Windows 10: Windows 10 Store to get new Fluent UI tweaks – here’s your first look

WinLatest · Mar 6, 2021

The Windows Store has a track record of buggy behaviour, slow loading pages and the most egregious being the downloads process. Microsoft is said to be working on a Sun Valley update for Windows 10 and it’s also expected to include some sort of improvements for the app store.

Microsoft is now testing Sun Valley-like UI for Windows Store and it’s currently rolling out to testers in the Windows Insider program. We were able to get our hands on a preview of the Microsoft Store update that should be coming soon to all devices.

Microsoft Store is not getting a radical makeover in this update. Instead, Microsoft is testing a minor update that introduces a new ‘compact UI’, more Fluent Design and a new loading animation.

After the update, Microsoft Store can now display the same content and menus even when you change the size of the window. Microsoft is calling it ‘compact UI’ and it’s supposed to improve the responsiveness of the app store while still using the web-based container.

Fluent Design update for Store includes a new design element ‘Reveal’, which is visible when hovering over certain elements (menus, sidebar and buttons) in the store.

As of right now, you can find Reveal in Groove Music, Mail & Calendar, Windows Start and Action Center, and other apps/pages.

As you can see in the above GIF, Microsoft is introducing a new loading animation to replace the blank page which appears when you click on a store listing.

In a statement, Microsoft’s Brandon LeBlanc confirmed that the “team is very much aware of the feedback on Store” and users should expect more improvements in future.

The Windows Store is still a mess

To be clear, Microsoft didn’t really change anything about the Windows Store in the last five years. The user interface is still buggy and the homepage is a hodgepodge of apps and other products.

The performance and quality have also gone downhill after Microsoft started using a web-based container for the Windows Store.

The good news is that Microsoft is aware of the problems and there are plans to improve the Store in the Sun Valley update, but there’s a catch – we still don’t know if the company is planning to change the Store in a big way.

Sun Valley update is expected to land in the second of this year and Microsoft is expected to tease the next generation of Windows within the next two months.

The post Windows 10 Store to get new Fluent UI tweaks – here’s your first look appeared first on Windows Latest

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Ahhzz · Mar 6, 2021

Windows 10 Tweaks

Pressing “Windows+Pause Break” (it’s up there next to scroll lock) opens the “System” Window.

Windows 10: In the new version of Windows, Explorer has a section called Quick Access. This includes your frequent folders and recent files. Explorer defaults to opening this page when you open a new window. If you’d rather open the usual This PC, with links to your drives and library folders, follow these steps:

Open a new Explorer window.

Click View in the ribbon.

Click Options.

Under General, next to “Open File Explorer to:” choose “This PC.”

Click OK

credit to Lifehacker.

Brink · Mar 6, 2021

Microsoft is renaming UI Fabric GitHub repo to Fluent UI

What’s in a name? A lot it turns out. And we have a lot of them. Too many? We hear you and agree. That’s one of the key reasons we’re simplifying our story. To collectively rally around a single UI library for our web components—Fluent UI.

We’re starting with Fluent, our cross-platform design system. Fluent is the way Microsoft designs and builds digital product experiences, both internally and with our customers and community.

We’ve evolved Microsoft to speak a common language through a shared design system. Fluent UI will directly connect that effort to a broad set of products, through code, specifically the convergence of our most used web engineering frameworks – Fabric and Stardust.

Shortly, we’ll rename our UI Fabric GitHub repo to reflect our future Fluent UI vision. This is step one toward our vision for a more simplified developer ecosystem.
This is step one toward our vision for a more simplified developer ecosystem.
This is what we mean when we say Fluent is Microsoft’s design-to-code system. We’re bringing design and engineering together more than ever, to contribute to and leverage a shared foundation, and reach our shared goals. We’re not suggesting that one size fits all, and we got here honestly, so we must evolve collectively.

Our goal is simple—a shared foundation with open source engineering processes to create experience coherence, efficiency, and effectiveness. It enables us to do more with less.

