How to make Ubuntu 20.04 LTS look like Windows 10 or 7

Do you want to change the interface of Ubuntu 20.04 or 18.04 LTS Linux Distros to make it look like Windows 10 or 7, then here are the steps to follow.

Ubuntu 20.04, 18.03, 19.04, 17.04, or 16.04 out of the box come with GNOME graphical user interface or environment. Although it is very intuitive and easy to use, the users are shifting from Windows 10 or 7 yet find it difficult to operate. Because of the unfamiliar user interface and arrangements of options.

Therefore, if you want to have the benefits of Ubuntu Linux and its packages but with a Windows-like interface then here in this tutorial, we will show some quick commands to install the UKUI Desktop environment on Ubuntu.

What is UKUI-  Ubuntu Kylin?

UKUI is a desktop environment for Linux distributions available on Github, it meant to provide a simple and easy to use Windows similar graphical user interface.

So, let’s see its installation on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, however, the steps will be the same for the previous versions such as 18.04  and 16.04 including Linux Mint and Debian. However, if you don’t want to do the installation of Kylin on Ubuntu 20.04 then go for the official Ubuntu 20.04 Kylin Linux Distro available to download on the official website.

Open command terminal

To install Windows 10 interface UI for Linux we need to use the Command line on Ubuntu, to access that either click on “Show Applications” and search for Terminal or simply press Ctrl + Alt + T (shortcut key to open the Command terminal).

Add UKUI PPA Repository

This Linux desktop environment’s packages may not available in the default official repository of Ubuntu Linux, thus we need to add it manually. Therefore, copy-paste the below command in the terminal and press the Enter key.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntukylin-members/ukui3.0

When it asks for your User password then provide that and then hit the Enter button.

Update and Upgrade Packages

To make sure the added repository get recognized by the system, rebuild the cache and then upgrade the existing packages using below two commands:

sudo apt update

sudo apt upgrade

Install Windows-like UI on Ubuntu 20.04

Finally, run a single command as given in this step. It will fetch all the required packages and tools to create a Windows 10 or 7 like the Desktop environment on Ubuntu 20.04 or earlier versions. Hence, here is it.

sudo apt install ukui-desktop-environment

or 
sudo apt install ubuntukylin-desktop

The output shows, it will take around 559 MB of space on your disk: 

The following NEW packages will be installed:
attr desktop-base fonts-quicksand ibverbs-providers kactivities-bin kactivitymanagerd kde-config-screenlocker kio
kpackagelauncherqml kpackagetool5 kwayland-data kwayland-integration libcephfs2 libdbusmenu-qt5-2 libgsettings-qt1
libhfstospell10 lib ui-kwin-x11 ukui-media ukui-media-common ukui-menu ukui-panel ukui-polkit....
.......ukui-power-manager ukui-power-manager-common ukui-screensaver ukui-session-manager ukui-settings-daemon
ukui-settings-daemon-common ukui-sidebar
0 upgraded, 207 newly installed, 0 to remove and 50 not upgraded.
Need to get 183 MB of archives.
After this operation, 559 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

Logout and Login to UKUI- Windows 10 like interface on Ubuntu

Once the installation gets completed, go to the Ubuntu Taskbar and at the right end, you will see an arrow icon pointed downwards, click that select “power off/log out” and select the Log out option.

Now, click on your user name, and before entering the password, click on the gear icon available at the left bottom side of the screen. Select UKUI and then enter your user password to log in again.

Note: After installing Ubuntu Kylin UI you will have a dual desktop environment on your OS, thus if you want the default one back then again log out and select Ubuntu instead UKUI.

Uninstall UKUI- Ubuntu Kylin Desktop environment

In case you are facing some problem with UKUI- Windows 10 like interface then we can uninstall it completely. To remove the UKUI, log out the system and again click on the Gear icon available on the right bottom side. This time instead of selecting UKUI, select Ubuntu, the default UI.

Now, open the command terminal and run the below command to fully purge and remove this desktop environment, we have installed in this tutorial.

sudo apt purge ukui-desktop-environment ubuntukylin-default-settings peony-common

Restart, the system and you will see it would not be available to access any more on your Linux.