Now, as expected, Windows 11 leaks begin
Windows 11 Enterprise Overview Windows 11 The main part of this announcement was supposed to be a presentation of the main changes to the user interface, codenamed Sun Valley. As you know, a significant part of the UX changes will be borrowed from the Windows 10X shell, and Windows 10X will not hit the market. Main features of Windows 11 Enterprise Windows 11 will have a completely new design. Microsoft clearly needs a good reason to withdraw its previous statements and still abandon Windows 10 by introducing a new operating system number. And the brand new design is perfect for this.
The Home and System items float above the bottom bar
The Redmond giant has long been preparing a redesign for an update codenamed Sun Valley (“Sun Valley”) – apparently, it was under this name for Windows 11. The Sun Valley project has been appearing on the network for a long time – Microsoft regularly leaked information about the new interface style, insiders shared previously unknown information, and the most famous designers in their circles developed realistic concepts based on all this data. Start is the business card and face of every recent version of Windows. It is not surprising that in Windows 11 developers will change it again, but not so much functionally as visually: the Start window will be above the bottom bar. Of course, these small changes make the system much fresher.
Right angles will disappear, replaced by fillets
Judging by the information coming from the network, Microsoft will not radically change the “interior” of this menu: the updates will only affect the design of the window itself. The Control Panel will also be floating and will have the exact same design as Start. The Action Center will be combined with the control buttons: something similar has been used for a long time in some other operating systems. Almost all references to this new menu indicate that it will be an island: controls will be in a separate panel, notifications in another, and specific elements (such as the player) in another separate panel. In fact, insiders and concept designers disagree on this issue: some are sure that Microsoft will not change its traditions and will keep right angles, while others are sure that in 2021 Microsoft will follow the trend of fillets.
There will be a transparent background with a blur everywhere
The latter fits the definition of “all new Windows” better: menus alone are not enough to make a new design truly new. Fillets are expected to affect practically everything in the system, from context menus and system panels to all application windows. True, on this issue too, the opinions of concept designers differ: some draw fillets in all possible interface elements, others combine them with right angles. The web is divided on the style of the showcase island, the drawing of corners and the levitation effect of the menu, but almost everyone agrees on the transparency of the showcases. Most leaks and design renders show transparency and blur in all windows, at least in the Start menu or Explorer.
A new font has already appeared
In addition, these effects are also found in the assembly of the canceled Windows 10X operating system, which Microsoft developed in parallel with the Sun Valley project for dual-screen devices and weak gadgets. The so-called acrylic transparency involves the use of new effects when hovering over elements, as well as increased spacing between elements: the areas of the interface with which the user interacts will certainly become larger, and the titles of the pages will be condensed. Windows 11 will probably use the default Segoe UI Variable responsive font, which has already appeared in Windows 10 Build 21376 for Insiders.