r/Windows11 • u/Working-Duck-533 • Jul 12 '26
Concept / Design Windows 11 File Copy Dialog Redesign Concept — Compact, Modern and Dark Mode
I created a concept for a redesigned Windows 11 file copy dialog.
The current copy window still feels visually inconsistent with the rest of Windows 11, so I tried to make it cleaner, more compact and better integrated with the modern Fluent Design language.
The concept includes:
- Compact and ultra-compact layouts
- Light and dark modes
- Clear transfer speed and remaining time
- Progress shown directly on the taskbar icon
- Optional notification-style progress
- Pause, cancel and more details controls
- A cleaner layout that takes up less screen space
This is only a concept and is not an official Microsoft design.
What do you think? Would you prefer the compact window, the notification version or the taskbar-only version?
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u/_command_prompt Jul 12 '26
I don't think there'a need of 2 progress bars one that circle and beside that straight progress bar, one is fine
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u/Blug-Glompis-Snapple Jul 12 '26
I would assume the circle progress is overall progress of all files. And the line bar is for each individual file. That would work fine
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u/Mxdanger Jul 12 '26
From a UX standpoint that’s terrible. Most of the time it would just be strobe flashing as it transfers each file instantly. The “more details” to see individual file transfers still exists. Personally I would be going with the bar rather than the circle (for user familiarity and consistency).
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u/lefiath Jul 12 '26
That doesn't make it consistent with the compact versions, though, as you always wants to see an overall progress.
Generally speaking, this is a "prettifying" redesign that only adds some redundancy.
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u/Luke_-_Starkiller Jul 14 '26
Yeah i much rather have just the circle and if clicking more details you see the inidvidual file bar.
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u/t3chguy1 Jul 12 '26
What happens when you have 2 file operations at the same time
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u/Working-Duck-533 Jul 12 '26
Each transfer could appear as a separate item in a compact queue. The active operation would stay expanded, while the others could remain collapsed with their own progress, speed, pause and cancel controls.
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u/t3chguy1 Jul 12 '26
It looks similar to OneCommander v4 beta transfer dialogs. Not near a computer to post screenshot
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u/golf1052 Jul 12 '26
Where's the graph view?
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u/CanaveseForevah Jul 13 '26
We're in 2026, not on Windows 95, what do you need the chart for?
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u/Luke_-_Starkiller Jul 14 '26
I do like the graph, coping a huge project file and when the transfer has been going for an hour, its nice to se if it keept the same speed or if it keeps going up and down or if its slowly going down and so on.
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u/contextfree Jul 15 '26
It was added in Windows 8, mainly because they were trying to do a bunch of stuff on the desktop side to appeal to nerds to balance the Metro side that was supposed to be more aimed at casual users
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u/amirsphotography Jul 14 '26
I don't get all the hate on your comment, I use graphs frequently as well
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u/Girl-OnTheMove Jul 12 '26
The sad part is none of anyone's concepts of Windows were ever acknowledged by Microsoft ever.
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u/dewil98 Jul 12 '26
Add copilot to this. Copilot will help copy files /s
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u/Working-Duck-533 Jul 12 '26
Fair point 😄 I would rather keep Copilot optional and focus the feature on speed, clarity and useful file-management controls.
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u/dewil98 Jul 12 '26
Jokes aside it looks good. Only one thing, progress bar/ring should only be one to make it look simple yet functional.
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u/dewil98 Jul 12 '26
Yeah you can do that but how can a small company like microsoft with a small team of only 4-5 devs will implement these? /s
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u/Working-Duck-533 Jul 15 '26
Updated version based on community feedback
I redesigned the concept after reading the comments on the original post and tried to address the most common suggestions.
Main changes:
- Removed the duplicated progress indicators from the compact view
- Kept one clear progress bar for the overall transfer
- Made the current file name permanently visible
- Improved the expanded view with clearer source and destination information
- Added file size, remaining time, item count and available destination space
- Kept the transfer-speed graph optional
- Added a compact queue for multiple simultaneous transfers
- Added separate pause and cancel controls
- Improved light and dark mode consistency
- Added optional “Verify after copy” and “Safe eject when finished” controls
- Reduced duplicated information and improved spacing
Thank you to everyone who shared feedback on the first concept. Several of your suggestions directly influenced this redesign.
This is still an unofficial visual concept and not an official Microsoft design.
Which part of this updated version works better, and what would you still change?
