the active window title. The other eight are faithful retro looks. Choosing a theme instantly re-skins the whole desktop.

Aurora Light: the default modern look.
Aurora Dark: the Dark-mode counterpart.
UnoDOS: the house retro theme.
Windows 3.1: teal desktop, raised widgets.
Mac OS 7: the classic platinum look.
Mac Plus: black and white.
Amiga: the Workbench palette.
C64: Commodore blue on blue.
Apple II: the retro Apple look.
NeXTSTEP: greyscale, chiselled bezels.

Wallpapers

The Personalization tab holds the Theme and Dark-mode controls, and a Wallpaper menu with seven backdrops. They are drawn by the OS, so there are no image files to manage: Theme default (the theme's own desktop), Midnight (a navy sky with stars), Sunrise (a warm wash), Evergreen, Aurora (soft accent-coloured glows, tinted by the current theme), Graphite grid and Slate. This tab is also where you set how desktop icons arrange themselves - in columns or rows, in launcher order or by name - and whether they snap to a grid or stay locked in place.

The Personalization tab: Theme, Dark mode, Wallpaper and the desktop-icon arrangement, over the Aurora wallpaper.

TrueType fonts

All the on-screen text is drawn by a TrueType engine with proper proportional spacing and kerning. Four faces are included: Chicago (the crisp bitmap-style default), Sans, Mono and Ubuntu. Pick one and everything restyles — titles, labels, buttons, lists — and the whole layout re-measures itself to fit the new face.

The same interface using the proportional Sans TrueType face.

UI scale

The UI scale menu makes everything bigger without changing the resolution: 100%, 125%, 150% or 200%. Every font scales and every window, menu and toolbar re-lays itself out to match — handy on high-resolution laptop panels.

The desktop at 150% UI scale: same resolution, larger text and controls everywhere.

Resolution & scaling

Pick a resolution from the Display tab and press Apply. The desktop resizes to match, scaled to fill your screen while keeping the correct proportions. Choosing from the menu on its own changes nothing until you apply it, so you can arrow through the list without the screen rearranging itself at every step.

A new resolution is then held on probation for fifteen seconds: a row appears asking Keep this resolution? with a countdown, a Keep button and Revert now. Do nothing and the desktop goes back by itself.

A smaller desktop mode scaled to fit the panel. Apply commits it; the countdown puts it back if you say nothing.
If the screen goes wrongThe countdown is there for the case where the new mode is unreadable - if you cannot see the screen you cannot click Keep either, so waiting is the answer. Just leave it alone for fifteen seconds and you are back where you started.

Date, time, battery and sessions

The Date & Time tab sets the clock: two spinners for the time with a Set time button, a Set date… calendar picker (click a day and it applies), and a Clock format menu that switches the tray clock between 24-hour and 12-hour.

The System tab covers the machine's behaviour. Battery display chooses whether the tray shows a percentage, an icon, or both. Restore last session at startup (on by default) reopens the windows you had open - the everyday apps and the Browser - the next time you boot. There is also a Lid sleep switch and a Pointer speed slider.

What persists across a rebootYour choices are saved across a reboot, in a small SHELL.CFG file on the disk you booted from: screen resolution, theme, interface scale, wallpaper, volume, clock format, battery display, pointer speed, lid sleep, the desktop icon options, and the session itself (which windows were open, where they sat, which virtual desktop they were on and which were minimized).