For a long time now, Microsoft has been dropping hints that it’s working on a revamped Start menu and icons for Windows 10. As the company celebrates a huge milestone of reaching 1 billion Windows 10 users, Microsoft’s chief product officer Panos Panay dropped a super slick teaser for Windows 10’s next UI refresh.
In the video he posted to Instagram, Panos starts by showing the evolution of Windows 10 OS throughout the years going as far back as Windows 1.01 all the way to Windows 10. However, where things start to get interesting is around 12 seconds in when Microsoft shows off a new set of updated icons followed by a redesigned look for Windows 10’s Start Menu and Live Tiles.
Deep diving on the details, instead of a bunch of brightly color rectangles, Microsoft is implementing a more unified color scheme that can adjust automatically to match your desktop background and potentially other UI elements.
The new Windows 10 will have light and dark themes along with a bunch of windows resizing and snapping options, all designed to making multi-tasking just a bit faster and easier. Microsoft also made a point to mention support for both x86-based systems powered by chips from Intel and AMD and ARM-based systems like the Surface Pro X. That last one is a biggie. As Apple gets closer and closer to releasing an ARM-based MacBook (blurring the lines between its mobile and desktop products), it’s increasingly important for Microsoft to include full support for both platforms in future versions of Windows.
We think Windows 10’s upcoming UI changes look really promising, offering a sleeker, more streamlined interface that’s more in line with Microsoft’s Fluent design language, which was first introduced back in 2017. One of the big complaints about Windows 10 right now is that its UI often seems disjointed, because depending on how deep you dive into menus, you get windows that almost look like they came straight out of Windows XP, while newer menus pack a much cleaner, more modern design.