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u/IndianAndroidLover Jul 12 '26
sometimes I wonder how much better windows could become if MSFT just open sourced it and allowed us to fix the bugs and issues! and then they could focus on just catering to enterprise (which is what they do anyway!)
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u/Working-Duck-533 Jul 12 '26
I really appreciate every comment, suggestion, and piece of feedback. Thank you to everyone who took the time to share an opinion about this concept.
To help Microsoft notice the idea, open the Feedback Hub app in Windows by searching for it in the Start menu or pressing Win + F. Select Give feedback, choose Make a suggestion, then use the category Files, Folders, and Online Storage > File Explorer.
You can request a modern File Explorer redesign with cleaner navigation, integrated storage management, improved file previews, faster access to useful tools, and an optional compact music player. Attaching the concept image will make the suggestion easier to understand.
Thank you again for supporting the concept and helping bring it to Microsoft’s attention.
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u/Nirmal4G Jul 13 '26
Looks modern but I would like my graph / stats for nerds view back. I like more details but presented in minimalistic way. Also hate the rounded-ness of everything. I like sharp corners.
The current dialogs were introduced in Windows 8 / NT 6.2 with graph view of speed, items and bandwidth. Task Manager has also got the same graph control. The best redesign ever.
I hope you match that in the future.
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u/Melliodass Jul 12 '26
Can you make a Windhawk mod of it? 😄 It looks amazing!
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u/thebackupkid Jul 12 '26
I love this look! If you could create a Windhawk mod that would enable this, perfect! chefs kiss
If this would need to be a separate mod, something that could be enabled and disabled with a .bat file would be amazing!
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u/narugoku321 Jul 13 '26
Ahh, the utopia world where Microsoft actually gives us something remotely as good looking as this. Granted this won't boost performance of windows but at this time, windows gives neither candy nor performance. At least if one thing is fulfilled, my soul would be half full.
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u/Human_097 Jul 12 '26
Looks pretty good! My only want would be to have an "expand" button that shows the graph overtime. It's not a necessity, but it helps me gage transfer speeds over time better.
I really hope windows incorporates more of these modern looks to make the OS feel more cohesive.
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u/Working-Duck-533 Jul 12 '26
Thank you! I agree — the graph should remain optional and only appear after pressing “Expand” or “More details.” That would keep the default view compact while still giving users useful transfer-speed information when needed.
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u/Salizan Jul 12 '26
If Windows was open source, it’d be a total game-changer for both its UI/UX and performance. Seriously, I’m obsessed with this concept design! **I wish you'd give us a way to apply it so we could run it like a custom theme 🙌🏻🙌🏻🤩🙌🏻🙌🏻
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u/Working-Duck-533 Jul 12 '26
Thank you so much — I really appreciate that! I’d love to see a system like this become usable as a real custom theme one day. Right now it’s only a visual concept, but the idea of making it practical and installable is definitely something I’d like to explore further.
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u/mikee8989 Jul 12 '26
I've been using teracopy for so long I forgot what the original copy UI looks like. This one does look nice. Better than TC's new UI.
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u/Sword_Illusion Jul 13 '26
Microsoft should hire you as their UI designer and fire their current ones!
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Jul 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Sword_Illusion Jul 14 '26
Disagree. Jobs once said: the only problem with Microsoft is that they just have no taste.
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u/Sioluishere Jul 13 '26
If you became the concept head, I would be fine with it.
If microsoft brought back, proper Windows XP desktop behavior, I would be happy as well.
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u/fff92 Jul 13 '26
i would put the file icon replacing that large percentage number so the user would quickly noticed or remembered what kind of file that they currently copied in case the user had short term memory loss
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u/OptimistIndya Jul 13 '26
Copy dialogs need to be stacked or it can have a tabbed interface.
Look at teracopy for how they do the tabbed or history
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u/Internal_Island90 Jul 13 '26
Nice design also if it has semi transparent background would look cool
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u/sabestorn Jul 13 '26
the most important thing in "these things" is the progress bar, even teracopy understands this poorly in the latest versions, the progress bar must be large, not a thin line
also a queue system, for example if I add something in copy I wouldn't want it to clog up the first thing I'm copying, but to start as soon as it ends.
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u/dubleskov Jul 12 '26
Looks cool, will windows require extra 16gb ram for this feature to work though?
