About this site
How we test RetroBar
Every screenshot of RetroBar on this site comes from a script that installs the official release on real Windows machines and works through it the way a person would: install, start, switch every theme, open every menu, move the taskbar, break things on purpose, uninstall. Here are the machines, the steps, the measurements and the raw files, so you can check anything we say.
On this page 6 sections
Short answer
Are the screenshots on retrobar.dev real?
Yes. Pictures marked Real screenshot were taken by our test script on the Windows version named next to them, with RetroBar 1.22.122 from the official GitHub release. The small taskbar drawings used elsewhere (for example on the home page) are labelled as illustrations: they are drawn from the theme files, not photographed.
The machines
The tests run on GitHub's hosted Windows virtual machines, a fresh one for each run: Windows 11 on Arm, Windows Server 2025 and Windows Server 2022. Server 2025 is built from the same code as Windows 11 24H2 (build 26100) and Server 2022 from the Windows 10 generation (build 20348), so between them they cover the Windows versions most RetroBar users have.
| Windows 11 (Arm64) | Windows Server 2025 | Windows Server 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows | Windows 11 Enterprise | Windows Server 2025 Datacenter | Windows Server 2022 Datacenter |
| Version and build | 25H2, build 26200.9711 | 24H2, build 26100.33650 | 21H2, build 20348.5761 |
| Processor | ARM64 · Cobalt 100 | AMD64 · AMD EPYC 7763 64-Core Processor | AMD64 · AMD EPYC 9V74 80-Core Processor |
| Memory | 16 GB | 16 GB | 16 GB |
| Screen | 1600 × 900 at 96 dpi | 1600 × 900 at 96 dpi | 1600 × 900 at 96 dpi |
| .NET Desktop Runtime before | 10.0.14, 8.0.33 | 10.0.13, 8.0.32 | 9.0.22, 8.0.33 |
| RetroBar | v1.22.122 | v1.22.122 | v1.22.122 |
| Run date | 2026-10-31 | 2026-10-31 | 2026-10-31 |
| Run length | 32 min | 29 min | 29 min |
| Raw results | results.json · log | results.json · log | results.json · log |
What the script does
The test scripts are published here, in their current versions: run.ps1 (the test itself), lib.ps1 (screenshots, clicks and UI Automation helpers) and Set-RetroBarTheme.ps1. Each run's raw results and full log are linked in the table above (“Raw results”). They are written for disposable test machines: they install and remove software and change Windows settings, so do not run them on your own PC. The test uses Windows UI Automation to click through RetroBar like a user and saves a screenshot after every step.
- Download. Fetches both release zips through GitHub's API, records the SHA-256 of every file inside (they match the hashes on our download page, which we computed separately), checks each for a digital signature, and scans them with Microsoft Defender.
- Portable first. Starts the portable build before anything is installed, to see what a PC without the runtime shows.
- Install. Marks the installer as downloaded from the internet, runs it, and clicks through every page, recording each one and the installer's own log.
- First start. Starts RetroBar with no settings file and records how long the taskbar takes to appear, whether the Windows taskbar is hidden, and which network connections RetroBar opens.
- Every theme. All 19 themes, each locked, unlocked and with the Start button pressed.
- Layouts. Left, top and right edges, three rows, a wide vertical taskbar and 150 % scale, in three themes.
- Features and menus. Seconds in the clock, Show Desktop button, collapsed notification area, input language, auto-hide, window previews, the right-click menus, and the Properties window in three themes.
- Custom themes. Writes test themes into the custom themes folder, selects each one and records what loads, what fails and what RetroBar logs. Results: custom themes.
- Our theme-switch script. Runs the PowerShell script from the Settings Builder to check that it switches the theme.
- Start menu. Clicks RetroBar's Start button and presses the Windows key; installs Open-Shell with our presets.
- Measurements. Restarts RetroBar in three themes and records start time, memory and CPU use.
- Exit and uninstall. Exits RetroBar from its menu, uninstalls it, and lists everything that is left.
What it uses
RetroBar was started with each theme, left alone for 45 seconds, then measured over 30 seconds. Start to taskbar is the time from starting RetroBar.exe until its taskbar window exists. CPU when idle is RetroBar's share of all processor cores while nothing happens on screen; a taskbar with a ticking clock should be close to zero, and it is.
| Machine | Theme | Start to taskbar | Working set | Private memory | CPU when idle | Threads |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows 11 (Arm64) | Windows 95-98 | 0.91 s | 135.5 MB | 40.8 MB | 0.195 % | 20 |
| Windows XP Blue | 1.27 s | 141.3 MB | 47.9 MB | 0.234 % | 20 | |
| Windows Vista Aero | 1.26 s | 127.9 MB | 46.3 MB | 0.286 % | 20 | |
| Windows Server 2025 | Windows 95-98 | 1 s | 122.4 MB | 42.7 MB | 0.026 % | 20 |
| Windows XP Blue | 1.26 s | 133.5 MB | 53.5 MB | 0.039 % | 20 | |
| Windows Vista Aero | 1.28 s | 132.8 MB | 52.6 MB | 0.039 % | 20 | |
| Windows Server 2022 | Windows 95-98 | 0.83 s | 115.3 MB | 43.7 MB | 0 % | 19 |
| Windows XP Blue | 0.86 s | 126.8 MB | 55.6 MB | 0 % | 19 | |
| Windows Vista Aero | 0.88 s | 125.7 MB | 53 MB | 0 % | 20 |
The very first start after installing took longer on two machines: 6.4 seconds on the Arm machine and 2.6 on Server 2022 (0.9 on Server 2025).
What our tests cannot show
- SmartScreen. It was running on all three machines, but opening the downloaded installer (marked as coming from the internet) did not bring up its warning, so we have no picture of it. RetroBar's release notes say you will likely see it.
- Laptops. There is no battery, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, so those notification icons never appear.
- Graphics and full-screen games. The machines have no real graphics card. Full-screen problems are covered from RetroBar's issue tracker, and we say so.
- Several monitors and high DPI. One 1600 × 900 screen at 100 % scaling.
- Your apps. Only Notepad, File Explorer, Control Panel and a settings dialog are open during the tests.
- Language. English Windows only; the other 46 languages are checked from RetroBar's language files.
Where a page relies on something we could not test ourselves, it links to its source, usually a thread in RetroBar's issue tracker where the maintainer or a user confirmed it.
The raw files
For each machine we publish results.json (every recorded value), machine.json, the run log, the installer's log, and the UI Automation trees we used to locate parts of the taskbar. They are in /evidence/<date>/<machine>/, linked in the table above.
When a new RetroBar comes out
We rerun everything against the new release, regenerate the settings, themes and language tables from its source code, and update the version shown at the top of each page. Until then, the pages say which version they were checked against.
Keep going
Found something out of date or wrong? Tell us at hello@retrobar.dev and we will fix it.