As Microsoft prepares for more dark mode improvements to the operating system, Windows 11 legacy apps will implement a “Mica” (mica) translucent title bar. Similar to Fluent Design’s Acrylic, Mica is an opaque material style that can be applied to applications to fill backgrounds or title bars.
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Mica and acrylic coexist in Windows 11. Microsoft Edge is a good example. Apps like Settings and Microsoft To-Do already have mica effects on their title bars and even their backgrounds. Microsoft is now extending this to traditional tools/applications like Run or Winver (commands that check the system’s build and version revision numbers). In Windows 11 Build 22557, mica has just been introduced into the title bar of almost any traditional dialog or application.
The addition of the mica effect doesn’t appear to be too problematic at the moment, and it is believed to be faster than other Fluent Design materials such as acrylic. For some reason, the mica style currently implemented on traditional dialogs doesn’t really blur out what’s behind the app, and it appears more subtle than mica on UWP apps.
Notably, this is a completely different user interface than Microsoft teased in a YouTube video released last month. Microsoft recently released a screenshot of the new Windows Run, which has a transparent Aero/Acrylic-like title bar.
According to reports, Microsoft is thought to be working on a new “tab” version of the mica material, with a glass-like effect, with a blurry wallpaper.
Likewise, we also found mention of an experimental flag simply called
“MicaBackdropInApplicationFrameHostTitlebar” in the preview build, which seems to indicate that Microsoft may be willing to work on the mica effect.
At the moment, we don’t know if Microsoft has finalized mica instead of acrylic or another material for the traditional title block. The general idea is to give traditional areas a modern touch and enable dark mode for more apps.