For some reason, maybe because it’s pinned by default, the Recycle Bin icon in particular seems to be at the center of all this attention, especially the one that’s coming in the next Technical Preview build. Do a Twitter search for “Windows 10 Recycle Bin” and check out the onslaught. It’s absolutely astounding how something as small, and dare I say as insignificant, can upset so many people.
“How ugly is the new Windows 10 Recycle Bin icon?” – Softpedia
One side of the argument is that the current icons in general are old. Not necessarily bad, just old. Many of the icons you may encounter on a daily basis including the Recycle Bin, the folder icons, and the various settings and system icons have been carried over from Windows Vista, which was released about 9 years ago. Again, the issue here is just that the icons are “outdated” and it was time for a change. Personally, I still think the Vista icons look pretty, but that’s just me apparently.
The other side of the argument is that the icons don’t conform to the Modern UI guidelines, and this I understand. While the rest of the OS moves towards a new design language, and especially now that Windows is unifying across the PC and the phone, it’s only fitting that the icons be part of that transition. Microsoft is clearly in the process of doing so, as over the last couple of Technical Preview builds, we’ve seen more and more Modern icons make the cut. Although there is clearly more work to be done. If you look at the image above, you’ll see icons originating from two or three previous versions of Windows. I can see how this can unnerve people.
“There are icons in Windows 10 that date back to the days of Vista. When half the world is running versions of Android that can be completely reskinned in seconds, this is unacceptable…” – Stuff
But it’s not just a matter of the icons. Other areas of Windows 10’s aesthetics have also come under fire, both on the PC, and more recently on the phone too. Here, new arguments present themselves; hamburger menus versus pivots, rounded corners versus square ones, and even the new toggle buttons are pitting people against each other. It’s not to say that the arguments are invalid, the fact of the matter is yes, there are inconsistencies all over the place, but here’s something to consider; when has an early build of Windows ever looked like the final result?
(Windows 8 Milestone 3)
Remember the first leaked images of Windows 8, the first Milestone builds? They looked like Windows 7, and they did for a long time. Aero was still there, and the circular Start Menu orb was left intact. Yet both were nowhere to be found by the time the Windows 8 RTM came out to play. And the same applies here. The Windows 10 Technical Preview is still in its infancy, and it will probably end up looking significantly different by the time it hits RTM. It might not be as stark of a difference as what Windows 8 ended up looking like, considering Microsoft is in a way building atop Windows 8 rather than slapping on a brand new design language this time around, but it will be different nonetheless.
“Microsoft isn’t thinking about icons or aesthetics right now”
My point being, Microsoft isn’t thinking about icons or aesthetics right now. The company is focused on putting in all the top features insiders are requesting, it’s focusing on Universal Apps that could potentially be a game changer if implemented correctly. The beautifying comes later. The only reason I think Microsoft has been modernizing the icons at this point in time in the Technical Preview is because of all this unnecessary demand. It doesn’t even seem like the company is actually doing them properly, it looks like it threw something together real quick just to stop the flow of icon change and Aero demands in the Feedback app, unfortunately that’s only making things worse.
“The new folder icons in Explorer are ugly” – PCPro
“Why did Microsoft even bother to include a “Theme” section in the Feedback app then?” I anticipate some asking. Well, simply because it knew the demands were coming and it needed a place to put them all. While I do not speak on behalf of Microsoft, based on Microsoft’s development history, I can assure you that the icons you see every day will change in Windows 10. Microsoft will probably run them through proper focus groups (not the Feedback app) to make sure they are generally accepted first before including them in the final builds. So rest assured, a change is coming, just don’t expect them right now. Let Microsoft focus on what’s really important at this point which is implementing new features.
@Angry_Aman You’re seeing early UX, we’re still working on many things, including icons. Your feedback helps us know where to focus.
— Gabriel Aul (@GabeAul) March 4, 2015
Also keep in mind that Microsoft will offer Windows 10 as a service, so updates will be coming in at a faster pace. If somewhere down the line the general consensus shifts and everyone starts despising the new Recycle Bin icon (again), Microsoft will be able to change it without having to wait for Windows 12 to come around first.
What are your thoughts on the state of the icons in Windows? Sound off in the comments below!
I think that they could be improved, but honestly, I haven’t had a problem with the new icons they’ve been testing out. I appreciate the new design
I agree. I look forward to see how these will be improved but I would rather see a better folder icon then anything else. Its hard to see the image previews in the new design.
I don’t get the whole problem…when I work I don’t care how the icons look as long as they are crisp and fit into a common theme so that they do not distract me.
By that definition, you must hate these icons, because they are not crisp, do not fit into a common theme, and are ugly and garish and bright and DISTRACTING.
Your opinion. I like them and they do not distract me at all.
Are you color blind? How can you not find these ugly, garish, BRIGHT icons to be distracting? They keep pulling my eye if they’re even remotely visible while I’m trying to work somewhere else.
Yeah I am so sorry that I not just obey to your opinion. I just don’t agree with you, I like it. This is a fact…
You have terrible taste then.
Oh look who thinks he is the one to judge. Hilarious…
Now we start attacking people who do not agree with you. All grown up I see…
Ok, good news. Just give us Office 2013-styled icons. Colour scheme and all.
Exactly. I was very happy to see Office 2013 icons in early Windows 10 builds, but then Microsoft ruined it all.
The Office 2013 theme and iconography haven’t gone down so well with customers.
It’s about the theme. People hate the removal of Black and Blue theme and their replacement with blinding white nonsense. I agree with that myself. Nobody is complaining about the icons. Icons are fine.
We’ll have to agree to disagree. :) I just find them too pastel and lacking in depth.
I don’t know why everyone is talking about those icons.
It feels like that a company made a very powerful robot which can help people work better in every aspect and then everyone is complaining why its tattoo can not be customized.
Excelent article.
