Microsoft seems intent on changing the Windows 10 Windows Explorer menu, changing the user interface and graphics. Here’s what’s new
An animated GIF has been posted on Microsoft’s Windows Experience blog that’s getting a lot of buzz, because it shows what the new Windows 10 Explorer might look like in the future. However, the post in question doesn’t talk about this component of Microsoft’s operating system at all, but about something else entirely.
That is, about Microsoft Edge’s new Endpoint Data Loss Protection feature, which is meant to prevent the sharing of protected or confidential company files without the proper permissions from the system administrator. To demonstrate how Endpoint Data Loss Protection works, Microsoft published a very short animated gif showing an unauthorized sharing attempt from Windows Explorer to a OneDrive folder open in Edge, which then results in an error message generated by the new protection feature itself. But what catches the eyes isn’t the message at all, but the File Explorer window shown in the GIF. A very different window from the one we see every day on current versions of Windows 10.
How the new Windows Explorer is made
If we wanted to define with one word the new features of this Windows Explorer, that word would be “clean”. The new interface, in fact, is very clean and much more minimalist than the current one. The layout is the same, with the shortcut bar to local and network resources on the left and the window with files and folders on the right, but everything else is different. There are new icons in the bar, a new title bar that is practically flat and empty, and a new menu. The colors also change: only the part containing files and folders has a white background, while the rest is light gray.
The new Start menu
We still don’t know if this Windows Explorer interface will actually be integrated in a future version of Windows 10, but we can say with certainty that it would be compatible with the new Start menu that Microsoft is currently having Insider Preview subscribers test. Also in this case the restyling is in the name of cleanliness, with sober colors, new icons and a slightly different font. Both novelties could one day arrive on our computers, as they could only represent Microsoft’s experiments.