Most of us are aware that Windows 10’s big problem when it comes to design is consistency and that’s mostly due to the versatility.
Windows 10 was announced in 2015 and nearly five years later, the company has started working on a new look for the operating system, beginning with a sleeker look for the Start menu.
The new Start Menu, which is expected to arrive next year, will have Live Tiles with a background to match your light or dark theme. While the Live Tiles are here to stay, Microsoft is planning to diverge from the original concept of the Live Tiles introduced in Windows 10.
In the screenshots below, Microsoft demonstrated Windows 10’s Start Menu with Live Tiles turned off.
Currently, if you turn off live tiles in the Start menu, the apps will have solid blocks of colour.
In Start Menu upgrade, Live Tiles are fading into the background, and those Fluent Design-powered app icons are front and center. Start Menu upgrade also offers better support for system-wide light and dark modes, and you can still use Live Tiles if available.
The new Start Menu features Microsoft’s revamped app icons in translucent blocks and there’s still a Recent apps list on the left side of the Start Menu, but there are multiple tweaks to the user interface.
For instance, the app icon is now situated next to its app name rather than being inside blocks or squares in the new Start Menu upgrade.
It’s worth noting that above screenshots, which were shared by Microsoft 365 on Facebook, isn’t indicative of a design that’s shipping anytime soon with a Windows 10 feature upgrade.
Microsoft is currently ‘exploring’ this new redesign for Windows 10’s Start menu and it might show up in preview builds later this year or next year. This new UI makeover is intended to take the colourful tile and make it “uniform,” both in light and dark modes.
I personally like the new sleeker and simplified Start menu, plus the new icons are a big improvement. The Start Menu makeover will also bring Windows 10’s desktop interface in line with Microsoft’s Windows 10X, which ditches Live Tiles for app icons.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.
