Windows 10's Start menu redesign is getting more time in the spotlight this week, with colorful new previews shared directly by Microsoft itself. In a set of photos posted to its Facebook page, we've got a number of angles of the menu's new look, and reveal a fair bit of news.
For starters, the death of Live Tiles rumored in February seems to be overblown. The screens show both News and Photos tiles that are surfacing content, with Photos showing an image of buildings and News previews a story titled "Dip in Nationwide Home Prices Leads To National Showdown."
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These new images were shared as a part of Microsoft celebrating Pride month, as evidenced by the color palette and one shot with a giant "PRIDE" desktop background.
The color of the desktop backgrounds is especially important to what we can see here, as the Start menu has a bit of opacity to it, so you can see the tone of your desktop background, for a more personalized and unified experience.
When Live Tiles are disabled by the user, according to TechRadar, they will be replaced with Fluent Design-style icons, with the translucent backgrounds, dropping the solid color backgrounds in order to fit the overall style.
While I doubt Microsoft and Apple could be coordinating efforts on their desktop operating systems, this new Windows 10 Start menu shares some of the bright look that we saw in the macOS Big Sur preview at June's WWDC.
We've previously seen this very bright and light-mode Windows 10 Start Menu, which has the new look icons, a wide column for apps.
WHY are you removing text labels!?! PLEASE tell me this is OPTIONAL and not DEFAULT!?!?When doing tech support, do you know how frustrating it is telling a non-tech to select a non-text icon???Also, not everything has an appropriatly unique iconApril 6, 2020
Early backlash to the redesigned Start menu, seen above, came in the form of folks complaining about previews not showing a true black dark shade, and how icons may not be as easily identifiable.
OK, Microsoft: we're waiting...
You may have noticed I didn't say when exactly to expect this updated Start menu. Microsoft tends to do two larger annual releases, with the last fall update coming in October 2019. I'd expect it to appear then, but Microsoft has given us no clues as to when to expect this. Those teases.
Do you like how Windows 10's new Start menu looks? Let us know in the comments below!
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