Windows 10 screen and UI

In Windows 10, both Windows 7 and Windows 8 have different screen configurations, including the desktop. Let's sort this out first.

The biggest feature is that it is equipped with "Continuum", which is a display mode switching function between desktop mode and tablet mode, and UWP application (universal application for Universal Windows Platform. Developed conventional store application. Universal Windows (also called Apps) is integrated with the conventional desktop environment, and Continuum switches the display method (Fig. 1).

Figure 1: Screen Display Modes - Windows 10 has two display modes: desktop mode and tablet mode.

Desktop mode is a display mode similar to a traditional desktop environment that mainly assumes a keyboard and mouse. Here, both UWP apps and desktop apps are displayed in windows. Also, instead of the Start screen, you'll see the Start Menu (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Desktop Mode - Desktop Mode is the same user interface mode as up to Windows 7. Touch operation is also possible, but mouse and keyboard are also assumed.

On the other hand, tablet mode (Fig. 3) is close to the "modern UI environment" of Windows 8, and both UWP apps and desktop apps basically operate in full screen display (as described later, split screen display is also possible). Here, the Start menu appears as the Start screen. This is an environment that is primarily intended for touch operations.

Figure 3: Tablet mode - Tablet mode is a mode that is used assuming touch operation. You can use mouse and keyboard, but you can operate without it.

In addition, the conventional charm and charm bar are gone, the "Share" charm and "Settings" charm (application-specific settings) are now launched from within the app, the "Device" charm is abolished, and "Settings" The charm's wireless LAN settings are now handled by the icon in the notification area and the "Settings" app.

In addition, the "recently used apps" list (called upstack during the preview of Windows 8), which was not particularly named in Windows 8 and is displayed by swiping from the left side of the screen, has also been abolished. A new task view has been added. This task view can be displayed with the same gesture (swipe from the left of the screen) and the same shortcut key (Win+Tab) as the "recent apps" list in Windows 8. This task view is the same in desktop and tablet mode, with thumbnails of the app windows in the current desktop at the top and thumbnails of the virtual desktops below. The virtual desktop can be used on both tablets and desktops, and only the display method of the application changes depending on the mode.

In Windows 8, the desktop environment is the equivalent of a single app from the perspective of the Modern UI environment, represented as a thumbnail in the "recent apps" list just like the store apps, and with tiles on the start screen. bottom. Also, in the desktop environment, in Windows 8.0, store apps were completely invisible, but in the final Windows 8.1 Update, they were treated as full-screen only apps with an icon in the taskbar.

However, in Windows 10, the desktop is always visible and there are no tiles or icons on the start screen or start menu. In tablet mode, you can't just see the desktop, but you can see the desktop, for example, in the middle of split screen using snap. In this respect, it's a return to the original desktop that was used from Windows 2.x through Windows 7.

Start Screen and Start Menu

The Windows 10 Start Screen and Start Menu are written in XAML (eXtensible Application Markup Language) and are internally called the "XAML Start Menu". is included. XAML is WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), an XML-based language for describing screen displays. It is also possible to describe animations, etc., and when compiling and displaying, it is converted to virtual machine code (MSIL: Microsoft Intermediate Language) that can be executed by CLR (Common Language Runtime) and displayed. Although it is called a language, it cannot repeat or judge conditions, and is basically just for describing screen drawing, so it is similar to HTML and CSS, and relatively easy to understand even for non-programmers. is possible.

The Windows 10 start screen and start menu actually differ only in whether the entire screen is used (start screen) or not (start menu). The only difference is the number of apps and the number of apps displayed in "Frequently used apps" (Fig. 4).

Figure 4: Start Menu - Desktop mode utilizes the Start Menu. The start menu can be resized and becomes the same as the start screen when maximized.

For x86/x64 tablets of 8 inches or less, the screen is small, so only tiles are displayed on the start screen in tablet mode. The "frequently used apps" list and "all apps" that were displayed on the left side of the desktop mode start screen are now displayed using the hamburger icon on the upper left of the screen (Fig. 5).

Figure 5: Start screen on tablet - On an 8-inch tablet, the start screen is just tiles, with a hamburger icon at the top of the screen showing the recent and all apps list.

Also, in the Windows 10 Mobile edition (equivalent to the conventional Windows Phone), the start screen displayed on the main unit is the same as Windows Phone so far, only tiles are displayed, and like the desktop version, it is displayed on the left side There is no list part such as "frequently used apps" (Fig. 6).

Figure 6: Mobile Edition Start Screen - In Windows 10 Mobile edition, only tiles line the Start screen, and there are no hamburger icons or anything like that.

On Windows Mobile, there is a list of all apps (Fig. 7) on the right side of the tile area, and you can swipe left across the screen or click the "All apps" button (located at the bottom of the tile area). ) to switch.

Figure 7: Mobile edition "All apps" - Windows 10 Mobile edition "All apps" is located on the right side of the start screen, swipe the screen to bring it up.

If you connect an external display, the Windows 10 mobile start screen will be displayed as the start menu and the desktop will be displayed on the external display (Fig. 8). Here, UWP apps behave similarly to desktop versions of Windows 10 (but there is no desktop mode, so they only work in full screen).

Figure 8: Start screen when viewed on an external monitor - Connecting your Windows 10 Moblie device to an external monitor The Start screen looks like a Start menu on an external monitor.

In this way, it seems that the start menu and start screen can be displayed flexibly according to the resolution and physical size of the screen.