Excellent Article! Thanks @fahdriyami
I think the first “new” icons we saw were perfect. Then they change it and it start looking really bad. Somehow I find it hard to believe this argument: “My point being, Microsoft isn’t thinking about icons or aesthetics right now”. Okay, maybe they quickly made some new icons to stop people whining about them being outdated. But that’s not really believable because we haven’t seen anything implementation based on feedback either…(Except one option in file explorer, I believe…)
And I do understand people get “angry” with Microsoft for this (including me). Yes, it’s nothing to do with functionality but you have to look at it all the time… it’s just something you don’t want to be ugly. That’s why they should make it possible to easily (natively) add “Icon packs”, by doing this everyone can be happy.
lmao Windows 12. Nice!
I could care less what the icons look like. features > icons at this point.
There are far more problems with Windows 10 for me to worry about then the Icons. Do the Icons look like a 2nd grader made them, YES. However, I uninstalled Win10 on my Surface Pro after 3 days. It is presently worse to on touch then Win8 is to K/M users. That should change..
I do still have Win10 on a Dell 5520, and it is ok, though I reverted back to the start Screen. Start Menu, does need to die.
I think the older Windows 8 leaks were intentionally leaked by Microsoft to hide the real stuff they were doing. Literally nothing we saw from the milestone 1-3 leaks was there in RTM.
Universal apps can also be programmed in c++ and XAML doesn’t slow down the applications performance
Wrong. The MSIL (called CIL now) is JIT compiled, so its as good as native.
Tip: please don’t. Don’t let misinformed people spread lies.
Just the idea that someone at Microsoft thought it was an “okay” idea to distribute a preview with these icons is what is disappointing. It may not be the final product, but the idea itself that someone at Microsoft said “hey, these could work” is what is most disturbing. I’m sure Microsoft will have decent icons when Windows 10 ships, but it does give a look into the mindset at Microsoft and what they hope might pass for ‘design’.
Yes, I’m still not sure if it’s not a joke from Microsoft side… but I guess a company like Microsoft doesn’t make jokes…
It might be MS changed them just so they can make sure they catch every application (or help developers catch every application) where the icons will be changing. Something ugly makes it obvious, no?
Preview = 1 quick trip to the restroom away from Review.
Glad to know the staff here at WinBeta feel the same. It is very disturbing, indeed.
My views on the Win10 icons tell you more about me and my inadequately supported ego, than the truth of the matter. Just like everyone else view. Hey, what do you think of that fish?
We want new icons and we want it now! Yes, we want new icons. No I don’t understand why they even thought of releasing a preview with these icons. Yes, I hope it gets fixed soon. The designers who did this should really understand that social media is a good way of breaking down products when it comes to little annoying ‘details’ (like icons) and that windows 10 really needs to be perfect in all ways. So, I hope that they do a big effort and that it gets fixed and that we don’t get a 2nd windows 8 feeling about the ui/ux.
No.
The new icons look ”outdated”, it’s a shame how beautiful 3D icons are being replaced with simplistic Windows 95’ish icons. :-(
For one thing you shouldn’t say everyone is stoked about something because even though I’ll live with the start menu (because unlike most people I’m open to change…or lack there of. Maybe I’m more evolved than most people), I liked the start screen better.
The other thing, the icons aren’t that bad. They’re icons. Representations…place holders to tell you a specific program is here. ALL icons are dull, weather on Windows, Android, Linux, or an apple product.
Anyways usually you can change the icons if you want anyway right? You can find sites or Microsoft has icon packs? So if you don’t like the current icons then change them and stop complaining.
“Personally, I still think the Vista icons look pretty, but that’s just me apparently.”
It’s not just you. I always said that Vista was the most gorgeous version of Windows, for its icons, theme and overall appearance.
The Problem now is that, since Aero Glass theme is gone, these icons no longer fit the pastel-coloured theme of the OS. It’s a matter of consistency. So they must either bring back the complete Aero Glass theme and keep the icons, or they must change the icons. They decided to change the icons. It was all going fine at first, with those Office 2013 icons. They looked great and most people (including me) loved them.
Then for no reason, Microsoft abandoned them and created these super-bright-and-simpler-than-windows95 icons. They should go back to Office 2013 icons, they were much better:
I completely agree with you.
Your right they would fit in better.
I don’t like the icons on the left. The simpler ones on the right are far less distracting for me.
Those icons are pretty decent compared to the overly saturated pastel color looking ones now present in builds.
Many, many, many users disagree with you, Sargon. Myself included. They are too flat, , dreary, boring, depressing, monochromatic and pastel.
Again, that’s about the theme. People hate the removal of Black and Blue theme and their replacement with blinding white nonsense. I agree with that myself. Nobody is complaining about the icons. Icons are fine.
Indeed very very depressing.
UGLY.
You are like the worst person using internet on the whole planet.
So I’m worse than an isis sand monkey?
Old and new are all mixed up.
1) Aesthetics should be a priority.
2) Not making SUPER STUPID UGLY DISTRACTINGLY AWFUL icons, even as place-holders, should be a TOP priority.
3) Consistency should be a priority.
4) Sideways open “file folders” are just stupid, make no sense, and need to be abolished.
5) Icons shouldn’t be so bright and garish that they pull your eye and constantly distract you
6) This is actually a significant, serious issue, not something that should be dismissed as unimportant. Design and aesthetics and consistency are all important.
OMG its a serious issue, the whole OS is going to crash because people don’t like the look of the icons. Shit it’s a catastrophe!
You have an issue don’t liking them.
“Microsoft isn’t thinking about icons or aesthetics right now.” Of course Microsoft is thinking about icons and aesthetics, hence they keep changing every build. They’re also only a few months away from RTM, so why wouldn’t they be?!
As I mentioned in the article, the final release of Windows 10 will likely end up looking very different than what the current Technical Preview looks like, that implies work is being done. I’m just urging users to consider what needs to be implemented feature-wise rather than obsess about whether or not the Recycle Bin in build 10022 was designed by a 2nd grader.
