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Windows 11 Pro Introducing Windows 11
The main part of this announcement was supposed to be the presentation of a significant change to the user interface, codenamed Sun Valley. As we know, a significant part of the UX changes will be borrowed from the Windows 10X shell, and Windows 10X will not hit the market. Now, as expected, the leaks about Windows 11 begin. Windows 11 Pro Features Windows 11 will receive a completely new design. Microsoft clearly needs a good reason to reverse its past claims and abandon Windows 10 by introducing a new OS number.
Startup and system items float above the bottom bar
And for this purpose a completely new design is ideal. The Redmond giant has long been preparing a redesign for an update codenamed Sun Valley (“Sun Valley”) – apparently, this was the name Windows 11. The Sun Valley project has been floating around the Internet for a long time – Microsoft regularly leaked details of the new interface style, insiders shared previously unknown information, and the most famous designers in their circles drew realistic concepts based on all this data. The Start menu is the business card and face of every recent version of Windows. It is not surprising that in Windows 11, developers will transform it again, but not so much in functional terms as in visual terms: the Start window will float above the bottom bar.
Right angles will disappear and will be replaced by fillets
You must admit that this small change makes the system much fresher. Judging by the information coming from the network, Microsoft will not radically change the “insides” of this menu – the innovations will concern only the design of the window itself. The control panel will also float, and its design will be exactly the same as “Start”. The Action Center will be combined with control buttons: a similar one has long been used in some other operating systems. Almost all references to this new menu indicate that it will be divided into islands: control buttons will be placed on a separate panel, notifications on another, and specific elements (such as a player) on a separate panel.
There will be a translucent background with blur everywhere
In truth, insiders and concept designers disagree on this point: some are convinced that Microsoft will not change its traditions and will maintain the right perspective, while others are convinced that in 2021 Microsoft will follow the network trend. The latter fits the definition of “completely new Windows” better: simply hovering over the menus is not enough for a new design to be considered truly new. The networks should 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. There is disagreement on the web about the style of displaying island windows, the design of corners and the levitation effect of menus, but almost everyone is unanimous about the transparency of windows.
New font that has already been shown
The vast majority of leaks and design renders show transparency and blur in all windows, at least in the Start menu or Explorer. In addition, these effects are also present in the assembly of the canceled Windows 10X operating system, which Microsoft was developing 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 page titles will be thickened. Most likely Windows 11 will use the default responsive font Segoe UI Variable, which has already appeared in Windows 10 Build 21376 for Insiders.