Do you want Aero?

[TheGrantFitz]

Microsoft never stops innovation.

 

[TheGrantFitz]

Aero made me feel, what's the word, tacky?

 

[dirtyvu]

I miss Aero-tabbing. alt-tab is fine but it's so retro. feels like going back to windows 95.

I like the Aero look but will I miss it? probably not. it looks more like a theme than anything else.

 

[TheGrantFitz]

I miss Aero-tabbing. alt-tab is fine but it's so retro. feels like going back to windows 95.

I like the Aero look but will I miss it? probably not. it looks more like a theme than anything else.

Same, I miss the 3D flip.
But aero, I remember as a theme as I remembered Luna and the "grey".

 

[R0bR]

I think I tried flip 3D a couple of times when I installed Vista, I even had a mouse button setup to activate it but I don't think I ever used it since because Alt-Tab was so much faster.

 

[AC]

I definitley miss that beautiful, elegant, Aero.

 

[gulls777]

definitely want it back,
windows 8 old win2k style doesn't look modern to me at all....
hell i want improved aero version 2

 

[Lazure]

Really, the removal of Aero is what ultimately pushed me away from Windows 8 when I saw the announcements back in June about the new flat and ugly desktop UI. I don't care that the "Metro" side looks the way it does, but the desktop side should have been left alone.

I'm probably alone in this thinking, but how something looks is very important to me. I see my UI every day, for a good amount of time. I never could stand how windows 95~2K looked (the classic theme), because it's so ugly and plain. No shading or details except a silly gradient strip across the titlebar (this theme looks especially bad in Windows 7, where the UI layout just makes it downright ugly). However, this new desktop UI? Hideous. It removed the only saving graces classic theme ever had. The bevels, any sort of gradient, and even the ability to customize the colors and size of every part of the UI. It's just flat. The desktop no longer feels like a space of depth, just crammed together flatness!

I've always really liked the way Aero looked in Windows 7. Not only that, you could really customize how transparent it was, how vibrant the color applied was, and nevermind the multitude of custom *.msstyles capable of making it even better in some ways. Windows 8 Consumer Preview took away the rounded corners and the shiny effect, but it still kept the transparency and even added a wallpaper-adapting color option. That option was really cool, and I didn't mind too much how it looked in the Consumer Preview overall. Release Preview turned the scrollbars and explorer UI flat, I didn't like that, but the rest still looked alright. But the RTM took away almost all transparency (except the taskbar; no blur effect), and took away the border shadows I liked too! They didn't stop there, they took away any details whatsoever in the borders and even the buttons. Sigh.

I tossed the RTM in a virtual machine to see if I could find a way to bring Aero back. I cannot. I was able to, however, bring back the RP version of the Aero theme, but transparency is forever lost in the way it was handled in Windows 7 or earlier builds of Windows 8. If anyone finds a way to bring back the proper aero code (proper transparency and BLUR effect), let me know. I might actually buy Windows 8 if someone finds a way to bring back some of the CHOICE that Microsoft stole away from me. They made all the people who loved the classic theme happy, by giving everyone a very flat and plain UI. Yet they took away Aero from us who liked our interfaces looking nicer and more futuristic. Flat boxes are not modern or futuristic, no matter how much Microsoft tries to say it is. Sorry.

They could have EASILY kept the system they had going in the earlier builds of Windows 8. Aero for us who like pretty UIs, and turned the flat 'Aero Lite' theme they had in there into what they use now. They would then satisfy EVERYONE. It would not have been but maybe 8mb more of code in the system.

TL;DR: I want Aero back before I buy Windows 8. MS should never take my choice away for a nice looking UI.

 

[Mystere]

If looks are very important to you, then why don't you use a product like WindowBlinds? They allow you to customize everything about the UI, including adding glass. There are also thousands of themes available to download.

 

[Lazure]

I've used Windowblinds back in Windows 2000. When Windows XP came out, it didn't take long before uxtheme patchers to show up and custom .msstyles to appear, so I relied on those. I used Vista for like, 2 weeks. Windows 7's default Aero theme looked good enough that I did not seek out alternates until much later, when I decided I wanted to experiment with other Aero-like styles. Essentially Windowblinds stopped being necessary because a more native and resource-friendly solution was available.

If Windowblinds for Windows 8 (which I assume there will be) returns the transparency, border shadows, and the gaussian alpha blur effect that Windows 7/8 RP/8 CP had, I would most likely use it if I moved to Windows 8. The biggest problem with Windowblinds though is that it's nitpicky and some applications end up looking like the windows default skin due to it not being compatible with them. We'll see how it turns out with Windows 8...

 

[Mystere]

Window Blinds is just as "native" as the built-in themes. The reason is that Microsoft released a theming api, and WindowBlinds uses that API, just like the uxtheme stuff did. They both theme the same way.

 

[Lazure]

Interesting. Well, I'll be on the lookout for that.