The fact that they released anything, even a “technical preview”, with icons that make the majority of people wonder if they were designed by a color-blind 2nd grader, is just plain old depressing, and more than a little scary. Lacking any official word that “These are just place-holder icons we’re using to test and find issues and won’t be the ones we actually ship in the finished Windows 10 Build” is even worse… providing that is the case. Lacking that statement, there’s no reason for anyone to assume that MS isn’t considering these as the final icons.
No, focus on everything. Let them know what sucks no matter what it is. We can’t take chances. If they don’t hear an uproar about obvious issues then perhaps they will think it OK to keep whatever the issue may be.
The point is even if they are place holders they could at least have put more work into them. I am sure they have more than a few artists on staff that could have put out much better place holders in only a days work. Rather we get the current ones that look like they were done by a color blind programmer drawing with his thumb on a touch screen. By the way, saying they look like 2nd grader did them is a insult to 2nd graders, more likely a VP had his kindergartner do them. Now Microsoft is in a pickle. They can replace the place holders with more place holders. So I suppose will have to wait until they start to integrating actual UI changes (hopefully sooner rather than later)
As many have pointed out the one thing that Apple really does well is presentation. They make sure all things are cohesive visually. As we have learned over the years Microsoft seems not do this nearly as well.
How about next time they don’t even have a technical preview because that’s what this is. It anyone expects anything close to a finished project in a preview, it’s not going to happen. Be happy they are letting people test it out to give back feedback. As a developer, it’s so annoying to hear all this whining about icons with an unfinished product with thousands and thousands of lines of code yet to be written.
I made this icon on Paint. I think MS also made it.
I can also make the Windows 8 and Microsoft logos in Paint. How fast a logo/icon can be created or which app is used to make them doesn’t make them bad. ;)
But yes, that folder icon doesn’t sit right, and I particularly don’t like it when it’s open (see lead image).
I think the big problem is the color.
But the icon is to simple. Could be better.
Keeping it simple is the best. The color is OK.
The color is not OK.
Actually, it does. It means little thought has gone into the design. Go tell that to Susan Kare.
And is AWESOME.
It is not limited to the Recycle Bin. You’re just focusing on the lowest hanging piece of fruit. What the heck have the designers at Microsoft on the Windows team been doing on a daily basis for the past 6 months? This is the best they can give us? It’s unacceptable.
This is what everyone wants. It’s not reality though. Clearly.
Seriously ugly icons!!
#FirstWorldProblems
Really people?
I am shocked people think so much about placeholder icons. That said, 1. I want transparency so bad (lol).
2. Please unify UI/UX (icons, UI is messed up all over the place – in apps, on desktop and so on)
I bet Clippies life, the Icons were designed in Microsoft Paint!
The only icons in Windows 10 Tech Build that actually looks like they have given thought to and looks like it belongs are the “Homegroup” Icon and the “Pin” icon…
I personally hope that they don’t go forward to use any of the others and Microsoft should really be looking towards the “flat metro” look and feel of their desktop icons…
The flash drive too…
Oooohhh god, thanks for this post. I hope it will make people stop hating W10 before it even arrives.
“The beautifying comes later.” Which is the problem. That’s why Mac OSX always looks beautiful compared to Windows, because Apple cares more about the design, but Microsoft cares more about the features. What we need is, for Microsoft to find the perfect balance between the two.
Mac OSX never had and insider program, or a beta version of it’s OS given to users to test, they always brought final products.
That was until Yosemite. Now Apple has a program where you can test beta versions of Mac and iOS
If I understand right now you can test only new apps not OS yes?
You can test new OS, but only 3 months before release
But even final version of Windows is ugly, I mean, OS X always was more pretty.
which final version was ugly
I wouldn’t say that’s ugly, but OS X has always managed to overcome in question of design.
This is something that Apple has always been forward. She really care for detail and design.
i dont know i for one like windows design better than osx
I think the vulnerable point of windows insider program is that the most of insiders, and non insiders are used to see final products, and were not prepared for ‘dirty’ period of developing.
The point is that Microsoft isn’t even trying to show any kind of “Visual Vision”. It seems like they’ve no idea where they’re going themselves. Nobody says they have to implement all the pretty graphics ASAP, but they should at least know where they’re going and then release some sort of ad about it or something. They can make a pretty-looking concept and then people will be willing to wait for it. Something like this would do:
Edit: What!? I cannot embed YouTube Videos anymore? I hate Disqus…
Anyway, I wanted to link this: /watch?v=NQ7kqwbqeiI
Right now it seems like Microsoft themselves have no idea what they want Windows 10 to look like.
You can, it’s just WinBeta have disabled a ton of its functionality (I assume) to prevent spam.
I have to wonder what the designers on the Windows team are actually doing on a daily basis. They should be embarrassed. I hope they are.
Sigh…
So the team responsible for the icons and other graphical elements are too focused on other parts of the operating system right now? Wow they are universal indeed.
I think the issue is that Microsoft has consistently shown a lack of attention to fit and finish. Hence we keep complaining in the hope that Microsoft will finally listen and deliver an operating system with a consistent look and feel everywhere.
If you change the icon style, you change it EVERYWHERE. That means new icons in Device Manager and, yes, even Regedit needs a new icon. I don’t want a single 9x icon, no XP icons and no Vista/Win7 icons hanging around.
If they want people to love Windows, they have to start caring about aesthetics. When Apple changes icon style, every single icon and application is updated. This is one of the reasons many like OS X. It has a lot more fit & finish than Windows.
And no, “leave it until later” is not a viable option. We have seen in the past what that does. Hence we have to give them as feedback as early and often as we can, all the time. Fit & finish matters. Aesthetics matter. Icons matter. Animations matter.
I agree the complaints are blown out of proportion.
