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Windows 11 Pro Overview
Windows 11. The main part of this announcement should be the presentation of a significant change to the UI, codenamed Sun Valley. As we know, a significant part of the UX changes will be carried over by the Windows 10X shell and Windows 10X will not be launched. Now, as expected, the information leak about Windows 11 begins.
Windows 11 Pro Features
Windows 11 will get a completely new design. Microsoft clearly needs a good reason to go back on its previous claims and abandon Windows 10 by introducing a new OS number. And a completely new design is ideal for that. The Redmond giant has long been preparing a redesign for an update codenamed Sun Valley (“Sun Valley”) – under this name, apparently, it was Windows 11. The Sun Valley project has been flickering on the network for a long time – Microsoft regularly leaked the details of the new interface style, insiders shared the previously unknown information, and popular designers in their circles drew realistic concepts based on all this data.
The start and system items float above the bottom bar. Start is the business card and face of every current version of Windows. Not surprisingly, in Windows 11 the developers are going to redesign it again, but not so much in functional terms, but in visual terms – the start window will float above the bottom bar. It must be admitted that this small change makes the system look much fresher. Judging by information from the network, Microsoft is not going to radically change the “interiors” of this menu – the innovations will only affect the design of the window itself. The control panel will also be floating, and its design will exactly match the “Start”. The Action Center will be combined with the control keys – a similar one has long been used in some other operating systems. Almost all mentions of this new menu indicate that it will be isolated – control keys will be on a separate panel, notifications on another, and certain elements (like a player) on a separate panel.
The right angles will disappear, they will be replaced by rounded ones. In fact, insiders and concept developers disagree on this point – some are convinced that Microsoft will not change its traditions and will preserve the right angles, while others are convinced that in 2021 Microsoft will follow the mesh fashion. The latter fits better with the definition of “completely new Windows” – just hovering over the menus is not enough to consider a new design truly new. Meshes should affect virtually everything in the system, from context menus and system windows to all application windows. True, the opinions of concept designers also differ on this issue – some draw roundings in all possible interface elements, others combine them with right angles.
A translucent background with blur is created everywhere. There are disagreements on the Internet about the display style of island windows, the corner design and the levitation effect in the menu, but almost everyone agrees on window transparency. The vast majority of leaks and design renderings show transparency and blur in all windows, be it at least in the Start menu or Explorer. Moreover, these effects are also present in the assembly of the discontinued 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 larger gaps between elements – the areas of the interface with which the user interacts will certainly become larger, and the page titles will become thicker.
New font, which has already been shown. Windows 11 will most likely use the default responsive font Segoe UI Variable, which is already included in Windows 10 Build 21376 for Insiders.