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I was looking at the images found in aero.msstyles when I found that the checkbox has a (supposedly unused) variant of the checkbox with a cross instead of a checkmark. I quickly confirmed that this had been the case since Windows 7 (or Vista).

Here is an example of what I'm talking about:

enter image description here

Now, what's the purpose of this variant? Is it unused and just included for completion sake, or is it something that can be seen in the wild?

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    It's completely unused in the wild. It was probably originally included for alternate themes, but never got used. You'll need someone who was on the design team or knows someone who was on the design team to answer this question authoritatively, I'm afraid. Mar 20, 2022 at 9:22

1 Answer 1

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A checkmark and a cross differ in what they represent.

A checkmark ✔ represents OK or YES where a cross ✖ represents NOT OK or NO.

The checkbox style can be changed to use either the ✔ or ✖, and this can be done on individual elements. This allows a developer to create a list where you answer a question with a yes or no, being represented by their ✔ and ✖ state.

But for general checkboxes with just one state the following is the case: The ✔ is the default nowadays on Windows, but this used to be the ✖ in earlier versions.

An alternative explanation is when people have to check off an item in real life, some use a checkbox, other a cross, and some even just fill the square itself, another state you can find in checkboxes.

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