Blast from the past: Windows 11 still uses legacy icons

Windows might have changed over the years in terms of functionality and looks, but some components remained the same.

It seems that Windows 11 is still using visual components that predate Windows XP, and some users and too happy with that.

Legacy icons in Windows 11, lack of consistency, or clever Easter eggs?

Windows 11 brought some massive changes in terms of the user interface, but some legacy visual assets still live inside the latest version of Windows.

This was first spotted by keen-eyed users on Reddit, where a user reported that Outlook is using legacy icons while downloading attachments.

At first, the user who posted thought this was a remnant of the Windows XP era, but it seems to be older than that as users speculate:

It’s even older than XP.

Many speculated that this mystery icon belongs to Windows 95 or even Windows NT4. That’s not all, it seems that Windows 11 still has icons from Windows 95 and even older:

There are still Windows 95 icons and and even older icons dating back to the early-mid 1980s still in Windows 11. Icons for Quattro Pro, Lotus 123, Turbo Pascal, WordPerfect, Paradox 3.0, etc. Some of these icons are older than the first version of Windows (from the MS-DOS days).

Many were quick to point out the inconsistency of Windows icons:

its funny how many icons they changed to the complex XP and Vista styles, but they still didn’t change so many to the not that complex flat design style in the span of like 4 versions since 8 (8, 8.1, 10 and 11) also yes I know the one shown in the picture is a Windows 95 icon

Others were complaining about Microsoft not modernizing these icons:

Can’t they just simply create a modern version of those bitmaps? Once for all.

It’s not all criticism, and few users expressed their fondness for these icons:

I honestly miss the old icons, they were so quaint lol. Wish there was a way to use high-res versions of them system-wide.

It feels strange seeing these legacy icons in modern software such as Outlook, and while these icons don’t follow Microsoft’s latest design, they are still a nice Easter egg for Windows veterans as they don’t affect the quality of the software in any way.

Speaking of older operating systems, Microsoft is still sending alerts regarding Windows XP’s end of support.

As for more modern versions of Windows, the new Moment update is under development and it will be released after Windows 11 24H2.