Microsoft's Chief Product Officer Panos Panay has released a video on Instagram, giving the first official detailed look at the new Start menu (with Live Tiles) and other new user experience elements in the upcoming Windows 10 Very nice

Here is a frame-by-frame analysis of what we can see

But first, let's take a look at the video:

After an intro sequence where the boot screen and windows icons evolve, we jump from Windows 10's facial recognition login to the star of the show, the Start menu

First, we enter the new fluent design icons that replace the old Metro design icons

The new icons are easier to identify than the old ones and jump immediately to the eye, unobstructed by the background color

Except for a subtle layering effect, there are no 3D effects - like a "W" on a color-stripped background square or a brush on a palette of paint It's a nice balance of elegance and simplicity; in the case of the Office icons, Microsoft has color-coded them for easy identification

The result of placing distinct shapes and smooth shades of color on top of darker colors (or white if a lighter theme is chosen) makes the apps jump right out at you

The icons then enter the old live tile menu itself as the old colorful boxes begin to be replaced with new icons and dark ones

Rumor had it that Microsoft was going to kill Live Tiles altogether because developers would not use it We heard a Microsoft team member say that, no, they are not killing Live Tiles, which we thought meant that the Redmond company might discontinue the current Live Tiles architecture, but might keep the Live Tiles concept for future use I took this to mean that Redmond's company might discontinue the current Live Tiles architecture, but keep the Live Tiles concept for future use

After this video I am not so sure about that anymore

As you can see, there are two long rectangles that take up two large tiles, showing views of incoming mail from Mail and Outlook The dark colors and white text are easy to read

There are also live tiles for the photo gallery and weather, as the frame below shows:

Also, the size of the tiles seems to be customizable, as in the previous menu In the video you can see 1 x 1, 2 x 2, and 2 x 4 tiles

The video then begins to talk about personalization and shows how a typical custom background would look with dark and light themes

The video then focuses on how you can further personalize the interface by customizing things like pointers to any size, fill color, and border you want

This bridges nicely with the next beat, which is the new focus on accessibility in Windows 10

The video showcases the new Adaptive controller interface for the Xbox, which is already being advertised for people with accessibility issues This seems to imply that Windows 10 will fully support this device and allow anyone to interact with their PC

The video also puts the accent on "Focus," a feature that allows users to silence notifications and other distractions at certain times This was implemented in 2018, but was buried in a setting set up by establishing a schedule

The video does not show how the revamped focus feature will work, but it appears that the contextual menu will allow users to quickly enter and exit focus mode when needed without relying on a fixed schedule It remains to be seen if Microsoft will implement other focus features found in other apps and operating systems For example, features such as making the interface monochrome to reduce distractions or locking applications in the foreground

Microsoft has been a pioneer in dealing with screen captures, allowing people to easily make notes over everything that happened on their screen The video seems to suggest that Windows 10 will further evolve the whiteboard app within the operating system, making it accessible through a special context menu

At first glance, however, there is nothing new to see The actual app appears to be the same as the Whiteboard app available for download from Microsoft

The video also gives a very brief, blink-and-you'll-miss-it look at the new streamlined file explorer

As previously reported, File Explorer has been greatly simplified, flattened, and enhanced Search has finally been fixed and will work on all drives, including Microsoft Cloud and Office storage However, you can't see any of that in the video Let's just take a quick peek at what the interface looks like

In the Windows 10 video, we can also very easily see the calendar It is a nice look that, like the rest of the operating system, seems to have followed Fluent Design's instructions and ditched the strong colors and contrast of the previous version

And it actually looks a lot like Apple's calendar

Flattening and simplification permeate every app in the operating system We see it in the refreshed Photos app and the calculator

The former seems to take a cue from Apple and Google's latest photo apps The variable image sizes seem larger to me, the look is simpler, the date is more important, the jarring contrasting top bar is gone, and search is placed at the top center However, I can't see much more

Finally, there is a demonstration of how the magnet window works, with a floating window docked on the right side of the screen and resizable in a variety of ways

That's it The video then continues with the usual marketing yada yada, but no details as to when all of this will happen In fact, it is not even clear if all these features will be rolled out simultaneously Perhaps in two separate updates, called 20H1 and 20H2, this functionality will be offered in the first half and second half of 2020

But after this sneak peak, we hope Microsoft will give us some sugar in the coming weeks Let's hope something doesn't break in the process