 

[dirtyvu]

I think I tried flip 3D a couple of times when I installed Vista, I even had a mouse button setup to activate it but I don't think I ever used it since because Alt-Tab was so much faster.

alt-tab was ok. but it didn't show as much info as win-tab. which was needed sometimes. and on my system win-tab was blazing fast.

 

[Burgurne]

Well, I like Aero-theme incl rounded corners in windows 7. To me it seems like Microsoft has done the same to the look of the desktop as many game-making companies has done to games.
Get it to work on the lowest configuration, and then stop developement. Windows 8 looks like a badly "consol conversion".
I think it is a shame, as some other things has improved in win8 over win7.

Why is Microsoft taking our choises away?

 

[Windunce]

Flip -2D Close Enough For Me

Same, I miss the 3D flip.

c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\System Tools\Window Switcher.lnk

Just copy the file from Windows 7, to the above folder in Win 8 Enterprise.

Search Apps....'switcher

Chose pin to Start.

It will display both running Legacy apps and running Metro Apps.
Hovering pops up the full screen of an app, click to 'Switch'

It can be placed on a Quick Launch bar and the Desktop, but it could only be pinned to the Task Bar in DP.

 

[unifex]

I certainly want Aero. It just looks better. Windows 8 desktop looks like a blast from the past. And not even that, since in Windows 2000 one could easily change all the colors, which now is rather complicated, if at all possible (I haven't had the time to play with Windows 8 enough to be sure).

 

[Lazure]

I certainly want Aero. It just looks better. Windows 8 desktop looks like a blast from the past. And not even that, since in Windows 2000 one could easily change all the colors, which now is rather complicated, if at all possible (I haven't had the time to play with Windows 8 enough to be sure).

As much as I hated classic theme, that was the most redeeming quality about it. You could literally change every color. With some fancy registry tricks, you could even have the bevel highlights and shadows be a different hue than the buttons for interesting effects. This is because the classic theme was drawn literally using simple vectors and lines that could conform to whatever color they were told to draw as.

Now despite its look, the flat ugly theme they use now is using the same graphical image system as Aero did, just the images are nothing but a flat solid rectangular color and any RGBA transparency in the images are now ignored by DWM completely.

I put Windows 8 on my laptop, and the most I've been able to do so far was replace the theme with the RP version. I don't get transparency and the taskbar/titlebar still looks rather flat. However, the buttons are much better looking and I got the border shadows on active selected window back at least. Until Windowblinds 8, I suppose...

 

[Pixel Eater]

I very much liked what Aero had become in the Release Preview. I mean I'd change a couple things, like why is the close button pink for example. Stripping out the glass and blur though, oh my god you would have to replace it with something better and they absolutely haven't. It's hideous. I know I shouldn't care or whatever, it's "just aesthetics". Well I was a bit of a Windows 8 evangelist and enthusiast. Right now I don't feel like I can tell people to hop on the ugly train with a straight face. I can't understand how Microsoft arrived at this. With all their resources, based on what really...

 

[aj22185]

I see this as a re-occurring issue with Windows of the past and present. Customization... The fine developers at Microsoft see themselves fit to decide what we, the end users, like. In an age of the massive customization capabilities in OSs like Android, I can't imagine why MS would launch yet another OS that restricts the user from making their PC, "their own". Simply changing colors (from a predefined list, mind you) and background pictures just isn't enough. I often wonder when these self-righteous developers will get the hint. If programs like 'Window Blinds', countless other shell applications, and hundreds of thousands of forum posts aren't enough, I just don't know what is.

The fact of the matter is. Their are very few who will agree on exactly how a User Interface should look. So give the end users a choice and they will be able to figure it out for themselves.

I personally think the look of Win 8 resembles something that could have been on Windows 3.1 or 95, barring hardware restrictions of the time. Solid colors, with no option for transparency is absolutely stone-age in this era of computer technology. When companies like Corning are inches away from literally putting a computer on a piece of clear glass, I would think that software rendered glass wouldn't be too much to ask from the largest producer of PC Operating Systems on the planet. Especially when its been done many times before.

My only hope is that someone, much smarter than I, will write a shell application to hide all of these solid colored blocks and pretty it up a little.

So regardless whether you want Aero or not, I think it can be widely agreed that it should at least be an option, among many other options.

 

[TheGrantFitz]

I very much liked what Aero had become in the Release Preview. I mean I'd change a couple things, like why is the close button pink for example. Stripping out the glass and blur though, oh my god you would have to replace it with something better and they absolutely haven't. It's hideous. I know I shouldn't care or whatever, it's "just aesthetics". Well I was a bit of a Windows 8 evangelist and enthusiast. Right now I don't feel like I can tell people to hop on the ugly train with a straight face. I can't understand how Microsoft arrived at this. With all their resources, based on what really...

I agree, Pixel Eater. Even though I may like the new look, I wish all of the windows at least could have the taskbar "transparency". It was a quick move, and might've been thought out more if it wasn't running on low-end ARM tablets.
Was wasn't ARM aero-free and x86 was aero-full?