People forget how large the windows codebase is, there is a lot to change and the icons rate fairly low on the list of priorities.
That being said it really is shocking that Windows does not have a proper theme engine, changing icons system wide should not be something that has to happen with a full OS release, they should have built a theme editor and put a place for them on the store years ago.
Build a few themes, a flat theme for businesses, something flashy for gamers and leave the rest up to the customers. Basically an official version of what windows blinds can do with a few more safeguards in place to stop it stuffing thing up.
Yeah, I don’t like the icons either. I have no issue with flat design and reduction/elimination of transparency and reflection, etc. But the colors and shapes of these icons are just really awkward and ugly. Stick with the flat design, but use better colors, more balanced shapes, and less skeuomorphism. Glad to hear they may still be improving these.
I get mad whenever I see that Windows 8 Milestone screenshot. They had something great and they ruined it to try to look nice for hipster “paying customers” who probably still have no idea Windows comes preinstalled on tablets.
Much more interested in a larger quantity of great apps in the Windows store than some icons that I don’t really pay attention to. That said, yes they’re ugly.
People seem to have forgotten what the word beta means, unfortunately.
You mean “technical preview”. As it’s already been said in the article and by other commenters, people seem to have forgotten that these builds are about the underlying structure and the function, and the form comes later, before or during what they used to call “release candidates” phase.
IMO, the folder icons are a bit bright, but work better at displaying a larger thumbnail(or thumbnails) of what’s inside the folder when appropriate, which the folder icon and thumbnail placement in previous Windows iterations would leave much less space for such. The recycle bin does look hilariously terrible and I hope it adopts a 2-tone like most of the basic system icons; heck, I’d hope they’d just incorporate it into a different location since the desktop (again, IMO) never made any sense as the place to go for such action (“I want to permanently delete my files, so instead of going to File Explorer, I should go to the… desktop?! ?”
At this stage of development, I just want them to make the right decisions that will keep the options available between the simple stuff for common/average users and the more complex stuff for advanced users — the flexibility that has always made Windows a great OS.
I remember the beta program during the Vista days where the theme and icons were evolving right alongside everything else. I always wondered why they stopped doing that.
Well don’t forget that Vista was a very unique situation in and of itself — the Longhorn screwup causing MS to reboot the the whole thing in such a short time — which is probably the reason why the icons were actually changing so rapidly alongside everything else, and also the reason why the performance of it all was a bit sluggish until SP1 or 2 and/or Windows 7. ?
So there’s still hope regarding the icons.
Oh yeah, absolutely! I’m well read up on Longhorn’s story before the development reset, I find it incredibly fascinating. But check some of the last shots of Longhorn before development reset and you’ll see many aspects of Vista’s visual style, including its icon set, in their earlier forms. It’s a clear sign that Microsoft circa 2003-6 was putting a lot of work into the artwork of their OS from an early stage.
The same was true with Whistler as it gradually turned into Windows XP – leaked shots showed drastic changes to the visuals (I still haven’t forgiven them for axing the Watercolour theme) as early as 12 months before it went to manufacturing.
If Gabe says there’s still plenty in the pipeline for Windows 10’s look I’m inclined to believe it (with Windows 8’s beta program we were promised nothing and got nothing), I just wish they’d actively put a bit more effort into the fit and finish in general. I still hold out hope just as you do.
Stopped reading after you explained what a technical preview is to me, because I constantly preach to other people that it’s not done yet. My comment was just directed at where I’d like to see them focus before the final product is released.
Sorry.
My comment was also aimed (albeit indirectly) at others and wasn’t intended to slam or insult you in any way. I had thought to reword it a bit, but considering personal circumstances (flew on a 16+ hour international flight with a 14-hour timezone difference and literally haven’t been able to tell night from day), I was too tired and lazy to try to adjust my wording to better reflect a more respectful attitude.
I also constantly preach to others (especially to family/friends/relatives on Facebook) about how people tend to judge these types of products while they’re still in their earlier stages of development, so I understand your sentiment completely.
So no need to be sorry save for the insultful wording of “Stopped reading after…”. That is, IMO, one of the most rude ways to start a sentence. I think we’re all in the same boat, passionate about- and hopeful that Windows 10 becomes, as MS has said, “the best version of Windows ever.”
I’m very hopeful that windows 10 will be the platform we’ve been waiting for since Windows 7. While I have no problems with 8.1, it was a lot of waisted potential. What I’m hoping for here is that they don’t take yet another huge lump of potential and throw it away or not properly recognize it. As if, possibly, a different company had executed Microsoft’s vision, the end product would’ve been a superior product. I would like very much so for that to not be the case here.
And for the love of all things holy or unholy, I really hope they give some love to the metro IE browser, or at least allow third party metro browsers into the app store. That’s the biggest area on my SP3 that I’d like to see improved. Its just such a… Lacking… Browser.
I’m still leery of their commitment to a good visual style after thinking Window’s 8’s desktop style was just a placeholder, and then went to RTM with big chunks of Windows 7 visual elements still intact combined with parts that looked half-finished or just plain hideous. I think the noise is justified, no matter how ridiculous it seems from the outset, because we’ve seen from past examples that Microsoft doesn’t pay enough attention to visual polish and frequently doesn’t even follow its own visual design and UX guidelines.
And for everyone saying functionality is more important than looks, I refer you to the image below… Microsoft employs artists, designers and engineers, and they all have a job to do. The artwork team should not be sitting on their hands while engineers are implementing features. And let’s not forget, OS X is not just a pretty face – it actually works well too.
If they are just going to throw in the UI just before RTM, how the heck are people supposed to leave feedback on it and give Microsoft the opportunity to react to the feedback? No, seriously. Putting the UI in last is silly.
It made sense Windows was just built internally, but this is no longer the case. The insider builds, unfinished as they may be, are still made in mind for tech savvy people to use every day. And UI is very important. When choosing a tech product, how important is its looks to you when deciding? I’ll bet you a lot of people are turned off if it looks “too ugly.” That’s how we as people are.
