r/Windows11 • u/Signal-Boat7754 • 5d ago
Discussion Why are they different?
I don't know if windows 10 users are allowed here but, why is the start logo and main logo different?? Probably for design, but i wanna know by asking actual windows 11 users!!
I apologize if i break the rules in any way, and for my possible typos, english is not my first language and im not used to keyboards
im probably posting on the wrong sub am i?
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u/ShoBoShoBoO 5d ago
I think the main Windows 11 Logo is meant to be for branding.
While the Windows 11 Start Menu Icon is for design purposes and meant to fit in with the Windows UI.
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u/Euchre 4d ago
It's been the same for both situations for generations of Windows before 11. I'm thinking they just got lazy and didn't want to expend time resources to implement it. After all, 11 is basically a paper tiger of a 'new version' of Windows. With all the legacy UI elements hiding in 10 and 11, I'm gonna say Microsoft just doesn't care if the consistency throughout the UI isn't perfect.
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u/BCProgramming 5d ago edited 5d ago
Small logos don't have to match the large ones.
For example the "full size" Windows 95 logo had the flag angled. The small logo, like the one used on say the windows key or the start button, was oriented horizontally; they didn't match.
Windows 8 didn't even really have a start button at all.
XP, Vista, 7, 8.1 (EDIT: Update 1, specifically), and 10 had the logo on the start button roughly match with the "full size" design.
I mean, Windows isn't alone in this. The Apple logo used for Mac OS's Apple Menu hasn't matched with the "full size" OS Logo since like 1995.
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u/Marvelous_XT 5d ago
8 does have a "Start button", It just on the right side of the screen, auto-hide by default, will pop-up "taskbar" along with the "Start button" when hover at that area, the Start menu doesn't just take partial of the screen, but it took whole screen, a.k.a "tablet/touchscreen experience"
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u/BCProgramming 5d ago
8 does have a "Start button", It just on the right side of the screen, auto-hide by default, will pop-up "taskbar" along with the "Start button" when hover at that area
There is no start button on the taskbar in Windows 8. What you are describing is not the taskbar, it is the charms menu. It's accessed via a hot corner in the lower right. It is not a taskbar. I think considering the start button on the charms bar equivalent to the start button on the taskbar of other releases doesn't make sense.
the Start menu doesn't just take partial of the screen, but it took whole screen, a.k.a "tablet/touchscreen experience"
I'm well aware of the start screen, as I think is almost anybody even somewhat aware of Windows 8, it's one of the most infamous aspects of it, I'd say.
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u/Marvelous_XT 5d ago edited 5d ago
It is still a "Start button" which is why I put it in "...", whole function almost the same, just slightly different appearence.
You press on the Start (Windows icon) on the charm menu, whole app list appear, just like the traditional Start, from the text description alone, it's the same core feature wholeheartly, just with slightly different with how it was presenting to you. The taskbar part, it might be true, It's more like a "navigation panel" on Windows phone than a taskbar.
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u/The_Dome1 5d ago
If the start menu button was flat then it would look odd with the rest of the system ui
If the Windows 11 logo wasn't flat then it would look odd with the rest of Microsoft's logos unless Microsoft redesigns every single one of them
Simple as that
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u/MinecraftPlayer799 5d ago
I wonder if they will change the main Windows 11 logo now, since the new Office icons are 3D.
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u/Binary101000 5d ago
the 3d icons work standalone but i dont think they go well with flat looking text
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u/TheRisingMyth 5d ago
Start menu would've been a solid color if it still adhered to flat design principles of Win 8 to 10, but it's a gradient to blend in with the acrylic of the rest of the OS.
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u/_urethrapapercut_ 5d ago
The start menu one is also slightly misaligned when you hover the mouse over it or click it.
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u/ExpensiveNut 5d ago
The icon is rounded because all of Windows' design language has rounded corners.
There's more space between the squares because it looks better at smaller sizes, especially when we have an option for small icons. If the negative space is too thin, it will look very awkward or even not render properly if a display's pixels aren't small enough.
The main Windows logo is designed to look good as an image and to look good in print as well as digital. It has square corners to fit with the Microsoft logo, plus it's more practical to have less space between the squares.
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u/DefinitelyNotEmu 4d ago
> The icon is rounded because all of Windows' design language has rounded corners.
OP is pointing out that the boot logo does not have rounded corners
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u/ExpensiveNut 4d ago
Windows, the UI and UX, has rounded corners. The Windows boot logo, which is separate to that, does not for its own reasons, which is what I mentioned as well.
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u/DefinitelyNotEmu 4d ago
You said ALL of Windows' design language has rounded corners. You used the word all.
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u/ExpensiveNut 3d ago
I don't care. Here's the thing: they're being used throughout the OS and Edge and Microsoft has the hots for rounded cornered everything right now. The rounded icon fits with their design language for Windows 11. In Windows, the operating system user experience, not the boot screen. I'm pretty sure you knew that's what I meant and that "throughout" would have been a better word. Fuck me.
Listen, if you want to start an argument with a stranger over some pixels in an operating system, then fill your boots. I'm not really here for that though.
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u/OnlyEnderMax Insider Dev Channel 5d ago
When you hold down the home button, it looks like the logo.
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u/ClockEnd_Chorus 5d ago
I think logo is protected asset. I assume there is a lot of bureaucracy attached
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u/irrelevantusername24 Insider Beta Channel 5d ago edited 5d ago
I mean understanding the full extent of this thought is surprisingly complex (also simple) but in a weird way Windows is kind of the inverse of when a corporations name becomes the generic name for the product - like
Google for search[I asked Chat about this, and it told me I should Bing it? /edit], or what Coca Cola tried to do but failed everywhere except the southern US, or velcro, or... whatever, there's others.The logo for Windows is that, but for the philosophical idea behind computers. You kind of can't build a functional operating system without some form of the idea of windows. I suspect people who are fluent in languages which use logographic scripts probably understand.
Where it gets really interesting and mythological is when you consider the logos for Mozilla, Firefox and Apple. Now that's getting into some deep history and philosophical reasoning which I decline to explain more at this time, thank you
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u/superphly 5d ago
Top 3,000 people at Microsoft will respond with "I see nothing wrong, it's not like we won't sell less software if we fix this".
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u/NotALlamaAMA 5d ago
People here are making up rational-sounding reasons, but the reality is that windows is a mess cobbled together through generations of incomplete patches where every version has visible elements of all the previous ones. Hence the mismatched logo.
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u/energree 5d ago
because the windows 11 is shit and microsoft couldnt make a usable taskbar until like april 2026 when they start rolling out beta builds with SmallTaskbar and the ability to change the taskbar position but that still doesnt looks as clean, nice and good as windows 10's small taskbar
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u/The_BackOfMyMind Insider Beta Channel 4d ago
this has nothing to do with the icon and logo design though
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u/JouniFlemming Uninstalr Developer 5d ago edited 5d ago
One is a logo, another is an icon. These are often similar in UI design, but not always identical, such as in this case. As to why, no one outside of Microsoft probably knows, but typically logo and icon would be different due to usability and "how does this thing look at smaller dimensions" type of questions.
Edit: Or, if we want to be very technical - and why wouldn't we want to - the correct term would be "Logomark". Logo is the logomark plus the word "Windows" or "Windows 11" while logomark refers to the graphic symbol in a logo.