By Zac Bowden
Publication Date: 2026-08-06 16:22:00
For the longest time, Windows has suffered from an inconsistent user interface design. It started with Windows 8, but got worse over the lifespan of Windows 10, with various levels of UI design, frameworks, context menus, iconography, and more getting thrown into the mix across the many different versions of Windows 10.
In fact, Windows 10’s inconsistent UI design became so bad that it began contributing to people’s dislike of Windows, citing its perceived lack of polish and craft as a reason to avoid it over competitors like Apple’s macOS, a platform that takes pride in how it looks and feels to use.
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So with Windows 11, Microsoft began addressing this problem. The debut of Windows 11 in 2021 was a huge step in the right direction, attempting to modernize a number of Windows UI surfaces with a consistent design language using the company’s WinUI framework.
Slowly but surely, older and inconsistent UI surfaces were updated with…