Windows 8 RTM build 8518 screenshots appear - no more Aero!

New screenshots have appeared of the Windows 8 RTM branch, courtesy of WinUnleaked, that reveal some last-minute changes and additions made by the Windows team. First up, in the coloring menu Microsoft has removed the option, previously seen in June, to independently color the taskbar and windows, meaning you are now stuck with the same color for both. Also, Internet Explorer 10 now interacts with the color that you choose, and new tabs and buttons have been spotted.

Read more and check out the screenshots here: Windows 8 RTM build 8518 screenshots appear - Neowin


They did it... They finally did it!
And I have to comment on this right away, because it has been quite a while since I posted anything new. Like many others, I had my doubts, my complains, prejudices and a decent amount of laziness towards the upcoming Win8. But I think Microsoft finally stepped up, gathered its strength, and delivered!

No more Aero in Windows 8! I loved it from the first time I saw it in Vista, it looked gorgeous, fancy and sexy - true eye candy! Win7 suffered from Aero in its bland simplicity and flatness, and Win8 did no better. But I personally think that this is a big, big turnaround for me, and it just might be something that, among other reasons I have discovered with the Release Preview, will make me decide to get the OS when it hits the shelves.

 

[Coke Robot]

Aero is a nice UI element. I don't think I've ever heard ANYONE say bad against it.

Having said that, I was initially kind of skeptical with the removal of Aero in 8. It was mostly due to the fact that some leaked screen shots were showing just a flatten Aero UI and nothing that looked sleek. Then comes the official release of Microsoft of the RTM Desktop of 8, and then came Office 2013. WOW. Simply put, WOW. That, is how one does a metro designed Desktop UI. And since that will be the Windows Desktop, YAY!

Aero looked real cool when it came out with vista. Aero looked nice and refined in 7. But it has one thing true, it doesn't reflect what a true software UI looks like. It's an emulator or a digitizer of physical elements into a flat 2D screen.

The thing about metro design is, it LOOKS and appears to be a true looking software UI.

 

[Gornot]

I said this once, and I said it again: there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with Vista. It has bugs, glitches and mistakes just like any other OS, but the general public gave their best to overblow them out of proportions.
Windows Vista works 3x better than Windows 7 on my rig, and that's saying A LOT!!!

Vista better than Win7... Never ! 7 is what Vista sould have been.

I elaborated this back on SevenForums. Long story short, IMHO, Vista is an unstable eye-candy, 7 is an unpolished troll that runs faster than "your average car". Of course 7 is better in terms of performance, but Vista has always been much better to me because I never really had so many problems. Actually, I had less problems than 7 which I still acknowledge as a "better OS".

Aero is a nice UI element. I don't think I've ever heard ANYONE say bad against it.

Having said that, I was initially kind of skeptical with the removal of Aero in 8. It was mostly due to the fact that some leaked screen shots were showing just a flatten Aero UI and nothing that looked sleek. Then comes the official release of Microsoft of the RTM Desktop of 8, and then came Office 2013. WOW. Simply put, WOW. That, is how one does a metro designed Desktop UI. And since that will be the Windows Desktop, YAY!

Aero looked real cool when it came out with vista. Aero looked nice and refined in 7. But it has one thing true, it doesn't reflect what a true software UI looks like. It's an emulator or a digitizer of physical elements into a flat 2D screen.

The thing about metro design is, it LOOKS and appears to be a true looking software UI.

Personally, "nice and refined" is what I think of Vista, not 7, but otherwise, I completely agree with you

 

[Hopachi]

When I first saw screenshots of the new user interface, I didn't like it at all. But, few days ago I downloaded a Microsoft Office customer preview, and... wow! It looks great! If Windows Explorer is going to look like that, or similar, I will never turn my computer off.

Wow... how are you guys managing this!
It seems I'm not affected by the plain white looks (yet) maybe if I can still get some color into it.

I said this once, and I said it again: there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with Vista. It has bugs, glitches and mistakes just like any other OS, but the general public gave their best to overblow them out of proportions.
Windows Vista works 3x better than Windows 7 on my rig, and that's saying A LOT!!!

Vista better than Win7... Never ! 7 is what Vista sould have been.

I elaborated this back on SevenForums. Long story short, IMHO, Vista is an unstable eye-candy, 7 is an unpolished troll that runs faster than "your average car". Of course 7 is better in terms of performance, but Vista has always been much better to me because I never really had so many problems. Actually, I had less problems than 7 which I still acknowledge as a "better OS".

Vista better than 7!
Just curious, what machine/model is this you're using?


