Microsoft Accidentally Shows Prototype UI For Next Windows Version

[jagdtigger]

7 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

What tiny resolution are you running at for it to be a problem... 

In case of small laptops for example 1366x768(and similar) resolution(s) are still pretty common. Besides why waste screen estate on a device that presumably lacks a touchscreen.

[jaslion]

5 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

What tiny resolution are you running at for it to be a problem... 

A laptop 15 inch 1080p. My issue is that I switch between a 10 and 11 device and every time I notice it very hard.

 

Also regular use a lot of my drawing and 3d programs had minor ui shifts and it's super upsetting as this is well over a decade of muscle memory interference.

[StDragon]

My PC isn't a tablet. And the task bar is too thick and tall with wasted space at the bottom. Keep it as thin as Windows 10 as it's already perfection.

[tim0901]

12 hours ago, LAwLz said:

I don't like the idea of losing the start menu.

The Start button is still visible on the taskbar/dock? It's the leftmost icon? I've not watched the keynote so maybe there's more I'm missing, but there's no suggestion in the images above - or the linked article - that the Start menu is disappearing (again).

12 hours ago, LAwLz said:

The dock is taking up too much space. I want my taskbar as small as possible. Vertical space is precious, especially on laptops, so ever pixel counts.

The dock looks much smaller in the original screenshot than in Zac Bowden's unofficial mockup. In the original it looks fine, but in the mockup it looks comically enormous - it's completely off in its proportions.

 

Some rough measurements from MS paint:

 

Win 10: 40/1080 = 3.7% (of display height)

Win 11: 48/1080 = 4.44%

Keynote image: ~22/475 = 4.6%

Unofficial Mockup: 100/1280 = 7.8%

 

Given how close the percentages are, I'm inclined to believe that the taskbar in this "leaked" screenshot is the same height in the real world as the one in Windows 11. It's just got a gap of a few pixels beneath it which, at least to me, suggests it is meant to auto-hide while you're using full-screen apps, just like in MacOS. And I'd be okay with that - as you said, more vertical height = better. Zac's unofficial mockup is showing this new UI at 175% UI scaling compared to the keynote image/Win 11. It's just flat-out deceptive.

 

Same goes for the bar at the top; it's much bigger in the unofficial mockup than in the original screenshot - that much is blatantly obvious from a side-by-side comparison. And we've also seen no suggestion as to what happens to/with it when a window is used in full-screen mode. It might disappear, it might integrate with the top bar of the window (like MacOS), who knows? It could work really well, but we have no idea how it's meant to work since we only have a single screengrab to go off. And as such I feel judging it too harshly at this point is very premature - especially to the point of saying things like:

9 hours ago, LAwLz said:

I think whoever came up with this design needs to get fired

I mean, have you heard of the concept of prototyping? It's a part of the development process where you experiment and try new things to see what works. Creating things that you eventually decide you don't like/don't work is exactly how you find out what does work. Prototyping and experimentation are very much fundamental elements of product design. And to quote the linked article:

Quote

my sources tell me that the UI briefly shown off at Ignite yesterday is representative of the design goals that Microsoft is hoping to achieve with the next version of Windows.

...

I've seen different variations of this design layout, including a version that houses the system icons/elements along the top in a translucent bar instead of just floating on the desktop.

aka this isn't even a screenshot of a functional system, it's just a mockup. And on top of that, it's one of many concepts for Win 12's UI that are floating around. This operating system isn't meant to release for 24 months yet - this is very much just concept art at this stage. Just because we see it here, doesn't mean it's guaranteed to arrive in Win 12 at all.

 

If they're 2 years off, they're nowhere near at the point of development where such changes are set in stone - remember it's believed that work on Win 11 only started ~12 months before it was released. There's still plenty of time for things to change between now and Win 12's launch. And who knows, when you actually use it, it might work really well! As others have noted, many aspects of this design are very similar to MacOS: the top bar, the floating dock etc. If these concepts can work in MacOS, I see no reason why they couldn't work in Windows too.

Quote

It seems like this was accidentally shown since the actual keynote was about something else.

Microsoft have clearly chosen to show this concept now to gauge the public's reception for the idea before they get too far into development - there is absolutely zero chance that this was remotely an accident in any way, shape or form. This is crowdsourced design feedback.

[Supreme Calamitas]

Are they literally going to revamp the UI every version for now on? While siminteniously bring nothing to the table

 

Although I don't hate it, task bar on top is a step in the right direction

[hishnash]

On 10/16/2022 at 12:35 AM, RedRound2 said:

That definitely starting to eerily look like macOS...

