A Vision For A Future Version of Windows


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I was playing around with this a few months ago, hoping to come up with alternatives to the way Windows 10 has gone (which I am not a fan of). It combines some of the things they are doing with the Home Screen in Windows 10 Mobile with existing elements from Windows 8/10. Don't pay too much mind to any of the icons, they were just what was on hand when I started doodling.

 

 

1, The Desktop.

 

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2. The Start Menu

 

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3. All Apps

 

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4. Tablet Mode

 

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5. Tablet Mode With Action Centre

 

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6. Tablet Mode Variation

 

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I was playing around with this a few months ago, hoping to come up with alternatives to the way Windows 10 has gone (which I am not a fan of). It combines some of the things they are doing with the Home Screen in Windows 10 Mobile with existing elements from Windows 8/10. Don't pay too much mind to any of the icons, they were just what was on hand when I started doodling.

 

 

1, The Desktop.

 

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2. The Start Menu

 

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3. All Apps

 

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4. Tablet Mode

 

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5. Tablet Mode With Action Centre

 

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6. Tablet Mode Variation

 

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Xbox* not "X-Box".

I do it like, it very simple and clean, and finally someone has shown me a decent use of transparency in a UI!

 

I'd like to see more work like this from Microsoft, although I'd like an option to have a list of small icons in the "All apps" view or subfolders rather than a long list of groups

  • Like 1

I am personally not a fan of this at all. Although the transparency is nice, there's no separation between the different sections, which makes it look a little cluttered (especially in the third image). Also, I'm really not sure about those 8 squares in the lower left corner. They seem completely off.

 

Maybe if you evolve the design a little, but at the moment it's a no from me. 

I am personally not a fan of this at all. Although the transparency is nice, there's no separation between the different sections, which makes it look a little cluttered (especially in the third image). Also, I'm really not sure about those 8 squares in the lower left corner. They seem completely off.

 

Maybe if you evolve the design a little, but at the moment it's a no from me. 

As I do with my own Windows 8 Start, I've used different size tiles to visually separate them, as I have done in the fourth image. I find it gives you "landmarks" to follow and find things quickly and efficiently. Colour tends to make it harder to find things in my experience. I've also left in the groups and their titles which would make it even easier to find things.

 

If you look closely, you'll see I've used colour to separate elements in the Action Centre image. e.g. All the network related icons - Flight Mode, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth -  are together and orange and all the audio related icons are together and grey. But it's basically just a nicer looking, more tablet-friendly version of the Action Centre in W10, which I think looks hideous. Interestingly, I am not a fan of the on/off buttons in Action Centre. Action Centre in Windows Phone 8 is different, it takes you to the setting for things like wi-fi. That seemed like a bad idea until I tried Windows 10, where it is just an on/off toggle. On/off might be fine for some things but a lot of other things are less handy.

 

BYW, the image labelled All Apps should really say Live Tiles but there seems to be a time limit on editing posts here, so I can no longer change it.

 

Xbox* not "X-Box".

 

Don't care.

  • Like 1

I'd like to see more work like this from Microsoft, although I'd like an option to have a list of small icons in the "All apps" view or subfolders rather than a long list of groups

As I said, the "All Apps" image should be "Live Tiles" and I envision it being as customisable as it is in W8 and W10, which means you could make it a list of small tiles, if that's what you wanted. Group tiles, like you get in Windows Phone, could also be very handy on a large screen, as a substitute for folders. In fact, that would be a great idea - imagine a giant square tile, like they have put into W10, with up to 16 small tiles inside it that you could access with a single click (no need to go into the big tile first). That could be really cool. I might play around with the idea later on.

Tiles arranged across the top out of range of any appendage in tablet mode....  might want to do something about that.  Also, action center makes very little sense...it only has action buttons but no notifications. What's your idea for the notification center? 

too much modern UI in this. There are still numerous desktop fans and the start menu, while for once looks good in comparison to MSFT's, I have always stated during installation, that the system should be "interrogated" as to whether a touchscreen or not. if not, then install with the full desktop compliment albeit with option(s) to allow users to incorporate modern UI features as they want.

 

example, my wife has a touchscreen A series Toshiba laptop "with" touchscreen and therefore she should be able to choose whether to go modern UI route or desktop route.

 

mine is a gaming laptop and therefore without ANY touchscreen features, my installation should automatically install the desktop. I have found a neat use for the tile part of the start menu and passed this on to MSFT during a feedback message in build 10041, when I went back to 8.1 because the Nvidia drivers that came with 10041, broke my system.

 

But the tile section of the start menu can be used to put icons of my most used programs (games) for faster access.

 

But your art work in impressive to say the least. But too much modern UI interface work. I'm a firm believer in features and user customization in terms of having the ability to change which UI a user wants to be centric to.

 

added later: tablet mode gets a pass by me because I'm not a fan of tablets. :/

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