Hate the new Microsoft Office icons? You're not alone

Microsoft recently rolled out redesigned icons for its Office suite, and some users are not having it. The company announced the refresh last week as part of what they’re calling their “AI era” design philosophy, but the reception has been about as warm as a frozen spreadsheet.

The backlash hit almost immediately. One Reddit user couldn’t even recognize Word at first, posting the new icons with visible confusion. Another commenter summed up the general mood pretty well: “Goddammit…” That single word got 31 upvotes, which tells you everything you need to know about how people feel.

Here’s the thing — Microsoft went hard on minimalism this time. The icons feature mostly white backgrounds with tiny splashes of color that make distinguishing between apps genuinely difficult. Several users pointed out that when you’re looking at a folder full of documents, they all blur together now. The white borders dominate everything, turning what used to be easily identifiable file types into a sea of sameness.

One person created a Microsoft support account specifically to complain about the redesign, noting that sync status overlay icons now completely obscure the small colored portions that actually identify what app you’re looking at. In list view, it’s basically impossible to tell what’s what without reading the file extension.

People have been hunting for workarounds. Some are trying to roll back to previous Office builds, though Microsoft support has warned against this for security reasons. Others found temporary fixes by manually replacing icon files in Windows directories, though there’s no guarantee those changes will stick after the next update.

One hilarious post I spotted compares the new Outlook logo with Marcel the Shell.

Users have flooded Microsoft’s feedback portal with requests to revert the changes or at least provide an option to use the old icons.

Microsoft’s defense? They claim this redesign better represents their shift toward AI-powered productivity tools. The icons supposedly reflect Office 365’s new strategy: “unified, intuitive, and designed for flow across every canvas.” But when people can’t quickly find their Word documents anymore, that’s not exactly the smooth flow Microsoft hopes for.

What makes this particularly frustrating is that there’s no official way to switch back. Microsoft support representatives have basically told users to either live with it or use the feedback system.

You can check out more user complaints and discussions here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Also, do let us know if you’re in the camp of people who like the new icons, or do you want Microsoft to bring back the old ones? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.