So my point is: UI is very important. If we’re going to use something almost all day long, then it should be pleasing to the eye, or we’ll be turned off. That’s why Microsoft really needs to put out different “final” UI designs, designs that are really not just throw-something-together-in-a-day designs. Put designs out there. See how people react. Take in feedback. Adjust the UI based on the feedback. RTM is not far away, so now is the time!
UI consistency is very good and all that, but it’s not necessary for a product that’s still under testing because it requires a lot of work to make, implement, etc. During the testing period, different icons could use different designs to collect more feedback at once. Consistency should be a goal in the final product, but is not necessary in the testing stages.
But the problem is just that Microsoft is not very forthcoming. Sure, they apparently collect feedback, but they rarely, if ever, respond to it. They never tell us these things, such as the reason for the icons, what their future plans are, etc. We are in the dark and can only stab. Can you really blame people for stabbing at Microsoft? I honestly think they have themselves to blame.
EDIT: Oh, and you know what? I’m not using Windows 10 today, even for testing. Why not, you ask? Because the UI is disgusting and horrible. Quick, what’s the second most popular suggestion on uservoice for Windows 10? If you guessed bring Aero back, you’re right! And yet, Microsoft appears unwilling to listen so far. I’m not even going to bother using Windows 10 until they fix their UI.
EDIT2: Yeah, I’ve tried some versions on a virtual machine, but last time I used it, I was so disgusted I just wanted to wipe the virtual machine off my disk. So yeah, I’ve used it. I’ve tried it. I don’t complain simply because of hearsay and screenshots.
I just don’t understand why they would waste time creating these icons only to replace them with better ones later. Not that these icons took all that much effort by the looks of them, but temporarily changing them doesn’t make sense – unless there is a new theming engine undernearth and in order to implement that they had to have some icons ready to go (still seems odd).
It’s just an excuse for the backlash they’ve received. They had every intention of shipping them as is.
Please Microsoft, please. Don’t fail again. My two biggest problems with Build 9926 are the start menu and the ICONS. Please, save the sinking Windows 10 ship!
Icons are just icons
The new ones work
The old ones work
Where’s our new build?
If the Icons are designed badly, and Microsoft thinks that’s OK, what else will they design badly? Think about the bigger picture being painted, here.
“Personally, I still think the Vista icons look pretty, but that’s just me apparently.”
No, you’re not the only one. I too think of Vista as visually the best OS MS put out. As for my thoughts on the state of icons, basically I just don’t want them to be THAT ugly. I know that these are easy changes, and of course, features are more the focus of the beta than aesthetics, but just don’t release them that ugly.
I also want official icon packs from Microsoft. XP and 7, please.
Such icon packs would make my day. Well, part of it, anyway.
supper ugly ==’
the my computer icon in earlier builds before technical preview is good.but they change it to ugly in technical preview 9926 build.
Microsoft Should read a little about Material Design guidelines. Flat and beautiful.
Or just…. hire the Office team to work on Windows too.
http://www.google.com/design/spec/style/icons.html#icons-product-icons
No.
Yes, this is still the testing phase and changes are on the
way. However, given the history of failures and inconsistency of Microsoft in
term of UI and UX, it’s hard to say whether they listen and improve
the issue. Even if they change the recycle bin one, would they ever bother updating
the registry editor icon which is way older than the most? I remembered back
then in Windows 8’s development period, people complained about the old visual
styles (Desktop) being overshadowed by the new design language (Metro/Start Screen). They
asked Microsoft to flatten those icons on desktop to be more unified with “Metro”.
And what was the outcome? They didn’t change it even in the final build
and on and on. The point here is that some users are upset not because of the ugliness
of just a few icons but the carelessness and arrogance of Microsoft. If it were
Apple, it would be a different story. They always seem to know what to do. They’re
good at it. Even the test builds of Mac OS look polished. I hope the reign of the new CEO would mean something different. Still, who knows? My opinion:)
Yes and did Microsoft listened to us? Nope. All were saying they will change it upon release I just laughed when I see that old recycle bin in Windows 8 RTM. Let’s see if Windows 10 proves us otherwise.
Actually I’m tired of both Apple and MS selling ‘flat’ as modern and 3D as tired. GPU’s have never been more powerful but now we’re supposed to excited by isometric icons and you know in five years time we’ll be buying the ‘new’ 3D os’s because their fresh and exciting. Give me a break. Flat was cr4p until Yosemite did it now it just needs to be done ‘right’. Sure.
As for the new icons add some shadows and tone down the colors.
Design changes all the time. I believe 3D would make a come back in the future somehow. It’s like a revolution. Flat was considered boring back then. During the time of XP and Vista, they tried to make stuff as fancy as possible. Then things got loosen up a little bit as modern flat designs came and altered it. What’s next? 3D….I guess. But as far as the flat design that Microsoft tries to implement now, there’s something wrong and dull about it. It doesn’t feel modern like Material Design of Google or that of Apple. It’s like a step back. Not to mention, inconsistency between 3D and flat design is still everywhere and that makes things even worse. I don’t want to cherry pick but let’s see how deep they would go into refining this OS. My most requested change, registry editor icon:)
HOPE THAT THEY CHANGE THOSE SOON !!! (^_^)
I hope they don’t
WHY ??
DO YOU LIKE THEM??
So why not keep using the Vista-esque icons in the interim, rather than waste time implementing these terribly designed icons? It’s funny now they’ve received backlash for how poorly designed they are. that they are trumpeting the “we’re not finished with them” line. They are terrible in their current iteration and they should be embarrassed. Most people come up with better iconography in a day and post it to their DeviantArt. How can a multibillion dollar company, who supposedly employs the best of the best UX & graphic designers, not do better than DeviantArt kids?
