macOS Tahoe, out since September 15, 2025, made Liquid Glass the look of the Mac: a translucent Dock and menu bar that let the wallpaper through. You can get remarkably close on Windows 11 with a handful of apps - most of them free - and without patching Windows. Here's the setup, step by step, and the two things you can't copy.
The Mac, translated
| On the Mac | On Windows 11 | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| The Dock | lumabar in a glass style, or MyDockFinder for magnifying icons | Paid, one time |
| The menu bar | lumabar at the top edge, or the PowerToys Dock | Paid, or free |
| Spotlight (Cmd+Space) | PowerToys Command Palette (Win+Alt+Space) | Free |
| Quick Look (Space) | QuickLook | Free |
| Liquid Glass | lumabar's Liquid Glass and iOS Glass styles | Paid, one time |
| Mac pointers | The open-source macOS cursor set | Free |
| Window buttons on the left, one menu bar for every app | No safe way | - |
1. Put a glass dock at the bottom
The Dock is most of the Mac look. lumabar puts one along the bottom edge in Liquid Glass or iOS Glass: the wallpaper and the windows behind it show through, bent at the rounded edges (how the glass works). Its Apps widget holds Start, your pinned apps and every open window, and the rest of the dock can show live widgets - the weather, music, your calendar. If icons that magnify under the pointer matter most to you, MyDockFinder does that; see lumabar vs MyDockFinder.
2. Hide the Windows taskbar
Two bars on one edge look nothing like a Mac. In lumabar, right-click the dock, open Settings and set the Windows taskbar to Hidden - the dock takes over Start and your apps. With another dock, hide the taskbar this way.
3. Add a bar along the top
The menu bar is the other half of the look. lumabar is a single bar, so you choose where it goes: drag it to the top, set the size to S, and it becomes a Mac-style menu bar with the clock, battery, Wi-Fi and music. For a dock and a menu bar at once, pair it with a second app - lumabar along the top with MyDockFinder's dock below, or lumabar's dock below with the free PowerToys Dock along the top, where it shows the time and your system meters by default.
4. Spotlight: PowerToys Command Palette
Microsoft's free PowerToys includes Command Palette, a launcher much like Spotlight: press Win+Alt+Space and type to open apps, search files, do quick sums or search the web. The shortcut can be changed in its settings.
5. Quick Look: press Space to preview
QuickLook, free and open source on the Microsoft Store, brings the Mac's Quick Look to File Explorer: select a file, press Space, and a preview opens without the app.
6. Mac pointers
The open-source macOS cursor set (apple_cursor on GitHub) has a Windows version: unzip it, right-click install.inf and choose Install, then pick it under Control Panel → Personalization → Change mouse pointers.
7. Light or dark, and the wallpaper
Under Settings → Personalization → Colors, choose Light or Dark to match the Mac you're after. Then set a calm landscape as your wallpaper: glass is only as good as what's behind it. Apple's own wallpapers belong to Apple, so use a photo of your own or one with a free licence.
What you can't copy
Two things stay Windows: the minimize, maximize and close buttons sit on the right of every window, and each app keeps its own menus instead of sharing one bar at the top. Changing either takes theme tools that hook into or patch Windows itself, and those tend to break with Windows updates - we'd leave them out.
Want to compare every dock first? Here are the best docks for Windows 11.