What’s changing

Simply put, we’re merging two Microsoft repositories: UI Fabric and Stardust GitHub repos will live under the Microsoft GitHub organization as Fluent UI.
This allows our teams to collectively work together on a shared code base with a shared set of build and development tools to support our products and community more efficiently. It also allows us to get to a single UI library for Microsoft 365.

What this means for developers

Today? We’re working with a goal of avoiding disruption or breaks in the UI Fabric developer experience. You will continue getting a stream of patches and minor releases as we iterate the current major release (version 7).

As we finalize our rename efforts, expect to see more regular updates and communication around our major releases. Our next major release will be the first batch of major changes in uniting our collective efforts, tentatively targeting summer 2020.

Our intent is to minimize the amount of interruptions to in flight developer workflows. Also, we want to be mindful and incremental in our approach and we’re using this opportunity to signal to the community our incoming changes.
We’re working with a goal of avoiding disruption or breaks in the UI Fabric developer experience. You will continue getting a stream of patches and minor releases as we iterate the current major release (version 7).
The following is a short FAQ on the potential impact of the repo merge and rename effort:

Do I need to rename all my package imports to something new?
No. Package names will stay the same as a result of the merge and rename effort. We’ll continue releasing all UI Fabric packages as we do today. We’ll also alias publish the same packages under a new name, so that at any time you can use the new @fluentui/react package with no breaking changes.

Do I need to re-clone the repo?
No. You shouldn’t need to re-clone the repo. Your clones should be redirected correctly.

Where do I file GitHub issues and pull requests now?
After the rename, you can file issues and pull requests in the new microsoft/fluentui repository. Our teams will collectively support them there.

What about the issues and pull requests that were opened before the merge?
Previous issues and pull requests will be captured in a microsoft/fluentui repository. For UI Fabric, contribution history and active pull requests will stay intact.

Is the current version of UI Fabric still supported?
Yes. Nothing is changing in our level of support to the community for the library.

What if I have more questions about the repo merge and rename?
Reach out to our team on the UI Fabric GitHub. File an issue and we will be happy to follow up with you to help where we can.

What does this mean for WinUI and the Fluent Design System within Windows?
The Fluent Design System lies at the core of our recommendations for how to build engaging user experiences on Windows and across platforms now, too. WinUI continues to embody the Fluent Design System as the native user experience platform of Windows. With the addition of the Javascript-based Fluent UI libraries, you’ll also be able to build more coherent experiences across other platforms and the web, too, and the Fluent Design System will continue to expand.

New updates planned for Fluent UI

Our next major releases will focused on performance and theming:

Improve runtime performance through styling optimizations. We’re evaluating how we can reduce css-in-js style calculation overhead to improve rendering performance.

Improve flexibility and composition of components. Leverage React hooks and function components, along side API surface improvements, to give developers more composition options.

Provide a more flexible, powerful theming system. Extend our list of design tokens and improve our theming tooling to apply your design.

Eliminate deprecated React API usage. This enables partners to test React concurrent mode rendering, which allows rendering to be interruptible reducing how much the UI thread is blocked during large updates.

Still have questions?

Feel free to reach out to our team with any questions you may have regarding our new collective effort around Fluent UI by filing an issue on the existing UI Fabric GitHub repository.

The Fluent UI team

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Source: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-u...nto-fluent-ui/

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Brink · Mar 6, 2021

Microsoft Account Gets New Look With Fluent Design Update

Microsoft is refreshing the design for its web-based account management dashboard. The company previously showed off variants of the redesigned Account dashboard in concepts before, but it is finally rolling out the new design to Microsoft Account users.

The redesigned Account dashboard includes a big header section with all of your account’s important information, such as the number of devices you have, as well as your Microsoft Reward points. Everything else is listed afterwards in a grid-based UI where you can access the different settings for each item, such as your Microsoft Family settings, your subscriptions, devices, privacy settings, etc.

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Read more: Microsoft Account Gets New Look With Fluent Design Update - Thurrott.com

Windows 10: Windows 10 Store to get new Fluent UI tweaks – here’s your first look

Windows 10 Store to get new Fluent UI tweaks – here’s your first look

Windows 10 Store to get new Fluent UI tweaks – here’s your first look

Windows 10 Store to get new Fluent UI tweaks – here’s your first look

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