The new UI also looks very touch-screen optimized even though 90% of the computers running the OS has mouse and keyboard as their primary input device smh

To be honest it looks more like iPadOS than macOS... as you say very touch screen focused but even then it seems to large, the space used for the luncher bar (to whatever they will call it at the bottom of the screen) is massive compared to the text size. And why would you expand the bar to the edge of the screen if nothing is in that space... 

Moving the notification tray and icons to top right is yes copying macOS/iOS/android but I think given the adoption of mobile devices users now expect this, they do not expect to go bottom right for such stuff. 

However putting something like the weather top left seems like a large wast of space, macOS of cource solves this by putting the active (focused) window's menu bar top left so that this menu bar no longer takes up space within the app but MS seem to be pushing apps to get rid of the classic File, Edit, .... menu bar as much as possible over the years so what wold they put there.. 

[Dominik W]

Why do I like it...

I feel like it's cool.

 

Oh well lol take that everyone!

[emosun]

This is what happens when you have to justify your job existing. Designers bouncing back and forth between round and square UI.

You spend year developing a UI , release it , perfect it...... then someone new comes in and does it all over again only because they don't want to be fired. Even though no UI has done a single thing new and useful since the 2000s they gotta keep their job somehow

[CommanderAlex]

On 10/15/2022 at 7:23 AM, LAwLz said:

During a Microsoft Ignite keynote, Microsoft briefly showed a computer running Windows with a different GUI. It seems like this was accidentally shown since the actual keynote was about something else.

The leading theory right now is that this is a prototype of the GUI that will launch in 2024, when the next major version of Windows is expected to be released.

 

The new GUI features a MacOS like dock at the bottom as well as a status/search bar at the top with things like battery life and the weather. 

This leak that was shown by Microsoft themselves looks fairly similar to previous leaks, but with some minor differences. It is therefore not too far fetched to assume the final UI will look something along these lines, but with some minor tweaks.

So it looks like Microsoft is going to steamroll Windows 11 over like they did Windows 8.1 and go straight to Windows 12 in 2 years??? 

 

Wow. 

[Guest]

I mean Windows started embracing features GNOME 3 (or maybe 40?) already started years ago, and I'm definitely not surprised why.

(I did tried GNOME, it's okay. Not the worst UI but I've seen better.)

 

Actually the prototype taskbar gives me Deepin vibes.

[Ultraforce]

1 hour ago, emosun said:

This is what happens when you have to justify your job existing. Designers bouncing back and forth between round and square UI.

You spend year developing a UI , release it , perfect it...... then someone new comes in and does it all over again only because they don't want to be fired. Even though no UI has done a single thing new and useful since the 2000s they gotta keep their job somehow

For UI design I don't see why they couldn't work on aspects other than just the basic desktop like one that I personally appreciate is the updated notepad.

[GhostRoadieBL]

If I wanted a MacOS UI I would just get a Mac. The win11 (and now 12) taskbar is a pain to use and setup, the reason why the oldschool Win7 and earlier start menu lasted so long was it was convenient and easy. This new win11 one (and somewhat windows 10 before stripping away all the pins) are cluttered and have far too many clicks for basic functions like shutting down.

 

Everything just takes so many more clicks than it needs to and often ends up right back to the same old familiar task windows instead of just going there first.

Really hoping they keep the god folder to reduce the number of clicks to basic system information and functionality

[BetteBalterZen]

5 hours ago, Dominik W said:

Why do I like it...

I feel like it's cool.

 

Oh well lol take that everyone!

I agree. This UI looks nice. But I understand why most may not like it. 

[Stahlmann]

Honestly, i think it looks good. I have the taksbar on auto-hide anyway so even if it would take up a bit more space i wouldn't mind.

[LAwLz]

On 10/16/2022 at 2:40 AM, tim0901 said:

The Start button is still visible on the taskbar/dock? It's the leftmost icon? I've not watched the keynote so maybe there's more I'm missing, but there's no suggestion in the images above - or the linked article - that the Start menu is disappearing (again).

Sorry I missed that.

 

 

On 10/16/2022 at 2:40 AM, tim0901 said:

The dock looks much smaller in the original screenshot than in Zac Bowden's unofficial mockup. In the original it looks fine, but in the mockup it looks comically enormous - it's completely off in its proportions.

Good catch. But this UI will still end up in less vertical space. Not just because the dock is larger than the taskbar, but also because of the the top bar.

I don't think percentage of height is a good measurement either since that will change depending on the resolution. The screenshot shows a Surface Studio. It has a resolution of 4500x3000.

