This has been a really weird morning for Microsoft. The company mistakenly pushed out an internal build of Windows 10 to Insiders, and that build includes some new features we have not seen before.

The main new thing is a brand-new Start Menu design for Windows 10. The new start menu design gets rid of Microsoft’s popular live tiles, replacing them with regular app icons. The new design is obviously still under development, which is probably why it looks so rough and incomplete. Keep in mind that this is an internal build, and was never supposed to make it to the public just yet.

Start in tablet mode. Meh. pic.twitter.com/Ou7o7ol5g2

— NTAuthority (@NTAuthority) July 24, 2019

Either way, the new start menu design is an interesting change. Microsoft has been rumored to be moving away from live tiles in the past, and this new design could mark the end of live tiles. It is possible the new start menu design is only meant for Windows Lite, and may not actually ship on the desktop. That could make sense as Windows Lite is essentially meant to be a lighter version of the Windows 10 desktop experience as we know it.

Apart from the new start menu design, Microsoft also seems to be working on adding a GIF Search feature to the OS, and that could possibly be integrated into the existing emoji picker in Windows 10.

Tagged with live tiles, Start Menu, Windows 10