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Microsoft (U.S.)

image derived from https://www.cleanpng.com

See also:

Commercial Flags (index)
United States of America

Description

Through the many versions of Microsoft Windows a flag-like logo has been used. Shown above is the version for Windows 7 through Windows 10.
Editor

Windows Insider

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 11 March 2024

Windows Insider was launched in 2014 and remains a Microsoft software testing program that allows licensed users globally access for testing pre-release builds of Win11, Win10, and Windows Server, something previously only accessible to software developers. Its current logo is a smart pictograph that combines three human figures (head and shoulders) to resemble two interlocked hearts and, as far as I know, has no relation to flags. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Insider for more info.

At launch, though, the Windows Insider Program was presented and promoted with an illustration of a cat riding a fire-breathing unicorn and sporting an inconspicuous flag, losely based on the 4-color window logo of Microsoft Windows. This logo/mascot was lampooned for being over the top dweeb, and was soon dropped, being today hard to find online in Microsoft’s own sites [https://www.microsoft.com/LearntoWin]. Here are some examples:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FellowKids/comments/4qc1ev/microsoft_tumblr_ad_a_ninja_cat_riding_a_fire/
https://www.synergy-technical.com/hs-fs/hubfs/ef2337_b1f896fb4c7b409c985cae5c116763d1~mv2.png

The flag itself has a thin white cross overall separating four quadrants in the four basic colors present in the Windows logo since Win4NT and Win2k, and harks to the versions of the Windows logo that presented this basic motif as a flying flag (from then to Win7) — a style not extant in 2014, when the logo had been simplified to a simpler all blue crossed parallelogram.

It is shown with the staff at the viewer’s right hand (as the unicorn is shown prancing from the left side) but the arrangement of the four quadrants is mirror-reversed in relation to the expected layout, with green (upper right on the official logo) being at the upper hoist — cp. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2003_Windows_Server_logo.svg

On the blue quadrant (lower left) there’s a white square bearing itself a white cross throughout, standing for Windows, while on the green quadrant (upper hoist) there’s a white disc with an arched and upwards offset tapering saltire, standing for X-Box.

António Martins-Tuválkin, 11 March 2024