aero dock

Aero Dock is an open-source launcher for Windows 10 and Windows 11 that hides the native taskbar behind a glossy, animated dock. It recreates the translucent glass, reflections, magnifying icons, and animated effects associated with the Windows Vista and Windows 7 Aero era, while borrowing the dock layout long associated with macOS. The project can launch and manage running applications, and coverage has framed it as a satisfying Vista-era revival that some users may adopt as their primary taskbar. It is best treated as an enthusiast overlay rather than a drop-in Windows shell replacement, and one notable caveat is that the unsigned build has been reported to use around 250MB of memory.