Why Microsoft Removed Toolbar Button Icons in New Windows Live Mail Version?
Originally posted at Why Microsoft Removed Toolbar Button Icons in New Windows Live Mail Version?
When I installed the Windows Live Wave 3 pack released by Microsoft Live team recently and run “Windows Live Mail” desktop client, the first thing which I noticed was the new toolbar.
The toolbar background has been changed and surprisingly, they have removed the small icons from all buttons in the toolbar.
First it was looking a bit odd and I had no idea why did they remove the icons and why a new toolbar background cause the previous toolbar background was Vista default which you can see in Vista Explorer as well.
Now all the things are clear to me when I saw the screenshot of Windows 7 M3 Build Explorer. Windows 7 Explorer has the same toolbar background and it also doesn’t have toolbar icons similar to new Windows Live Mail version.
So the things are clear now. Microsoft is trying to make all new applications looking similar to Windows 7. Same as they did in past when Windows Vista was released.
So does it mean they have finalized Windows 7 UI? Are they not going to change it any more? There are many such questions which will only get answered when we’ll get the first Beta of Windows 7 very soon.
Yes and if you peruse the Microsoft communities you will note that most users do not like the fact that the icons have been removed! It is not a popular move at all, and many feel that it is a backwards step. Besides which icons are easier to understand, no matter what language you use!
technogran
October 5, 2008 at 1:33 PM