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Evolution of Trash Icon Meme Mocking Microsoft Copilot

This satirical meme displays a timeline under the title 'Evolution of the trash icon', showing the sequential design updates of the Microsoft Windows Recycle Bin (trash) icon from 1995 through 2022, documenting how the icon's graphics evolved across different Windows OS versions. The 2025 entry replaces an expected new trash icon with the Microsoft Copilot logo, delivering a sarcastic punchline that implies Microsoft Copilot is unwanted, useless, or equivalent to trash.
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Evolution of the trash icon, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2006, 2015, 2022, 2025

Overview

This satirical meme displays a timeline under the title 'Evolution of the trash icon', showing the sequential design updates of the Microsoft Windows Recycle Bin (trash) icon from 1995 through 2022, documenting how the icon's graphics evolved across different Windows OS versions. The 2025 entry replaces an expected new trash icon with the Microsoft Copilot logo, delivering a sarcastic punchline that implies Microsoft Copilot is unwanted, useless, or equivalent to trash.

Origin notes

This meme originated on Reddit as a user-created tech meme. A comment on the original Reddit post suggested the meme would be improved if it referenced the Windows logo, and the final iteration uses the Copilot logo as the punchline to mock the widely criticized Copilot feature that was forced into recent Windows system updates.

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