The Mac OS X icon is clearly an internal drive, while the Windows one looks more like an external one to me. Mac OS X has been using more or less the same type of drive icon for a while now, while Microsoft introduced new icons in Vista which carry on in Windows 7. In the pre-Leopard days, the labels were coloured making them much easier to distinguish. I personally dislike the Mac method quite deeply, as it can be quite difficult to tell one embossed blob on a folder apart from another. Windows and Mac OS X also use different methods for indicating folder type the later embosses an image on the icon, while the former opts for an emblem sticking out of the folder. Mac OS X opts for a speckled blue, reminiscent of recycled paper a change in Leopard which not exactly met with universal praise. The current folder icon for Windows clearly evolved from the folders used in Windows 95.
While both of them clearly sport the traditional folder shape, the Windows 7 icon uses the traditional yellow colour, a colour which is reminiscent of actual, real-world folders. If you compare the two operating system’s folder icons, you can already see a few key differences. Note that this article contains some large images, so if you’re on dial-up, you’ve been warned. In this article, I compare some of Snow Leopard’s icons to those of Windows 7, and you’ll see while both operating systems have beautiful icons, there are some key differences between the styles of these icons. Last week, Culf of Mac published an article showing off some of Snow Leopard’s beautiful 512×512 icons, revealing some interesting tidbits about them you could only see when the icons are fully maximised.