Look at how awful the Feedback app is. Look how poorly implemented that is. Are they going to trumpet the same reasoning for its incompetency? We’re just kidding guiissee. It’s totes not done yet!
This failure of design is endemic throughout Microsoft right now. They need to fire whoever is in charge, and I’m not even joking around.
“So why not keep using the Vista-esque icons in the interim, rather than waste time implementing these terribly designed icons?”
Gabriel Aul tweeted about this:
“It’s a key point of doing a preview. We try something new, you share feedback, we consider it.”
*deep breath*
Their ‘new’ isn’t good enough. It isn’t of a standard anyone expects to come out of a billion dollar behemoth software company. They shouldn’t require feedback from us users, telling them how terrible the design is, they should know how bad it is already.
Exactly.
Of course user’s feedback is a precious source of information for a company, but internal Quality Assurance should not even let go out so sub-standard stuff in first place.
They officially keep saying the same thing at each update, but I recall they were not willing to listen feedback about tiles and start screen and full screen apps (the most hated darn things after Jar Jar Binks), let’s hope they are more humble now than in 2012. Or just more reasonable.
I find myself disagreeing with you on pretty much every single post you make but in this case I’ll make an exception. It’s hilarious how they’ve reacted to the whole icon thing.
Microsoft: “Hey everyone, you’ve all been clamouring for a new icon theme, check these babies out!”
Everyone: “They look like crap.”
Microsoft: “Well duh! It’s a preview, they’re SUPPOSED to be crap!”
I also really dislike the icons, but reading a few of your posts, what exactly do you consider good iconography? The current icons don’t do a bad job of communicating what they are signifying but they do look too bright and inconsistent. Do icons need to be super detailed to be good?
Remember the time, when shortcut’s / icon’s text was surrounded with a box instead of being transparent? THAT was ugly.
A bit offtopic, but I had an idea years ago about a new way to use an OS. Instead of a flat desktop and start menu I thought of a 3d desktop with bookshelf’s for the software and files in the shelf’s and selecting them like we walk in a FPS shooter game.. Just an idea :-) I guess the world isn’t ready for it yet hehe
You mean you watched johnny mnemonic and think you had the idea!
I haven’t seen it.. Maybe I should..
What would be the point of that nonsense? You can get such a shell online. Pretty sure I’ve seen one.
ok. Was just an idea. You don’t have to like it..
Sinofky’s famous last words? :-D
No, Schroedinger’s before his cat clawed his eyes out.
Hehe
Actually, Microsoft tried something similar to what you’re talking about (in 2D however) – look up “Microsoft Bob”. It was from many years ago. It was ahead of its time, hence never really took off.
Google “BumpTop”, I think that’s what it’s called. It’s a 3D desktop software.
It’s one of those things that sound super cool in theory, but in practice it’s 10 times worse than what we have now, unfortunately. When yo uthink about it, there’s no point in limiting ourselves by trying to mimic real world stuff when a computer allows us to skip those restrictions and do things that are impossible in real life, thus being way more efficient :P
I guess we are a few years away from Star Trek computers :-)
go look up Microsoft Bob and 3DNA Desktop. Old school programs that did exactly what you are talking about.
The problem is that while it can be beautifully done (3DNA was really cool), it is frustratingly inefficient the minute that you want to start multi-tasking and doing ‘work’.
A bit old.. Would be nice if we could get something til Ubuntu Compiz desktop cube though. Very nice.
At the end of the day, any eye-candy that requires animation is a waste of time and resources. It is fine to have an animation to cover transitions or loading time, but outside of that it is a useless distraction in the real world. Windows is primarily a business platform (something MS is finally remembering!), and business will not stomach things like Compiz being built into the OS. Maybe a 3rd party will come up with what you are looking for, but I would not hold my breath waiting for MS to do anything like that.
simple, but too bright colors I think…
I dont think they will be doing much in that area yet.. i am sure on later releases they would of looked at tthe icons in greater detail.. when ever we develop anything, peopel are always pointign out things that look wrong.. even if its not even a RC.. beta is a beta ;)
Windows 10 is not in beta right now, is in Alpha, beta is the last “test” version before full release.
Well in that case, they need to pay some attention to the look and feel.. i thought release was way off yet.
The icons and ugly an look like windows 95, how come they didn’t use Windows 8 icons?
“Personally, I still think the Vista icons look pretty, but that’s just me apparently.”
THANK YOU!
While they don’t fit into what’s currently there, they still look great none the less.
Can people complain about something more substantial.
Ok. Start Menu still lacks search bar, we are forced to waste taskbar space, the jump lists are still missing, we still cannot freely resize the start menu, and we still cannot pin to the left, under “places”. Essentially, nothing that 9926 ruined, has been fixed yet.
Isn’t cortana the new search bar? it works exactly the same, only it now has extra features. Though I do know there’s a bug with some people where pressing start and just typing doesn’t work properly.
I don’t care how they call it, I want search to be in the start menu, NOT on my taskbar.
MAKE YOUR OWN SYSTEM
But then Microsoft won’t get any of my money.
SHUT UP!
Ok. *runs away crying* ?
Honestly i couldn’t care less about Icons, how they look, where they are. As long as Microsoft focuses on the functionality of Windows 10 and makes the changes to be consistent across the board and it “Just work” i could give a rats (_)_) what the icons look like right now
You COULD care less? So you DO care what they look like? Good. Because you should.
No, he said he COULDN’T.
That is the correct way to say you care very little about something…. Honestly. you made me sign up for this website just to be a grammar Nazi.
I’ḿ using them on 7
“I’m just so tired of these word crimes…”
Just my 0.02…
I wonder if the underlying concern is that the overall fit and finish for Windows has become pretty poor and inconsistent. Windows still has some dialogs hidden away that look like Win16 if you look hard enough. I seem to recall one of the system font pickers looks pretty awful.
Some of the dialogs in Office haven’t received attention in a very long time.
