Summary
- Microsoft’s AI-driven "agentic OS" vision stirred backlash, but a separate fan-made concept shows how a visual redesign could also reshape Windows.
- The new “Liquid Glass” design concept features smooth animations, rounded corners, revamped system elements, and a modernized look for core apps.
- Fans liked the concept’s clean aesthetics and long-requested features and even urged Microsoft to hire the creator.
Microsoft has a vision for Windows: to incorporate AI into the OS so it can do things on its own with minimal user input. The more fancy way of saying it, as the software giant often does, is "agentic OS." There was a huge uproar from users when the company revealed its new "agentic OS" direction for Windows, to the point that Microsoft had to provide more clarity.
Whatever Microsoft's plan is with AI on Windows, most of it will happen behind the scenes. Those things can radically change Windows, and so can a new design. There is no official confirmation about whether Microsoft wants to give Windows a visual makeover in the future, but if it ever wants to, the company has one more concept design to take inspiration from.
Windows gets a "Liquid Glass" makeover in a concept, and fans like it
YouTube creator AR 4789, who earned widespread praise for creating many Windows concepts in the past, recently published a new video showing a new design for Windows. The three-minute-long video doesn't show every nuke and corner of the OS, but we do see how the design affects some of its key parts.
The concept shows Windows with a glass design. Although not as prominent as Apple's Liquid Glass, many fans in the comments section of the video used the term to describe the design. It also features smooth animations, and pretty much everything has rounded corners. Windows fans liked what they saw and asked Microsoft to hire the designer to redesign Windows.
The concept video also shows many other interesting design changes worth talking about. For example, we can see a lockscreen with a weather widget, below which is a tiny pill-shaped icon, containing Wi-Fi, speaker, and network icons. The desktop looks familiar to what we saw in many other Windows concept videos in the past: it features a macOS-style Dock with a "Plus" icon to add an app widget, and a floating taskbar at the top.
The taskbar shows a search bar, which is powered by AI. It also has a Copilot icon on the right side. Just before the Copilot icon, we see a time, WiFi signal, network strength, and battery icon. Clicking here will open the System tray, which also got a taste of the new design. We also see a complete design makeover of several stock apps, such as File Explorer. The Settings app has also been revamped in the concept video.
The concept also shows long-requested Windows features like the ability to pin widgets to the desktop, a new Start menu, and more. You can see what the newest "Liquid Glass" version of Windows looks like in the concept video below.
