Windows 8 Drops Aero

[Lucradia]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-574...sy-drops-aero/

Microsoft published a "brief" history of the Windows interface in a blog post today that offered some flashes of candor about Vista and Windows 95 and argued that the tablet as we know it today is one device too many. Redmond also said it was dropping Aero Glass.

First and foremost, Microsoft said it has "moved beyond" Aero Glass on the Windows 8 desktop, in Friday's Building Windows 8 post.

I'm also glad they brought back the SQUARE CORNERS. The rounded corners of Vista, 7 and XP always bugged me. It's all the more gladdening when I found out that Windows Classic theme was completely removed. (Turning off visual styles in the Performance deal will not switch to classic.)

[forrestcupp]

Aero was one of the best things they did in a long time. Everything I hear about Win8 makes me like it less. I wonder how much of the api they'll be breaking by doing this. Hopefully they'll have some transitional stuff in there to make it more backward compatible.

[Lucradia]

Aero was one of the best things they did in a long time. Everything I hear about Win8 makes me like it less. I wonder how much of the api they'll be breaking by doing this. Hopefully they'll have some transitional stuff in there to make it more backward compatible.

A lot of aero features (Except aero peek) were made into non-composition. For example, aero snap also works without composition. (It highlights the snapped window size in blue.) This also works in Windows 7. As you know, many programs that utilize aero have non-aero stuff, like Firefox and Chrome, which use Aero if it's enabled for features like the title bar and Firefox's WinKey+E Feature (Tab grouping?)

They'll probably still use composition though for Window effects, etc. They just won't have see-through windows like they used to.

[nerdopolis]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-574...sy-drops-aero/



I'm also glad they brought back the SQUARE CORNERS. The rounded corners of Vista, 7 and XP always bugged me. It's all the more gladdening when I found out that Windows Classic theme was completely removed. (Turning off visual styles in the Performance deal will not switch to classic.)

WIndows classic was not TOTALLY removed. I found that if you kill WINLOGON.exe, or just close some particular handles in it, (I forget the exact names) Somthing like ThemeSelection that any new program that is opened has the Windows classic theme.

Anyway, I think it's bad that they're removing even more customisability from their OS...

[thatguruguy]

Aero was one of the best things they did in a long time. Everything I hear about Win8 makes me like it less. I wonder how much of the api they'll be breaking by doing this. Hopefully they'll have some transitional stuff in there to make it more backward compatible.

Microsoft has never been anything but excellent in their efforts to promote backwards-compatibility.

[Scabby_al]

I welcome the removal of transparency. I can't stand Windows 7 basic, Windows classic has some goofy font rendering that I can't seem to fix, and the "glass" effects are a huge distraction.

[forrestcupp]

and the "glass" effects are a huge distraction.

Does that mean it's so awesome that you can't keep your eyes off of it?

I can't see how a title bar would be that distractive, unless it was some wild colors that contrast a lot with everything else.

[Lucradia]

Does that mean it's so awesome that you can't keep your eyes off of it?

I can't see how a title bar would be that distractive, unless it was some wild colors that contrast a lot with everything else.

Or by default, bigger due to the way the program manages the titlebar (Hint hint, Firefox.)

[zombifier25]

Oh great; the only think that makes Windows 7 pleasant to look at is removed.

[3rdalbum]

Windows 7 and Microsoft Office (which takes full advantage of Aero) are both quite nice to look at. Metro, as seen on the Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8 home screens, is incredibly ugly. I'd rather look at Mac OS 7 or 8.