What's the official name for spinning dots... and other curiosities?

Some call it "Tail chaser".

Edwin said:

I figured it's called a "Throbber", whether that's official or not, I don't know.

Throbber - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I also call it "Annoying" when it temporarily stops and don't know if it crashed or not.

Fafhrd said:

What does Microsoft call these?............................................................

I just call it Microsoft files loading as mine only spins half a turn and then page loads to sign in with password
The blue one I call loading web page again quick on my laptop

Fafhrd said:

Thanks for all the responses, so far!

I can't find the resource file definitively for any I've seen, like during setup for instance - I imagine they could be found with a Resource hacker app. Do resource hackers work for Modern Apps?

The animated gif I posted I found with google - someone had reproduced what MS does, and named it with random characters.

The blue circle - smartcooky's "blue circle of impatience" has been termed "the blue toilet bowl of death" I believe, in reverence of the ancient BSOD and "The Green ribbon of death" "progress bar" (because it bars progress I assume) that occurs when File Explorer has to check through a load of files before showing them.

Edwin's "Throbber" seems official, but hardly apt, definitely not definitive, and somewhat suggestive

I've seen "travelling dots" for the linear form which looks like traffic bunching on the M25 before the variable speed limit tamed it somewhat.

However, there are several spinning dots gifs in windows, just a few here:

User/AppData/Local/Packages/Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe/AC/%23!001/MicrosoftEdge/Cache/FD2ZSXMF/progress[1].gif


User/AppData/Local/Packages/Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe/AC/%23!001/MicrosoftEdge/Cache/FD2ZSXMF/rsp-loading24x24[1].gif


User/AppData/Local/Packages/Microsoft.Windows.Spartan_cw5n1h2txyewy/AC/%23!001/Spartan/Cache/DXU85KU6/page-spinner[1].gif

and so on.

If there was a visual "Highway Code" for Windows, which named these animated symbols, we could unambiguously describe these loading/process/spinners/etc., without having to go through lugubrious descriptions of them, even better if we could right click on the image and send the resource reference to some note-taking app.

I shall keep on waiting if you keep them coming. It was so much simpler with an hourglass cursor.

The middle one is what I get when my Toshiba laptop first kicks in but then only spins twice before the Microsoft one appears,
Then half a turn (unless an upgrade or update,) before the lock screen appears along with the Wi-Fi app then click lock screen and enter password and 15 seconds after that I am at desktop ready to go.