Although Windows XP was marketed as intuitive and user-friendly, the next generation of the Windows operating system boasted a completely redesigned and much buzzed-about interface, overhauling everything from language to iconography to navigation. Some attributes remained, while others disappeared, creating a new environment of changed meanings and renegotiating the relationship between the operating system and its user.
Regardless of version, Windows operating systems—and most examples in the Graphical User Interface (GUI) genre—share standard elements that serve to represent the inner workings of the system to the user through semiotic functions. These elements can be grouped into categories of windows, menus, controls, and icons, as well as the natural language and stylistic treatments that appear throughout the interface. By examining differences between the top-level signifiers for Windows XP and Windows Vista, their paradigmatic and syntagmatic functions, and the codes and myths they activate, we can deconstruct how the discourse between Microsoft’s operating system (addresser) and its target users (addressee) has evolved.
Private Scrawls in Public Stalls 