Paul Thurrott has covered every Windows release since the 1990s, and he’s never been shy about calling out Microsoft’s missteps. So when he declared in his July 31 Ask Paul column that Windows 11 is his favorite overall visual style, it raised more than a few eyebrows. Thurrott’s verdict comes with an asterisk—Windows 11 remains a patchwork of old and new UI—but he insists the design is the best Microsoft has ever shipped.

What Thurrott actually said about Windows 11

Thurrott’s column walked through the entire history of Windows user interfaces, from the tiled Windows 1.x to the Fluent-designed Windows 11. For most versions, he preferred the newest release as it arrived—with one glaring exception. “The only asterisk in there is Windows 8,” he wrote. Yet even Windows 8 earned grudging respect for its flat desktop aesthetic, which paved the way for Windows 10.

On Windows 11, Thurrott was surprisingly glowing. “It looks modern,” he said, adding that the UI “has gotten much more consistent, and this year’s ‘pain points’ work is helping that even more.” He acknowledged the unfinished edges—the mix of WinUI 3, Control Panel applets, and classic shell components—but framed it as a necessary evolution rather than a dealbreaker. “Windows 11 is to Windows 10 what Windows XP was to Windows 2000 from a UX perspective,” he explained: a pretty new layer tacked on top of the old undercarriage, aimed squarely at consumers.

What Windows 11’s design means for you

For home users: a cleaner, modern desktop—with old furniture

If you’re using Windows 11 at home, you’ve likely noticed the softer corners, centered taskbar, and the overall Fluent Design sheen. Thurrott’s endorsement validates the aesthetic leap: the system feels more contemporary than Windows 10 ever did. But his “half-assed” critique is your daily reality. Open Device Manager or Disk Management, and you’re staring at interfaces that haven’t changed much since Windows 2000. Even Settings, the supposed Control Panel replacement, still redirects to legacy pages for many advanced options.

That inconsistency isn’t just a design nerd’s complaint. It creates friction when you’re trying to change a network setting and end up in two different-looking windows, neither of which follows the same logic. Thurrott’s point is that Microsoft is finally addressing these “pain points,” so expect more Settings pages to absorb old Control Panel functions with each feature update.

For IT pros: incremental modernization, not a clean break

Admins and power users will read Thurrott’s take and nod. Windows 11’s modernization is real but piecemeal. The Microsoft Management Console (MMC) still lurks in Computer Management, Group Policy Editor looks like it’s from the XP era, and WinUI 3—the framework meant to unify the look—is, by Thurrott’s own admission, “top-heavy from a resource usage perspective” and can feel sluggish on older hardware. For those managing fleets, the takeaway is clear: don’t expect a completely unified UI anytime soon. Instead, plan for a gradual transition where new wizards and dialogs appear alongside legacy tools you’ve used for decades.

How we got here: a tour through Windows design history

Thurrott’s retrospective provides essential context for why Windows 11 looks the way it does. The critical moments:

  • Windows 95 was the first version designed by actual interface designers, ditching the separate manager apps (Program Manager, File Manager) for a unified shell with consistent shadows and an object-based approach.
  • Windows XP marked the boldest cosmetic break. Its Luna theme used bitmap graphics that couldn’t scale as screen resolutions improved, making it look dated next to Mac OS X. But it was intentionally consumer-friendly to ease people onto the NT kernel. Microsoft planned many theme packs but only shipped a few (Royale, Zune) because Luna’s engine was “incredibly difficult to work with,” Thurrott recalled.
  • Windows Vista tried to leap forward with Aero Glass and scalable vector graphics, but the transparent menus and windows often made everything underneath look muddy. Windows 7 refined that into what Thurrott calls “Vista SP2,” delivering mild UX advances but mostly fixing performance and perception problems.
  • Windows 8 was radical, jarring, and widely rejected. Its flat Desktop aesthetic was a bigger deal than most remember, but the mobile-first Metro interface alienated desktop users. That failure indirectly extended Windows 7’s life—much like XP’s had been extended by Vista’s failure.
  • Windows 10 restored common sense with a desktop-centric design but kept the flat look and live tiles, remnants of a mobile strategy that soon died. It felt necessary after 8, but Thurrott sees it as a victim of bad timing.
  • Windows 11 is the latest coat of paint. Like XP over 2000, it layers WinUI 3 and Fluent Design on top of Windows 10’s underlying architecture. The rounded corners, new icons, and centered Start menu are all deliberate attempts to look modern, even if the plumbing hasn’t been fully replaced.

Thurrott also revealed his affection for a lost path: Watercolor. That pre-release Whistler theme kept Windows 2000’s sharp edges but added a soft blue-and-white gradient, and he published an early glimpse of Luna by scanning a notepad Microsoft gave out at a beta workshop. It’s a reminder that the Windows UI could have looked very different if the company had chosen refinement over radical change.

What you can do now to improve Windows 11’s look and feel

Thurrott’s endorsement doesn’t mean you’re stuck with every design quirk. Several steps can give you a more consistent experience today:

  • Personalize thoroughly: Right-click the desktop, choose Personalization, and explore the themes, colors, and transparency effects. Enabling “Show accent color on title bars and windows borders” helps unify the look across apps.
  • Tame the Start menu: Pinning your most-used apps and adjusting the layout in Settings > Personalization > Start can reduce the clutter. Third-party tools like Start11 or StartAllBack let you restore a Windows 10–style Start menu with more customization.
  • Use PowerToys: Microsoft’s own PowerToys suite includes FancyZones for window management and Keyboard Manager for remapping keys, adding consistency to your workflow even if the underlying UI is a mélange.
  • Embrace dark mode: Settings > Personalization > Colors → Choose your default app mode → Dark. Many legacy applets still don’t support it, but the overall effect reduces visual noise.
  • Wait for updates: Microsoft’s 2024 “pain points” initiative is actively migrating more Control Panel items to Settings and refining UI inconsistencies. If you can, wait for the 24H2 update before making any heavy customization investments.

Quick reading tip from Thurrott

Tucked into the same column was a practical e-reading recommendation for anyone who works across Windows, Mac, and iPad. Thurrott favors EPUB files for reflowable text in Apple Books, especially for his own Windows 11 Field Guide, while PDFs remain best for scanned magazines and manuals. His setup: download issues of BYTE magazine from the Internet Archive as PDFs, then read them in Apple Books on an iPad. If your tech library is scattered across Kindle, Google Play, and local folders, consider consolidating your most-used reference files into one app that supports both formats.

Outlook: a more unified Windows UI is coming, slowly

Windows 11’s design will likely never become as monolithic as Windows 95 or XP. Microsoft’s development today is too distributed, and backwards compatibility too entrenched, for a clean-sheet redesign. But the direction Thurrott praises—gradual consistency, modern touches, removal of ancient dialogs—is clearly the company’s path. The next version of Windows, whether it’s still called 11 or becomes something else, will likely feel even more cohesive. Whether that will be enough to outlast the nostalgia for XP and 7 remains to be seen, but for now, one of the platform’s most seasoned observers is satisfied. Maybe it’s time to give those rounded corners a second look.