Microsoft is changing even more Windows 10 icons as part of its latest version Insider Preview Build 21343. The company has has already redesigned its icons integrated applications and some others, such as Windows Security, Narrator, and Notepad. And back andn 2018, Microsoft completely revised its Office icons. There were even more changes in 2020. (To be honest, I still haven’t gotten used to the Office icon changes, although I’ve come to accept them.)
This last round of changes, which should eventually be implemented on all Windows 10 computers, are as dramatic as the Office icon changes. But is it me, or do Windows 10 icons start to look more and more like macOS icons as time goes on?
Let’s start with the unit icons and the recycle bin. Instead of having a three-quarter vision, both are now forward-facing and seemingly similar to the macOS icons themselves. Exhibition A:
Note how the green dot on the drive icon has shifted from the right side to the left side. The drive icon on MacOS Big Sur and Catalina (the icon that appears when you insert a flash drive into the USB port) are also front-facingface, but the the green dot is on the right, which is where the dot is on the current Windows 10 drive icon. The new Windows drive icon is less sloping, but still looks more similar to the Mac.
The new Windows rcycle bin is also more similar to the Mac than before. It is also frontal and a little higher. The macOS bin The icon is circular, not rectangular, but is also partially visible with almost overflowing papers at the top. The role is a little more colorful than the Windows version, but still.
G / O Media may receive a commission
As if those macOS-like icons weren’t bad enough, Microsoft is completely redesigning the icons in the Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Images, Music, and Videos folders. Exhibition B:
Microsoft says it is making these icons again to achieve this “Easier to distinguish them at a glance.” I would say the current icons are already easy to distinguish, as each icon already contains a musical note, an arrow, etc., but those pieces of icons are placed around an open Manila folder instead of be embedded in the center as new icons in the image above. Do you know what else icons have like that? macOS.
They are not as showy as Apple chose to turn all their folders into a single blue. But they all have different icons in the center to distinguish them from each other. The new Windows 10 and Pictures icons for the desktop, in particular, are also different shades of blue, like macOS, but the rest of the new icons are more colorful, as is the colorful macOS icon bar in the desk.
For Big Sur in particular, Apple wanted its icons they look more consistent with iOS. Microsoft is trying to do the same with these new Windows 10 icons.
“Several changes have been made, such as the orientation of folder icons and default file type icons, to bring more consistency between Microsoft products that display files,” Microsoft said in its recent blog of Windows Insider.
Everything is fine, but it seems to be related to a greater tendency to simplify icons to the fullest. If you compare the macOS Catalina icon changes to Big Sur, for example, you’ll see noticeable changes to the Calculator, Calendar, and Mail icons in particular. (Not everyone was a fan of it, neither.)
When we look back to when Microsoft started changing more of the Windows 10 icons in 2020, he even said he wanted to keep a consistent look between Android, iOS and macOS. Having more Mac-like icons definitely helps with this mission, though it seems to serve to do so. Windows 10 itself it looks more like the Mac rather than stand out. Maybe I just hate change, but these new icons are a no for me.