With the introduction of Windows 8 in October 2012, Microsoft unveiled a number of radical changes to the operating system. The Start button and menu disappeared, though they both made a reappearance in 8.1, albeit in a much different form than you would expect. The Charms menu was also introduced — a collection of five icons that appear when you touch, or move your mouse to the top or bottom corners on the right side of the screen.
The Charms menu is one of the few things in Windows that can’t be customized by the user. The five icons — search, share, start, devices, and settings — are set. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t do a bit of tweaking.
Windows 8.1 Charms Bar Customizer will help you out with this, but what it can do does have some limits — you can change the look, but not the functionality. Once you launch the free app, you find a screen that contains two copies of the Charms bar.
In order to make a change, you will first need an icon that you wish to replace the existing one with. Once you have that, then double click any of the icons in the left or right, browse to the new icon and choose it. The app will display what your Charms menu will look like.
If you decide to revert back to the default Windows icons, then the app makes that easy, with a Restore button that will turn back time in the blink of an eye.
Conclusion
There aren’t many apps available that allow you to change the Charms menu, and this one is probably the simplest one I have encountered. It’s also very lightweight, the download is just under 500 KB (zipped). If this is a functionality you want, then Windows 8.1 Charms Menu Customizer is your best options.