 

 

Size of task bar in pixels:

Win 10 - 40

Win 11 - 48 (I'll take your word for it)

Keynote image: ~27/475 (when including the wasted pixels at the bottom, below the dock). If we scale that ratio up to 4500 vertical pixels we get that the dock is roughly 170 pixels. 

 

The dock is over 5 times as large as the task bar in Windows 11, and that's without including the roughly 70 pixels the top bar takes up.

 

 

Now, chances are the UI is set to a different scale on the Surface Studio. Maybe it is set to 200%. But even if we assume the elements will be half the size on a regular computer, we're still talking about going from 40 pixels of UI elements, to 120 pixels. The UI takes up 3 times as much vertical space.

[pas008]

not welcoming change is sign of getting old

 

i find fun in all windows and i'm sure someone will put classic shell on it

so whats the problem

oh change and stubbornness

[LAwLz]

1 hour ago, pas008 said:

not welcoming change is sign of getting old

 

i find fun in all windows and i'm sure someone will put classic shell on it

so whats the problem

oh change and stubbornness

I don't have anything against change.

I have something against change that is bad, and this is objectively bad. It goes against mathematical models for how user interfaces should be designed to be easy to use.

 

The whole "you just don't like change" argument is so bad. It's not only a logical fallacy (appeal to novelty), it is also wrong. Most people don't have any issue with change, as long as it is a change for the better.

When I changed my graphics card from a 1060 to a 3070 I didn't go "damn, I hate this change where my games now get 200% higher FPS than before".

When I changed my car I didn't go "damn, I hate now my car now connects to my phone and lets me navigate with GPS, play Spotify and plenty of other things".

When Microsoft changed from the start screen in Windows 8 to the start menu in Windows 10 I didn't go "I wish they had kept the start screen because I hate change so much". 

 

 

I can probably think of 100 different changes I have been happy about in the last year.

Let's not pretend like I dislike this early prototype of Windows 12 or whatever it will be called because it is different. I dislike it because it is a change for the worse and I don't see much benefit to it.

 

I welcome good changes with open arms. When rumors about Windows 11 appeared, I made a thread where I listed 24 changes I hoped to see with the release of Windows 11. I was literally asking for 24 different things to change. 

 

Again, I am not against changes. Saying that I am is a strawman argument.

I am against bad changes. I am against pointless changes. I am against changes that have severe drawbacks.

 

 

I hope this is either an early prototype that will be scrapped before release, or that it is a tablet mode and the desktop mode will look completely different.

[pas008]

7 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

I don't have anything against change.

I have something against change that is bad, and this is objectively bad. It goes against mathematical models for how user interfaces should be designed to be easy to use.

 

The whole "you just don't like change" argument is so bad. It's not only a logical fallacy (appeal to novelty), it is also wrong. Most people don't have any issue with change, as long as it is a change for the better.

When I changed my graphics card from a 1060 to a 3070 I didn't go "damn, I hate this change where my games now get 200% higher FPS than before".

When I changed my car I didn't go "damn, I hate now my car now connects to my phone and lets me navigate with GPS, play Spotify and plenty of other things".

When Microsoft changed from the start screen in Windows 8 to the start menu in Windows 10 I didn't go "I wish they had kept the start screen because I hate change so much". 

 

 

I can probably think of 100 different changes I have been happy about in the last year.

Let's not pretend like I dislike this early prototype of Windows 12 or whatever it will be called because it is different. I dislike it because it is a change for the worse and I don't see much benefit to it.

 

I welcome good changes with open arms. When rumors about Windows 11 appeared, I made a thread where I listed 24 changes I hoped to see with the release of Windows 11. I was literally asking for 24 different things to change. 

 

Again, I am not against changes. Saying that I am is a strawman argument.

I am against bad changes. I am against pointless changes. I am against changes that have severe drawbacks.

 

 

I hope this is either an early prototype that will be scrapped before release, or that it is a tablet mode and the desktop mode will look completely different.

did you like 8?

i find fun in them all

and if you know windows shortcuts doesnt really matter

i continuously see new windows new ui and people cry constantly

[LAwLz]

1 minute ago, pas008 said:

did you like 8?

i find fun in them all

and if you know windows shortcuts doesnt really matter

i continuously see new windows new ui and people cry constantly

No I did not like Windows 8. Why do you ask?

 

I don't use an OS because it is fun. An OS is to me a tool. I don't want my hammer to only work when held at a special angle because that's "fun". I don't want a screwdriver that only works when whistling because it's fun.

I don't want my OS to shove a bunch of ads in my face, dedicate a lot of valuable space to colorful icons and stuff like weather information because it is "fun".

 

I find those things frustrating, not fun.