Occasionally you’ll see Windows in the UI still have that weird double-height title-bar. They never even bothered to implement this style properly in Vista and then got bored of it.
MS change their visual look periodically for marketing reasons but never bother to do it completely. Windows is a jumble of half-baked and half-finished UI ideas and frankly this won’t cut it anymore.
Not to defend Microsoft or anything, but do consider that if they revamp dialogs, some people are going to get confused because it’s not looking like they expect it to be. That’s the reason I believe Microsoft stated why they hadn’t changed some dialogs like the system properties dialog in Vista.
I do praise the idea to get a more “graphical” icon set. And a more graphical user interface in general. The first screenshots we saw of Spartan were very clean and classy. I’m happy to see the end of this reflex of randomly adding tons of effects (transparency, halos, outlines, drop shadows) which too often made Windows look like a website made by an engineer …
However … I, as much as anyone else, sincerely hope these icons are place-holders…
Actually, I would be surprised if Microsoft isn’t testing different icon-sets, at least one of which test whether they shouldn’t ditch the isometric point of view altogether, since it seems strangely incompatible with a “flat” approach …
“However … I, as much as anyone else, sincerely hope these icons are place-holders…” did you read the article?
I do like the new icons a lot. They fit nicely into the modern design and still look familiar to Windows 7 users so they can understand them.
I wouldn’t expect any drastic changes to the icon set anymore. Only smaller tweaks. If you compare the Music folder icon from built 9926 to newer leaks, you can see how they will tweak the icons. More and brighter blue tones and less saturated yellow folders.
The cool thing about the new icons is the perspective. The problem of the Vista icons is that every icon has it’s own focus point. Which ends up looking terrible if you have multiple icons side by side.
The orthogonal perspective works better here and also reminds me how great the Windows 95 icons were back in the day.
Also cool is that the outlines of the new icons are always 1 pixel thick, no matter how large or small the icons are displayed.
Whoever is responsible for the creation of these icons needs to take over the iconography design for Windows 10, stat. This is how you design ‘modern’ icons that don’t resemble something whipped up in MSPaint in 20 minutes. From here: http://products(.)office(.)com/en-US/mac/mac-preview
Interesting… that is exactly how I view the above icons – as something drawn up in 20 minutes in Paint.
That said, I don’t really care what the fool things look like. Brains over beauty.
Yeah, no. You couldn’t re-create these in MS Paint, even if your life depended on it. In fact, please feel free to prove your claim by re-creating them in MS Paint!
I’d use a 16 year old version of photoshop, but the overall point is they look like an unimaginative afterthought, unlike say… the firefox logo.
Okay. Open a VM and run Photoshop 5.5 or 6.0 and recreate them. I’m waiting.
Nice try. I’ve got writing to do, not dub around with icons. I’ll reiterate my initial point. I don’t really care about the icons, I care about the substance a program offers. Since people are debating this and you offered these icons as proof, I mentioned my perspective for one reason: one person’s perception of an icon is not that of another. You like them, I don’t. I’m cool with that.
xD in the old versions of MS Paint (I’m talking of Win3.11) I was able to edit an image pixel by pixel, and maybe I could do those icons in a couple of years… but of course, MS removed that feature and now I’m dead!
I remember in 2000, that another student in my IT/Computing class in highschool created our yearbook cover in MS Paint hahah! Not exactly 3.11 (more Windows 98), but you get the idea.
haha some people can create real art in paint youtube(.)com/watch?v=xy-lV3MyVJw (mona lisa in MS paint if you didn’t see it yet)
@Nothinglastsforever:disqus @nellewrites:disqus I tried myself. lol :D
They’re not similar, but looks OK. :)
It took exactly 3-4 minutes for me.
No, @nellewrites:disqus and myself were referring to these:
Damn. They can’t be even drawn in Photoshop by normal users. (except professionals)
The only difference is that your lines are a bit thicker.
Better than the real ones. Go ahead and reclaim your US$ 100,000 check and promotion to Senior UI Manager (coming from an internship role lol).
Windows 10 is flat. OSX-Y isn’t (not completely). Icons with gradients aren’t suitable on Windows 10.
I don’t care what Microsoft wants Windows 10 to be. I didn’t ask for a flat Windows 10. The 47.5K users of Uservoice who asked for Aero Glass to return haven’t asked for a flat Windows 10.
Not everyone understands that “Aero glass” doesn’t just mean transparency but the aero design. Also, uservoice numbers aren’t very reliable, because there are a ton of people who’ve sockpuppeted votes (just look at the Iran-related suggestions).
I don’t think that’s fair to conflate the Iran/Persian sockpuppetry with the demand for Aero. The demand is everywhere, throughout all their mediums of receiving feedback. Check the feedback app for mentions of Aero. Check the Microsoft Answers Community for lengthy discussion of the ugliness of Metro and the request for the return of Aero.
I would indeed love a come back of Aero in some form. It’s kinda interesting that Microsoft abandoned Areo and Apple just picked it up with blurred transparency in their new design. Now, they have it all: “Areo” of the past and the modern (yet playful) flatness of the future while Microsoft is ending up with the design language that’s just a little different from the 8-bit era. What a shame!
Flat > The rest
Who cares what you care about or what you “asked for” ? I mean, seriously. People like you are dangerous. You have something of a psychopath.
No. Thanks.
yes please. I have a $500 GPU, it’s collecting dust with Windows 8 and 10.
Isn’t it interesting what shadows do? On the left the icon is devoid of shadow and simply blends into the background, making it difficult to discern the overall shape of the icon. Just another failure of taking the anti skeuomorphism flattening to the extreme.
And a bad background selection algorithm for the live tile.