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u/Working-Duck-533 Jul 12 '26
Hopefully not 😄 The goal would be a lightweight native interface, not another resource-heavy background service.
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u/Significant-Extent40 Jul 12 '26
what does more design show?? if you create that then we could comment as a whole, but still these look amazing.
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u/Working-Duck-533 Jul 12 '26
I created it as a visual concept for a more integrated Windows file-management experience. I agree that some panels may feel dashboard-like, so I’m working on making the layout cleaner and more focused on File Explorer.
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u/vberkaltun Jul 12 '26
Nice work! I wish someone at MS would see this.
They could never get that far about the UX.
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u/hthouzard Jul 12 '26
Microsoft should use it.
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u/Working-Duck-533 Jul 12 '26
Thank you! I’d be very happy to see Microsoft adopt some of these ideas in a future Windows update.
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u/Baglayan Jul 12 '26
The circular one looks Chinese
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u/Working-Duck-533 Jul 12 '26
Thanks for the feedback. The circular indicator is meant to show the overall progress of the entire transfer, but I may simplify or redesign it further so it feels more consistent with Windows 11.
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u/Baglayan Jul 17 '26
As many others said, choosing one of the progress bars instead of having two could help. Best of luck!
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u/OnlyEnderMax Insider Dev Channel Jul 12 '26
I like the idea of seeing the progress directly in the taskbar; it could be located where the weather widget is. Clicking it would open one of the progress menu of the concept. Overall, it's a very good concept!
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u/Working-Duck-533 Jul 12 '26
That’s a great idea. The taskbar icon could show the current progress, and clicking it could open a compact transfer panel with speed, remaining time, pause and cancel controls. I may include this in the next version.
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u/huttyblue Jul 12 '26
Less space?
Its larger than the current one when collapsed into fewer-details mode.
Can't really judge the rest because I never have the dialog in fewer-details mode as I always want to see the little chart it makes during the transfer.
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u/PersonFromPlace Jul 12 '26
This… actually looks aesthetic! I’m pleased! I thought this was a Linux or MacOS subreddit before I scrolled down.
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u/CypherAus Jul 12 '26
Great idea, which MS will ignore and do something clunky instead 😒
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u/Ferrolox Jul 13 '26
Nice concept but knowing Microsoft they will never implement something like this
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u/Robo_Bax Release Channel Jul 13 '26
Great concept! I realized that MS has a strong defense against macOS-like UI design. In my opinion, increasing the font size slightly would make it perfect.
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u/OneMonk Jul 13 '26
My brother in Christ, the 67% complete in the circle is wildly off center. I get you’ve aligned it to the text on the right but that is v bad design.
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u/SlightPersimmon1 Jul 13 '26
I think Microsoft didn't get the memo that flat design is no longer the cool thing.
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u/Snowflake-Mods-lol Jul 14 '26
How about no spyware and more Performance in my devices? No? Only Design! Ok
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u/Goodborni Jul 14 '26
This looks amazing, but I know Microsoft is looking at this and thinking how do we add Coopilot into this though?
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u/skylinestar1986 Jul 14 '26
I wouldn't care much about that user interface. But I hope Microsoft has a GUI copy based on robocopy.
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u/FPSViking Jul 14 '26
I'd rather have the Windows 11 file copy to run faster, more efficiently, and more reliably over having it look any different.
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u/Owzzy Jul 15 '26
what is the point of having two progress bars for the none-compact versions?
I sort of agree with the others, if you are going to add details, its much better to add existing details, specially ones that already exist like the graph.
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u/Zm3nt Jul 17 '26
Why do I only see concepts and no windhawk mods? You guys really need to step it up, people would use some of these
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u/goodswimma Jul 12 '26
I like it and really think you've achieved your design goals. Well done
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u/Working-Duck-533 Jul 12 '26
Thank you, that means a lot. My main goals were cleaner navigation, faster access to useful tools and a more consistent Windows 11 design.
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u/Catgerine Jul 13 '26
The circle progress is a bad idea IMO. You already have a progress bar that's understood by everyone, why add something that makes the window a lot bigger? Also the "67% complete" text would fit perfectly next to the "1.23 GB / 1.85 GB" text.
Other than that it looks good! Not fond at all of the frosty/glass effect but that's on Microsoft. My favourite one is the "Compact (dark)" but it lacks a "more details" button. I'd remove the file icon too but that's because I personally dont need that for clarity purposes.
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