Microsoft is changing even more Windows 10 icons as part of their latest Insider Preview Build 21343. The company has already redesigned the icons on your integrated applications and a few others, such as Windows Security, Narrator and Notepad. And back Iin 2018, Microsoft gave its Office icons a full overhaul. Even more changes took place in 2020. (To be honest, I have not yet gotten used to the changes to the Office icon, although I have come to accept them.)
This last round of changes, which should eventually be implemented on all Windows 10 computers, are as dramatic as the Office icon changes. But is it just me or are the Windows 10 icons increasingly similar to the macOS icons over time?
Let’s start with the drive and trash icons. Instead of a three-quarter view, they both face forward and look similar to the same icons in macOS. Annex A:
Notice how the green dot on the drive icon has now moved from right to left. The drive icon on macOS Big Sur and Catalina (the icon that appears when you insert a flash drive into the USB port) are also on the frontfacing but the the green dot is on the right side, which is where the dot is on the current Windows 10 drive icon. The new Windows drive icon has less inclination, but nevertheless looks more like the Mac.
The new Windows rcycle bin is also more like the Mac than before. It is also facing forward and slightly higher. The macOperating system trash The icon is circular, not rectangular, but it is also partially transparent, with papers almost overflowing at the top. The paper is one a little bit more colorful than the Windows version, but still.
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As if the macOS-like icons weren’t bad enough, Microsoft is completely redesigning the icons in the Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Images, Music and Videos folders. Annex B:
Microsoft says it is redoing these icons to make them “Easier to differentiate them at first sight”. I would say that the current icons are already easy to distinguish, given that each icon already contains a musical note, arrow, etc., but these pieces of the icons are around an open folder instead of being incorporated in the center as the new icons in the image above. Do you know what else has icons like that? macOS.
They are not so colorful, since Apple has chosen to leave all its folders in a single shade of blue. But they all have different icons in the center to distinguish one from the other. The new Windows 10 Images and Desktop icons in particular also have different shades of blue, like macOS, but the rest of the new icons are more colorful – just like the colorful macOS icon bar on the desktop.
For Big Sur in particular, Apple wanted its icons seem more consistent with those on iOS. Microsoft is trying to do the same with these new Windows 10 icons.
“Several changes, such as the orientation of folder icons and standard file type icons, have been made for greater consistency in Microsoft products that show files,” said Microsoft in its recent Windows Insider blog.
This is very good, but it seems to be related to a greater tendency to simplify the icons as much as possible. If you compare macOS Catalina to Big Sur icon changes, for example, you will see noticeable changes in the Calculator, Calendar and Mail icons in particular. (Not everyone was a fan of these, any.)
When we look back, when Microsoft started changing more of the Windows 10 icons in 2020, he even said he wanted to maintain a consistent look across Android, iOS and macOS. Having more Mac-like icons definitely helps in this mission, although it seems to serve to make Windows 10 itself it looks more like a Mac instead of standing out. Maybe I hate changes, but these new icons are a no for me.