As you can see in this screenshot, there are two particular areas which I consider design oversights when they were apparently overhauling the GUI to make it look nicer. First is the appearance of the “menu” displayed when I expand “Computer” (it would be the same for any folder – I just have the others set to act as links, not menus). It appears as though they decided to use a generic Windows “context menu” container to display the file list, however you would figure that for the nice and fancy new Start Menu that they could have put a bit more “love” in there and made it look more integrated (such as you’ll get if you were to expand one of the items in the Start Menu list such as “Sticky Notes” or “Windows Virtual PC” in this particular screenshot). I think it would have made it look much nicer, complete, and more thought out.

The second pin in my rear is the redesigned Shutdown button and it’s corresponding context menu. It’s just plain horrid! Why couldn’t they have made it look the same as the other items above it like the “Computer” item for example? Or, heck, bring back the much more pleasant-looking Vista Shutdown buttons – those were well designed and I think more intuitive at quick glance; simple red power-symbol button, or having to read “Shutdown” in an ugly, oddly-sized button – what’s your pick?

Perhaps I will spend a few minutes and try to mock-up what I think would look nicer, though honestly I doubt anyone from the Microsoft Windows GUI team will ever come across this post, let alone this site