Yes Beautiful icons. But sadly they aren’t “flat enough” for the lazy, flatard Win10 UI team. Maybe they can use the designers of MS Azure, the new portal is gorgeous and Microsoft’s best web app (it must be, you are playing with thousands of dollars there). Here are samples of the Azure portal icons, they are using SVG vector graphics and not images so they scale very well even on ultra high resolutions:
Wow. It seems like the design talent is everywhere in Microsoft, except within the Windows division! The PM for Windows 10’s UX is a programmer, too, not a designer! Fancy that.
This is my dreamed ‘Modern’ designed icons style.
replace the windows 10 ui designers with the office designers.
I’m on Windows 8.1 Pro right now and just opened the file explorer. How beautiful those icons look, realistic, modern and beautifully done. When something looks right, it doesn’t need to be changed because it just works. If I were to compare the file explorer of Windows 10 with the Win 8 explorer…..you can start to see how cartoony the Windows 10 file explorer looks with these flat icons……why flat? just why?
I really don’t mind the icons, they are insanely ugly which of course follows all the other ui elements in windows 10 so I guess my expectations were already low.
There was no such thing as “moving forward” in regards to windows 8.x, metro is backwards thinking and extremely regressive on the desktop, windows 95 had more features and functionality than any of the metro garbage could ever hope to have.
Windows 8.x was pretty much an experiment from Microsoft’s part. Sinofsky, after Windows 7’s success decided to experiment with the next Windows version to see what stuck along the people. People often complain about Sinofsky, what they don’t know is that Sinofsky was the design lead of Office versions 95 and 97, Program Manager of Office 2000, XP and 2003. He was the one that created the “ribbon”, first used in Office 2007. After that he and his team implemented it in Windows 7. In other words, the guy responsible for Windows 7, is the same guy that led the development of Windows 8.
Yes, I never disliked Sinofsky, he’s easy to make jokes about over the windows 8 debacle, I think the worst thing about windows 8 was Microsoft and their whole attitude behind it.
The arrogance, the customer contempt, the fanboys and shills, calling metro “modern”, hiding oem sales numbers, the list goes on…
Sinofsky however was really good on his past endeavors but seems he got lost with windows 8.
You’re flagrantly and very dishonestly ignoring the contributions of Jensen Harris and Julie Larson Green. It was never all Sinofsky.
Sinofsky was the head of design, Green was the head of the OOBE, and Harris was just the program manager.
That’s odd, because this article paints a very different picture of Jensen’s involvement with UX design, as in he was head of Windows UX through 7 and 8. http://www(.)geekwire(.)com/2014/windows-ux-leader-jensen-harris-left-launch-startup/
I remember that bald guy, yes Harris… talking in some videos exclusively about the metro design, how awesome it is and how they came up with the “revolutionary idea” with post-its in a wall lol (live tile -> a post-it)
Icons would have been loved if they weren’t too bright…….
Beautiful icons please. My multi monitor desktop GPU needs to earn it’s keep ;) Remember today’s high end desktop GPU is next years laptop/tablet GPU and in 3+ years will hopefully be pushing the eye candy in flagship phones. 2 steps forward but only one step backward is allowed :D
I think that this icon problem is more than just an appearance problem.
In fact it is impossible to content everyone. Some like them, some don’t care
and some don’t like them.
The problem is: it is not possible to choose between different themes (or not
easily). There will always be people who don’t like something. The only
solution is to let people personalize Windows. Personalisation options is what Windows is
lacking (compared to Linux where you can easily choose your desktop, icon them
etc).
The second problem is that the icons are old because they correspond to code
that is as old as they are.
The screenshot below is a good example of this (Taken in Windows 8.1 but the
problem is still there in Windows 10).
Version after version, Windows is becoming a pile of functionality added with
each new version and never adapted for the new releases. The example is
flagrant with the Disk manager inherited from before XP (not sure which version
exactly), today it is completely outdated and ineficient.
This stacking of functionality comes with a stacking of ugly icons for today
standards.
So please Microsoft: 1 give more choice to the user. 2 Unify the experience.
Windows 10 icons = Best Windows icons to date
Before being too sure that they are “just placeholders” … Current Office version uses the same set … Open Word, click open a file, and you’ll see very similar icons being used …
I do hope they’re placeholders, but I do at least keep in mind the possibility that they might not be …
extremely ugly and badly created! a serious step down in design. Ok, wee need a new modern set of icons, flat design but not these jokes!
“Also keep in mind that Microsoft will offer Windows 10 as a service” – Thats only for the Businesses , not for the regular users.
Aside from that lemme tell you this:
1 – Icons – Extremely Ugly , the Windows 98 Icons look better to me. They should give us the abillity to change those icons to Windows 7 Icons.
2 – Aero Glass – Must be added for those who like it , More options for the Transperancy must be added aswell.
3 – Cortana – Must work for all Regions instead of the 10 regions and 6 languages right now.
4 – Change the Ugly icons , or else Windows 8’s fate will be Good compared to the Windows 10’s One.
Wow, so Windows 10s fate depends on icons???
Im pretty sure a lot of people choose Operating systems by its visuals.
A lot of people including me who stare at the monitor for 12 hours prefer to look at something non intrusive , something that looks nice instead of bright two-colored Brick shaped icons.
So yeah For Many people Windows 10 fate depends on the Looks. You remember what happend to windows 8 and WHY it happend.
There is no reason to play smart with me mister , i never said anything the rest of the users dont think. Keep your “WOW”s.
I like the OS , the only problems for me and many of my colegues is the Visuals.
Icons more precisely.
You are right. Most of my friends is still in windows 7 cz of the same reason. They are really not a big fan of 8’s UI. But I felt fairly comfortable with that.
But 10 is a whole another story. I would use command promt rather than navigating through that annoying icons.
Sadly, I’m on a Mac and don’t have access to my Window 10 Preview machine, but IMHO, where Microsoft has executed beautifully on icons is in System Preferences. These are reflected in the new Phone OS releases, and I think that if we want to see where they’re going stylistically, it’s in the “Settings” area. It looks so much more polished than the rest of the system, and icons following that style would be great.