More evidence of Windows 10’s new rounded look emerges

Image credit: Microsoft

Windows 10 making the move from sharp edges to rounded corners with its interface is looking a more likely prospect given the emergence of further evidence that this is Microsoft’s plan.

This news comes via an official proposal posted on Github by Sravya Vishnubhatla, a Program Manager at Microsoft, to give various controls and boxes rounded corners, to be more consistent with contemporary web and app styling.

Of course, we’ve already seen that Microsoft is thinking about bringing back rounded corners to Windows 10 with the 20H1 update, or is at least testing the concept right now.

In this fresh proposal, Vishnubhatla notes: “Update default control styles with rounded corners and make them easy to customize. Developers should not have to re-template the controls to ‘unround’ the corners or round them further.”

The broad aim is to make the common controls developers use consistent with each other, and to achieve more overall consistency across Windows 10 as a whole, from the desktop UI to the various apps used with it.

The future Windows 10, then, may have rounded windows, buttons, sliders, pop-up dialog boxes, and so forth. A number of examples are shown off, as Windows Latest highlights, such as a time picker box (which allows you to select an hour, and a minute) that has rounded corners and also a Fluent Design shadow behind it.

The time picker with rounded edges and shadow (Image credit: Microsoft / Windows Latest)

The time picker with rounded edges and shadow (Image credit: Microsoft / Windows Latest)

Don’t stay sharp

As you’re no doubt aware, Windows 10 currently uses sharp edges, and this is very much in contrast to other modern operating systems like Apple’s macOS which goes with smooth and rounded corners.

Of course, this new look for the interface is still very much at the development and testing stage, so there’s no telling whether it will actually be realized in Windows 10. If it is, however, the likelihood is that the rounded design language will also come to other Microsoft products like Office and the Xbox games console – as this seems to be all about consistency across the board.

There are certainly supporters for the new look, although equally, folks who aren’t so impressed with the idea. One commenter on the proposal observed: “For me having rounded corners everywhere would mean Windows would lose its distinctive look it has ever since the introduction of the metro design language and fluent design.”

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).