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Windows 11 Enterprise Overview
Windows 11. The main part of this announcement was supposed to be a presentation of a significant change in 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 be released. Now, as expected, the Windows 11 leak begins.
Key features of Windows 11 Enterprise
Windows 11 will receive a completely new design. Microsoft clearly needs a good reason to reverse its previous statements and still abandon Windows 10 by introducing a new operating system number. And a completely new design is a great way to do that. The Redmond giant has long been preparing a redesign for an update codenamed Sun Valley (“Sun Valley”) – apparently, this is the name Windows 11 used to go by. The Sun Valley project has been floating around the web for a long time – Microsoft regularly disclosed details of the new interface style, insiders shared previously unknown information, and popular designers in their circles drew realistic concepts based on all this data.
The Start and system elements will float above the bottom bar. Start is the calling card and face of all recent versions of Windows. Not surprisingly, in Windows 11, the developers will transform it again, but not so much in functional terms as in visual terms – the Start window will hover above the bottom bar. We have to admit that this small change makes the appearance of the system much fresher. Judging by the information on the web, Microsoft will not radically change the “insides” of this menu – the innovations will only affect the design of the window itself. The control panel will also float, and its design will be exactly the same as that of the “Start”. The action center will be combined with control buttons – a similar one has long been used in some other operating systems. Almost all mentions of this new menu indicate that it will be insular – control buttons will be located in a separate panel, notifications will be in another, and specific elements (such as a player) in a separate one.
The right angles will disappear, they will be replaced
by fillets. In fact, insiders and concept designers disagree on this point – some are confident that Microsoft will not change its traditions and will keep the right angles, while others are convinced that in 2021 Microsoft will follow the fillet fashion. The latter fits better into the definition of “completely new Windows” – just drop-down menus are not enough for a new design to be considered truly new. Fillets are expected to affect practically everything in the system, from context menus and system panels to all application windows. It is true that even on this issue the opinions of concept designers differ – some draw fillets on all possible interface elements, others combine them with right angles.
There will be a translucent background with blur everywhere. There are disagreements on the web about the island style of displaying windows, the design of the corners and the levitation effect of the menu, but almost everyone is unanimous about the transparency of the windows. The vast majority of leaks and design renders show transparency and blur in all windows, be it at least the Start menu or Explorer. Moreover, these effects are even in the assembly of the canceled Windows 10X operating system, which Microsoft was developing for dual-screen devices and weak gadgets in parallel with the Sun Valley project. The so-called acrylic transparency implies the use of new effects when hovering over elements, as well as increased spacing between elements – those areas of the interface with which the user interacts will certainly become larger, and page titles will become thicker.
New font that has already been shown. Windows 11 will likely use the default responsive Segoe UI Variable font, which already appeared in Windows 10 Build 21376 for Insiders.