Microsoft is finally getting rid of its Windows 95-era icons, sweeping redesign on the cards

The next major Windows 10 update is going to focus on design and will bring in new icons.

So far, Microsoft has revealed new system icons for Windows 10, alongside File Explorer icon improvements and more colourful Windows 10 icons that were seen last year. (Windows Latest)

It's time for a redesign! Microsoft is finally working on refreshing its Windows 95-era icons. The company has been working on improving the icons on Windows 10 and this redesign is a part of the “sweeping visual rejuvenation” that's planned for later this year. A number of new system icons were spotted in March this year that included new icons for the File Explorer, folder, Recycle Bin, disk drive, etc. Now, the company is planning to refresh the rest of the Windows 95-era icons you can spot across Windows 10.

As reported by The Verge, Windows Latest spotted some new icons for the hibernation mode, networking, floppy drives and more as a part of the shell32.dll file in the preview versions of Windows 10. This DLL is an important part of the Windows Shell, which “surfaces icons in a variety of dialog boxes throughout the operating system”. This is also one of the reasons why Windows icons have been “so inconsistent throughout the years”. The company has “often modernized other parts of the OS only for an older app to throw you into a dialog box with Windows 95-era icons from shell32.dll”.

This should also mean that Windows will not ask you for a floppy disk drive when you go into Device Manager to update the driver, finally. As The Verge points out, it's time that era and those old icons be removed since they have been gone for more than a decade now. This redesign is a part of the work being put in to improve the consistency of Windows and is a part of the bigger Windows 10 redesign that's been codenamed Sun Valley. These new visual changes are expected to appear in along with the Windows 10 21H2 update that should roll out by October this year. Microsoft has not “officially detailed” the Sun Valley work but a job listing spotted earlier this year indicated a “sweeping visual rejuvenation of Windows”.

HT Besides more colour, rounded corners should also be a big part of Sun Valley alongside changes in built-in apps and the Start menu. Microsoft should reveal more details about Sun Vallet at the Microsoft Build conference later this month or at the Windows news event.