Microsoft Announces New Windows 10 Start Menu Design and Updated Alt-Tab

Microsoft is introducing a new Windows 10 Start menu design that will emphasize its Live Tiles. The software giant first hinted at the updated design earlier this year, and it’s coming to Windows 10 testers today. “We are revamping the Start menu with a more streamlined design that removes solid color backplates behind logos in the app list and applies a uniform, partially transparent background to tiles,” Microsoft explains in a blog post.

Essentially, reducing the color of the block mosaic interface on the Start menu will simplify it a bit and make it easier to scan the applications you use on a daily basis. It’s a subtle change, but it certainly makes the Start menu look a little less chaotic and prevents many tiles from sharing a similar blue color.

Along with an updated Start menu, the latest version of Windows 10 includes some major changes to Alt-Tab. “Starting with today’s build, all the tabs open in Microsoft Edge will start appearing in Alt-Tab, not just activating it in every browser window,” explains Microsoft. This seems like a change that might be a bit confusing to veteran Windows users, but luckily Microsoft allows you to get back to the classic Alt-Tab experience.

Microsoft experimented with Alt-Tab changes to Windows 10 builds in the past, when the company planned to add tabs to each application. There’s likely to be a lot of comment on any Alt-Tab changes here, especially if Microsoft plans to turn this on by default when its next major Windows 10 update ships later this year.

Microsoft is also making some smaller changes with this new Windows 10 build. The appearance of the default taskbar will now also be more personalized with the docked Xbox app for Xbox Live users or Your docked phone for Android users. This will be limited to creating a new account on a PC or first login, so existing taskbar layouts will remain unchanged.

Notifications now include an X in the upper right corner to allow you to quickly dismiss them, and Microsoft is also improving its Settings app in Windows 10. Links that would generally push you to the system part of the Legacy Control Panel system page now they will go to the About page in Settings. This will now house the more advanced controls normally found in that section of the Control Panel system, and Microsoft promises “more improvements to come that will bring the Settings even closer to the Control Panel.”