Teacher Ma shared an article in the group, read to feel very interesting, here to share with you. Today, the Windows 10 UI looks pretty modern, but it’s not as “consistent” as most of us think, with many design elements borrowed from previous versions. Microsoft is working to cohesive UX in its next operating system, which seems pertinent.

  • The original link: ntdotdev.wordpress.com/2021/02/06/…

You’ve probably heard that if we dig deep into the Windows 10 UI, we’ll probably find some design elements from the Windows 3.X era. But is that really the case? In this article, we’ll explore how many different layers of UI are available in Windows 10 and when they first appeared.

For experimental purposes, I chose the latest Version of Windows 10 (released February 6, 2021), Windows 10 Build 21301.

So, without further ado, let’s begin!

Level 1: Fluent Design

We’ll start with the latest and greatest UI layer, Fluent Design. The UI was first released in 2017 and later introduced in the WIndows 10 1803 update. Fluent Design is a radically redesigned version of Modern Design Language 2 (MDL2), aiming to bring elements with light, depth, motion, texture and scale. At the same time, it also brings a new lighting effect and acrylic translucent background.

Today, most UWP applications have been updated to use elements provided by the new smooth design, as well as some front-end elements, including the Start menu, event center, and login page.

While Fluent Design has received critical acclaim, many die-hard fans feel it’s too late and not fully applied — only some features have been expanded to follow the new Design style.

Here are some pictures of Fluent Design:

Layer 2: Metro

As we continue to delve deeper into the operating system, we’ll also see a number of design elements that haven’t been updated since Windows 8/8.1.

The obvious ones are: volume controller, USB popup and some elements of the login page:

There are other less obvious Metro style elements, such as the launch page (soon to be new) and the Resume production Settings page:

You know what? The rotation point loading animation was first introduced in Windows 8 Build 7989:

Layer 3: Windows 8 Win32 UI elements

Ok, now let’s move on to the third UI layer, which is the Windows 8 Win32 style design element.

Like Windows 10, Windows 8 suffers from inconsistent UI styles (for better or worse). However, Windows 8 does offer some nice improvements to key user interface elements, such as the file explorer and task manager. While they improved in later Windows 10 updates, the changes were minimal.

Of course, one of the major improvements Windows 8 brings is a redesigned file transfer box:

There are also changes that have been made since Windows 7, so the next thing we want to talk about is the fourth layer of UI.

Layer 4: Windows 7 UI elements

Windows 7 is easily one of the most popular releases of all time, largely because it has so many great improvements over Windows Vista. It brings a lot of new features, not quite as important as what Vista brought, but it certainly makes Windows 7 a very smooth system, and an absolute success compared to Windows XP. In addition, Windows 7 comes with the well-known Ribbon UI. The UI is ported to Office 2007, and the new Ribbon UI updates include Paint and WordPad.

There was a time when Microsoft was going to ditch the classic drawing app and replace it with the latest 3D drawing app, but the idea was scrapped after a lot of backlash from users.

Other features that were updated in Windows 7 and still exist today include: Windows Media Player 12, Remote desktop connection, and some file dialog boxes:

Level 5: Windows Vista UI elements

Now, let’s look at the fifth layer, the Windows Vista UI.

Windows Vista is destined to be a version of Windows that will go down in history. It brings a lot of useful modernization, and almost everything on the operating system has been improved in one way or another, whether it’s the boot loader or the driver model. But, as we know today, Windows Vista turned out to be almost the worst version of Windows ever, largely because it had so many problems at the start. However, we can’t ignore its advantage, which is the UI. It has redesigned some areas that haven’t been updated since Windows 95, and one of the most interesting updates is the introduction of the so-called Aero wizard, which replaces the Wizard97 wizard.

The rest of the redesign was largely retained in Windows 10, including the control panel, search programs, and Windows Fax and Scan.

By the way, did you know that WIndows 10 reverts to Vista’s startup screen under very, very specific circumstances? This can happen when your graphics card doesn’t support the video mode used by the standard boot screen.

Layer 6: Windows XP UI elements

Now, let’s move on to layer 6, which is Windows XP.

Believe it or not, XP doesn’t have many UI elements that make it all the way to Windows 10. This is probably because most of the features have been updated in the Windows 2000 version. However, Windows 10 still retains some of the file pop-ups from XP, such as the one you see when installing a driver:

Layer 7: Windows 2000 UI elements

Okok, here we are at layer 7, Windows 2000.

Windows 2000 is a huge milestone for Microsoft’s NT family of operating systems, an operating system designed for high-end individual users and servers. It also serves as a stepping stone to a new, unified version of Microsoft Windows. However, Windows 2000 is still an enterprise-oriented operating system, so it has a number of new features designed for high-end users.

One of the most important updates was the addition of the Administrative Console (MMC), whose UI elements have remained unchanged since then:

Another new feature introduced by default in Windows 2000 is the Windows Installer, did you know that? Its icon has never changed!

Another UI element that hasn’t changed is the Windows Version description box, which was first introduced in Windows 2000 Build 1946.

While Windows 2000 introduced a number of features aimed at high-end users, Windows 95 May be the most significant update yet. It introduced many basic features that are still in use today, including the Start menu, right-click menu, taskbar, and garbage collection. While some features have certainly been updated over the years, others remain.

So, let’s look at the eighth floor.

Layer 8: Windows 95/NT 4.0 UI elements

This element dates back to the days when people turned on screen savers to protect their precious CRT screens.

Another element that has hardly changed is the “running” program:

Another common UI element that has clearly stood the test of time is the Folder properties box:

There are many, many UI elements that haven’t been touched much since Windows 95. Will these designs last forever? Haha, I’ll leave that to your own judgment.

Layer 9: Windows 3.1 and DOS…

Well, this probably isn’t a separate UI layer, because I haven’t found UI elements that predate Windows 95 (although my gut tells me that such UI elements exist). However, there is a file in Windows 10 called moricons.dll that contains a large number of old ICONS from the DOS era. Like the following:

Haha, that’s a lot. As you probably know, Microsoft is looking to overhaul Windows’ UI in an update codenamed Sun Valley to make the UI design consistent across the operating system. But, as we’ve seen, Windows is a behemoth as an operating system. Will their efforts to create a consistent user experience really succeed? I guess only time will tell.

Thanks for reading.