This year, Microsoft plans to offer a "sweeping visual refresh" of Windows 10 with the Sun Valley project. For now it will allow a first look at the official operating system testers registered in the Insider program.
Update the look of Windows 10 with code name “Sun Valley” it will reportedly come in October / November and there are reports suggesting that the update will reach RTM (release to build) status in June. In the last preview versions, we were able to see new ones icons that have changed since the Windows 95 era.
In addition to new icons for File Explorer folders and system apps, Microsoft is also refreshing icons from the Windows 95 era, such as screen hibernation and floppy disks. These new icons more closely mimic the icons already in Microsoft 365, Microsoft Launcher, and other products.
The preview version comes with a set of new icons for folders / options / buttons in the Shell32.DLL file, the main shell unit found in all versions of the operating system released after Windows 95. In the next feature update, some of these icons of course and will take the new form.
New icons (left) and old icons (right)
As you can see in the screenshot above that compares the Windows 10 Sun Valley Update icons with the Windows 10 October 2020 Update, Microsoft has refreshed the icons for various folders in Shell32.DLL. This includes the mode hibernation, globe, networking, floppy disks, etc.
In the latest preview versions, Microsoft has modified many applications, folders and settings with more colorful icons, so that's not a big surprise. The icons for other important folders (This PC, Recycle Bin, Documents, etc.) have already been modified in the preview versions.
However, there are still many icons that need to be changed. For example, the preview version still uses the old icon treey for WinDirStat, a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup included in various versions of Windows 10.
The Windows 10 Sun Valley version is expected to have rounded corners, more Fluent Design features, a true dark mode experience, and other features, so the desktop may look very different from the current version of Windows 10.
