Microsoft Blue

Why this color matters

The blue most players hunt is not the colour of the Microsoft wordmark. In the identity unveiled in 2012, the name stays grey; #00A4EF belongs to the lower-left pane of the four-square symbol. That small distinction changes the memory test: recall the colour inside a red-orange, green and yellow grid, not a freestanding corporate-blue rectangle.

A logo for the tile era

Microsoft introduced the identity on 23 August 2012, just before Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, new Xbox services and the next Office release. It was the company's first logo update in 25 years. The wordmark moved to Segoe, the typeface already running through Microsoft products, while the old italic “Pac-Man” wordmark gave way to four level squares built for screens, signs and motion.

The symbol's squares of color are intended to express the company's diverse portfolio of products.

Jeff Hansen, Microsoft Brand Strategy, 23 August 2012

Not a four-product colour key

It is tempting to decode the panes as a rigid legend — blue equals Windows, orange equals Office, green equals Xbox, yellow equals Bing. Microsoft's launch explanation was broader: the squares represented the portfolio as a whole. This is therefore the blue of the corporate symbol, not permission to substitute whichever Windows accent a player remembers.

The exact electric blue

#00A4EF is RGB 0/164/239 and HSB(199°, 100%, 94%). With no red at all, it is fully saturated; its hue sits 19° from cyan toward blue, while its brightness stops just short of the maximum. Players commonly darken it toward a generic software blue or push it all the way into cyan. The target is brighter and more aquatic than LinkedIn blue, yet less violet than Facebook blue.

From three storefronts to a global signature

On launch day, the new mark appeared on Microsoft.com and at exactly three Microsoft stores: Boston, Seattle's University Village and Bellevue. Microsoft warned that the old logo would remain visible during the rollout. That gradual handover explains why several generations of Microsoft blue coexist in memory; this pane belongs specifically to the square-led identity that announced the company's tile era.