Microsoft has been planning some major overhauls for a while now. A Windows Central post from late October 2020 outlines the company's plans to make "reinvestments", with a major focus on Windows 10 updates.
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One such undertaking will be a big visual revamp, codenamed the "Sun Valley" refresh. It's set to be a major, and "reinvigorating" update to the operating systems UI (which I've personally only just gotten used to, so thanks for that MS).
The project will involve the modernisation of a host of Windows 10 UI features, including (but not limited to) the "Start menu, Action Center, and even File Explorer, with consistent modern designs, better animations, and new features."
This UI update comes as part of the "Cobalt" set of releases meant for "reinvigorating" the current Win10 setup, the bulk of which is set to roll out near the end of 2021. So, you may be wondering why we're talking about it now, when we've only just seen the arse end of 2020...
Well, according to bleepingcomputer, a job listing has just surfaced on the Microsoft careers page, entitled "Senior Software Engineer." The key responsibilities for the role include "the opportunity to build delightful, polished, experiences for Windows," as well as "interfacing with hardware teams to build the essential platform and infrastructure in our OS." And with phrases like "open-ended explorations" dotted about it, it looks like the plans for Sun Valley are finally underway.
So, once the right people have been scooped up my MS, expect to see some big changes coming our way.
Lets just hope they don't pander too much to the flashier side of user experience like some OS providers we know—cough—Apple—cough. Functionality over frills, please. I don't want to have to move over to Linux in revolt.
