New Start menu, end of tiles: Microsoft escaped Windows 11 as an ISO file

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Microsoft is due to show a new generation of Windows on June 24, but apart from a few minor leaks, the entire ISO installation image has now escaped. And if it’s real and Microsoft didn’t release it on purpose, we can look forward to Windows 11 in eight days. The current Windows 10 (a system that uses 1.3 billion devices) is due to end in 2025.

Significant changes include the centering of the Start menu in the bottom bar (which will be appreciated especially by owners of ultra-widescreen monitors) or the cancellation of tiles. There are only new rounded icons everywhere. Instead of tiles, it looks like widgets grouped in one panel. Emphasis is expected on Microsoft Store, in which it should also be possible to download classic applications, not just those with an interface adapted for Windows 10, known as Universal UWP applications.

You will not see the typical blue during installation, but the individual screens still have the same logic. When installing the drivers, Windows is no longer the first to offer you a floppy disk under the letter A: . The Windows logo is newly shaped like a square, and the windows have rounded corners.

Foreign journalists mention that the system can be activated using a license number for Windows 8.1. This would indicate that the update from Windows 10 could be free. Microsoft is already saving the situation on its Twitter and wrote that this is just the beginning.

This is just the Start. Tune in on June 24th at 11 am ET to see what’s next. #MicrosoftEvent https://t.co/DM7SYVdc3j

— Windows (@Windows) June 15, 2021

The centered Start menu has the option to re-align to the left. It all looks a bit like a featured pack for Windows 10 with a more modern jacket. The design is now more in line with Surface products. But some elements are also a bit like MacOS. A visually new version, internally apparently yet an improved Windows 10 with many features from the discontinued Windows 10X.

Windows 10 is likely to retire in four years, Microsoft said planned the end of support for 2025. It will thus serve its ten years. However, it is likely that Microsoft will gradually extend support.

source: The Verge