14 DAY TRIAL // Now that the Fluent Design facelift has reached a rather advanced stage in Windows 10, Microsoft is ready for another design overhaul in the operating system.
Rumor has it that the company is working on bringing rounded corners to Windows 10, replacing the sharp ones that served as the foundation of what many of us know as the Metro UI.
While Microsoft itself hasn’t confirmed that it’s ready to embrace rounded corners in its desktop operating system, the software giant did drop several hints that this is the direction it wants to embrace in the long term for Windows 10.
Back in early May, a screenshot of what appeared to be an early version of a redesigned search UI made the rounds, providing us with a quick glimpse into this refined interface that Microsoft wants to introduce based on rounded corners.
Supposed to be finalized in the 20H1 update (which is due in the spring of 2020), this restyled UI is part of the Fluent Design makeover, albeit it wasn’t included when Microsoft announced the new design language a few years ago.
A few weeks ago, Microsoft itself published a design proposal on GitHub to provide developers with additional information on new controls that could be used in UWP apps. Once again, rounded corners are part of this push, as the company itself explained in its GitHub project.
“Update default control styles with rounded corners and make them easy to customize. Developers should not have to retemplate the controls to "unround" the corners or round them further,” Sravya Vishnubhatla, Program Manager in Microsoft’s Windows Fluent Design team, said.
Another hint that rounded corners are at least under consideration at Microsoft is the redesign of several product icons, which themselves use this design choice. The recently launched Windows Terminal icon comes with rounded corners too, and such a design would perfectly fit a facelifted Windows UI overall.
Clearly, rounded corners in Windows 10 are currently in prototype phase at Microsoft, if not a certain thing already. Given they’re supposed to go live in the spring of 2020, there’s a chance that Redmond is currently working on the release schedule, and as it typically happens when such changes are released, users in the Windows Insider program should be the first to try them out.
While Microsoft seems to be a big supporter of rounded corners in the long term, this new facelift was received with mixed reactions by users out there. Obviously, there are lots of Windows adopters who just love the refined UI, but at the same time, others believe the Metro-based style should be retained.
This feedback isn’t necessarily surprising, as the exact same thing happened in 2012 when Microsoft decided to give up on Aero and go for the Metro overhaul. Many liked the new look of Windows 78, yet some users wanted the classic appearance of Windows 7 back, along with the familiar features like the Start menu.
Since Microsoft hasn’t yet made a final decision on this, or even if it made a public announcement does not exist, it’s important to make yourselves heard, especially because such a change would be here for the long term.
Do you like rounded corners in Windows (based on the concepts above) or should Microsoft just stick with the existing interface with sharp corners? Would you like a Windows 7-based UI in Windows 10 or should the software giant push harder for this Fluent Design UI revamp?
Let us know what you think in the box after the jump.