Microsoft shows off new Windows 10 Start menu — and it sure is pretty

New Start Menu Concept (Image credit: Microsoft)

What you need to know

Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc says that "Live Tiles are not going away."
Microsoft showed off a concept of a Start Menu without Live Tiles in a recent webcast.
The concept has Live Tiles turned off, meaning that they could be turned on as well.

Microsoft staff members discussed Live Tiles and the Start Menu in a recent episode of the Windows Insider Webcast. During the webcast, they showed off a concept of what the Start Menu could look like if Live Tiles were turned off. The concept uses Microsoft's new icons and features transparency that helps the icons pop. While the concept has Live Tiles turned off, Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc states that "Live Tiles are not going away, we have not announced anything of the sort."

This design isn't intended to be a final product. The people on the stream discuss it as a direction they're exploring. They state that the concept's new design helps "visually differentiate the Start menu from something that's chaotic color to something that's more uniform." The design replaces the large colored squares and rectangles of the current Start Menu with transparent blocks with Microsoft's refreshed icons in the middle of each block.

The design also shows how Microsoft's new icons look in a Recent apps list outside of squares. Instead of having logos within squares, each icon stands alone next to its respective program's name. This helps each icon stand out and makes it easier to scan through visually.

Microsoft is *exploring* design ideas for making the new icons fit better with the tile interface on Windows 10. Such explorations include unifying tile colors behind light/dark mode so that the tile interface is less noisy. pic.twitter.com/sTDZE2GMbFMicrosoft is *exploring* design ideas for making the new icons fit better with the tile interface on Windows 10. Such explorations include unifying tile colors behind light/dark mode so that the tile interface is less noisy. pic.twitter.com/sTDZE2GMbF— Zac Bowden (@zacbowden) March 3, 2020 March 3, 2020

LeBlanc explicitly stated during the webcast that "Those that enjoy their Live Tiles will continue to be able to do so." If Microsoft went in the direction of this design, it seems like it would focus more on making icons pop when Live Tiles are turned off. It's worth noting that you can turn Live Tiles off in the current Start Menu.

Recent reports state that Microsoft could move away from Live Tiles in the future, but LeBlanc's clarification seems to rebut this. Despite LeBlanc's statement, it's likely that as Windows design evolves, and as Microsoft tests the waters with Windows 10X, the Live Tile UI may eventually go away.

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Sean Endicott is a news writer and apps editor for Windows Central with 11+ years of experience. A Nottingham Trent journalism graduate, Sean has covered the industry’s arc from the Lumia era to the launch of Windows 11 and generative AI. Having started at Thrifter, he uses his expertise in price tracking to help readers find genuine hardware value.

Beyond tech news, Sean is a UK sports media pioneer. In 2017, he became one of the first to stream via smartphone and is an expert in AP Capture systems. A tech-forward coach, he was named 2024 BAFA Youth Coach of the Year. He is focused on using technology—from AI to Clipchamp—to gain a practical edge.