 

 

And yes, it matters even if I know shortcuts. Knowing that the windows button opens the start menu does not help when the issue I am having is that precious vertical space is being taken away from me for no apparent reason.

[pas008]

3 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

No I did not like Windows 8. Why do you ask?

 

I don't use an OS because it is fun. An OS is to me a tool. I don't want my hammer to only work when held at a special angle because that's "fun". I don't want a screwdriver that only works when whistling because it's fun.

I don't want my OS to shove a bunch of ads in my face, dedicate a lot of valuable space to colorful icons and stuff like weather information because it is "fun".

 

I find those things frustrating, not fun.

 

 

And yes, it matters even if I know shortcuts. Knowing that the windows button opens the start menu does not help when the issue I am having is that precious vertical space is being taken away from me for no apparent reason.

windows 8 and 8.1 was great tool for touch screen and worked great with keyboard and mouse just like any other windows but you didnt like change on how to use the tool

 

you are judging a book by its cover I always give it a "REAL" try not oh no i quit after 3 days

and I love learning new things though and much of it is the same just different looking

[Sauron]

I don't especially hate it as long as the widgets disappear when you place a window over them. I just wish they'd give the users more customizability... rounded corners, taskbar position and size, widgets etc. are all things that could easily be tweaked by users with a couple sliders and checkboxes. If they really wanted to please me this would all go through some plain text configuration file that can be edited directly for more advanced users. Of course it's never going to happen.

On 10/15/2022 at 1:23 PM, LAwLz said:

The selling pitch of Windows 11 was to unify and modernize Windows, that they paid attention to every single pixel to make sure it was perfect.

[Forbidden Wafer]

20 minutes ago, pas008 said:

did you like 8?

The only good thing was search. And they completely broke it in Win10. 

[goodtofufriday]

On 10/15/2022 at 7:35 AM, RedRound2 said:

That definitely starting to eerily look like macOS...

The new UI also looks very touch-screen optimized even though 90% of the computers running the OS has mouse and keyboard as their primary input device smh

 

I agree, all seniors at Microsoft seriously need to have heartfelt meeting over what Windows should look like and then bloody stick to it.

 

It seems like they're changing it for the sake of changing something and completely forgetting the fact that there are some stupid issues on Windows like having two different settings screens or having some parts of Windows look like from XP days while others look something in between of current design and Windows vista.

First thought was that it looked like windows skin on a mac system

[tim0901]

6 hours ago, LAwLz said:

Good catch. But this UI will still end up in less vertical space. Not just because the dock is larger than the taskbar, but also because of the the top bar.

I don't think percentage of height is a good measurement either since that will change depending on the resolution. The screenshot shows a Surface Studio. It has a resolution of 4500x3000.

 

Size of task bar in pixels:

Win 10 - 40

Win 11 - 48 (I'll take your word for it)

Keynote image: ~27/475 (when including the wasted pixels at the bottom, below the dock). If we scale that ratio up to 4500 vertical pixels we get that the dock is roughly 170 pixels. 

 

The dock is over 5 times as large as the task bar in Windows 11, and that's without including the roughly 70 pixels the top bar takes up.

 

Now, chances are the UI is set to a different scale on the Surface Studio. Maybe it is set to 200%. But even if we assume the elements will be half the size on a regular computer, we're still talking about going from 40 pixels of UI elements, to 120 pixels. The UI takes up 3 times as much vertical space.

I hadn't even noticed that was a surface studio - I had assumed it to be a fictional device.

 

The problem judging the size of the UI elements off of the specs of that display though, is you're assuming the UI is acually running on it. But it's not - that photo isn't real. It's just a photoshop of a UI concept onto the body of a Surface Studio. The display wouldn't be nearly that visible on camera if it were actually real, and why isn't the reflection/glare you can see on the outer bezel also visible on the rest of the display? Because the UI isn't really there.

 

Most likely answer? Someone simply took the UI concept - which was probably drawn to simulate the 1080p most people use - and dragged it onto the Surface Studio's display for the purpose of this "leak". Hence the stupid pixel numbers you're getting. If you assume it's a 1080p image, the pixel numbers are "fine" at ~60 pixels high including the gap.

 

But again, I think it's highly likely that such a dock/taskbar would be intended to auto-hide. This would make a lot of sense in a UI intended to be used on not only desktops and laptops, but even foldable tablets - less static UI elements is much better for OLEDs.

[Avocado Diaboli]

2 hours ago, Forbidden Wafer said:

The only good thing was search. And they completely broke it in Win10. 

Not really, people just don't know that by default it indexes pretty much nothing. You can add all your drives to the search index and it performs perfectly fine once it's through.