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Microsoft's Windows icon has changed multiple times throughout the past decade. In doing so, the Windows key's icon has changed as well, from Windows XP to the most modern iteration, Windows 8.

Now I'm writing some documentation for some procedures for a friend of mines. I really want to use a symbol or ASCII code to represent the windows key. But the only font symbol that even comes close to the Windows key is Wingdings Alt 255, and the look of that isn't modern at all: enter image description here.

I'm looking for the modern symbol of the current platform, since my friend's computer is running Windows 8.1. Is there a native fontset that allow me to do this? Something like enter image description here or enter image description here (note, these two symbols are images found from google search. I want symbols, not an image).

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  • Without using a custom font? No. Sep 17, 2014 at 17:19
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    I don't know of any supplied by Windows by default, but FontAwesome has a Windows Icon that you could use.
    – Adam
    Sep 17, 2014 at 17:24
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    Except it has nothing to graphic design.
    – Ramhound
    Sep 17, 2014 at 17:37
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    @Ramhound Are you familiar with Graphic Design? Are you familiar with their accepted questions, their meta decisions? Don't let the name fool you - it's not just drawing over there. Incidentally, font-id questions appear to be accepted, but best way to verify would be to ask an actual user of that site.
    – Bob
    Sep 17, 2014 at 17:41
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    I am not sure if the user is asking for font identification though. I also don't see how Anything not directly related to graphic design isn't clear. I don't see a question about graphic design. Of course I could be wrong, I just don't want to see a question that isn't on topic migrated to some other place, because its not on topic here.
    – Ramhound
    Sep 17, 2014 at 17:48

5 Answers 5

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You could use the ⊞ 'squared plus' symbol, which is basically four boxes, which is in essence a window, which should remain iconic throughout time, regardless of various stylistic changes. That is the character that Wikipedia uses for their Windows key article. In my opinion simpler is better in general, and for publications/documentation it should be easy enough to read/reproduce.

⊞ Win
SQUARED PLUS
U+229E, ⊞
LaTeX: \boxplus

It is a Unicode character, so I assume using a Unicode font would work for the documentation, however it is not part of ASCII, otherwise the # 'number sign' symbol is probably your best bet (which is the symbol AutoHotkey uses) to represent the Windows key.

Towards the end of the Computer keyboard article, there are links to other keys with symbols. For example, here some other 'special' keyboard key symbol/icon characters: ≣ Menu or ≡ Menu, ⌥ Option, ⌘ Command, etc.

edit: another suggestion would be the ❖ 'black diamond minus white x' symbol

❖ Win
BLACK DIAMOND MINUS WHITE X
U+2756, ❖

which would be more of a diagonal filled looking window, which might look more like the Windows XP logo than current Windows logo e.g. ❖ Win vs ⊞ Win

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  • Since # is an actual key on most computer keyboards, I think it would be confusing to use the symbol to mean a different key. While ^ for the Ctrl key is pretty well established, I'm not sure what it would take this to become established....
    – Stewart
    Jul 22, 2019 at 16:30
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Try doing a capital W in the Marlett font. Success!

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    This is pretty good, but it's the curvy Windows 7 style logo. Is there an updated equivalent for the straighter Windows 10 style?
    – jacobq
    Feb 14, 2020 at 17:03
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    @iX3 Mork's answer to try "HoloLens MDL 2 Assets" includes the slanted flag.
    – NetMage
    Feb 21, 2020 at 21:08
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Try the "HoloLens MDL 2 Assets" font.

This contains, not only the Windows key, but other useful system symbols.

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Because the logo is part of Microsoft's intellectual property, you probably won't be able to find a legit 3rd party font that includes it.

I think your best bet will be to create your own font with the symbols you want, being sure to be aware of whatever trademark notices you have to display if it includes 3rd party logos. It's probably a lot of overhead for what you want to do, so you'll have to decide if the time-investment is worth the use-value you get.

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Segoe MDL2 Assets icons has the E8A9 ViewAll icon

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/design/style/segoe-ui-symbol-font

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