The Aero look changed during the versions and it's just a matter of taste. Some like the Vista Aero, others the Win7 Aero...
Well I'm glad they took out the classic theme(s) because they were already museum stuff.

I don't mind the new themes: keep em coming.

 

[Gornot]

I have my system specs filled out, build the rig myself in late '09, just before 7 was released.
And again, I'm not saying Vista is better than 7, I'm just saying I preferred Vista over 7 in its appearance. My GPU being defective now, 7 is horrible to run while Vista had no problems with it... and now, neither has 8
I mean, the performance is far below average, but in 7, it was even worse.

 

[tseven]

In my opinion it's hideous. They haven't got a clue if they want to go completely metro either as they still have the old 3D super detailed icons and it completely clashes with the user interface. Plus the revert icons did it best being the happy medium between super flatness with no dimension with legibility issues and then the super glossy aero. I would like a happy medium or even keep aero because this new layout is a flat mess. At least everything for the most part goes together visually in aero. Not so much here. It's a disaster. I'm not against people that like the look, I'm against the look. I actually like metro but it doesn't work on something as complicated on a desktop. It looks okay if they take the influence or the philosophy but making everything flat doesn't work because desktop is not just about content consumption unlike if you use a music player such as zune. Even on the phone it looks odd depending on what exactly you are doing. The buttons just look awkward specifically the text based ones. The idea is nice but execution even at this late stage in the game is quite disappointing.

 

[Coke Robot]

I'm really hoping they redo the iconography from Aero to metro, like in Office 2013. Ooohhh.... I feel so clean.

 

[Morpheus]

When I first saw screenshots of the new user interface, I didn't like it at all. But, few days ago I downloaded a Microsoft Office customer preview, and... wow! It looks great! If Windows Explorer is going to look like that, or similar, I will never turn my computer off.

Wow... how are you guys managing this!

I honestly don't know, I tend to remove the white color wherever I can, but the moment I saw Office UI I fell in love with it... Screenshots show that Windows Explorer UI is not completely the same, but it's close enough in my opinion.

I'm really hoping they redo the iconography from Aero to metro, like in Office 2013. Ooohhh.... I feel so clean.

+1

 

[Hopachi]

I honestly don't know, I tend to remove the white color wherever I can, but the moment I saw Office UI I fell in love with it... Screenshots show that Windows Explorer UI is not completely the same, but it's close enough in my opinion.

I'm really hoping they redo the iconography from Aero to metro, like in Office 2013. Ooohhh.... I feel so clean.

+1

So a white balance of colors was found after all. Thanks.

Well you guys are right about Win8 Explorer: in the RP, the ribbon is just like in Office 2010.
If they do work on new icons, we'll probably get a Office 2013 look in the RTM (seems logic).

 

[Hopachi]

I have my system specs filled out, build the rig myself in late '09, just before 7 was released.
And again, I'm not saying Vista is better than 7, I'm just saying I preferred Vista over 7 in its appearance. My GPU being defective now, 7 is horrible to run while Vista had no problems with it... and now, neither has 8
I mean, the performance is far below average, but in 7, it was even worse.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Glad that 8 works on that GPU. That Win7 problem is a bit weird: it seems like it uses more 'gpu power' than Win8. Don't know if it was a driver problem or not but if Win8 graphics work better than Win7 on a older, possible defect gpu then I might also switch to 8 on my laptop. I also have an overheated GPU (in a Acer Aspire 7720...) that I got running again and it's currently running well on Vista (also).

 

[EchoX860]

Just another reason for me to stick with 7. Not impressed at all with 8 so far.

 

[Gornot]

I have my system specs filled out, build the rig myself in late '09, just before 7 was released.
And again, I'm not saying Vista is better than 7, I'm just saying I preferred Vista over 7 in its appearance. My GPU being defective now, 7 is horrible to run while Vista had no problems with it... and now, neither has 8
I mean, the performance is far below average, but in 7, it was even worse.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Glad that 8 works on that GPU. That Win7 problem is a bit weird: it seems like it uses more 'gpu power' than Win8. Don't know if it was a driver problem or not but if Win8 graphics work better than Win7 on a older, possible defect gpu then I might also switch to 8 on my laptop. I also have an overheated GPU (in a Acer Aspire 7720...) that I got running again and it's currently running well on Vista (also).

I'm not sure if its a problem with the drivers... Possibly.
The thing is, Vista and 7 have the same GPU drivers, 8 has its own. On Vista everything is fine, on 7 it's like when the driver crashes in XP and reverts everything back to 16bit color or something, except Aero still works, and all the animations are still there. It just looks 16bit and decaying lol
8, like Vista, totally has no problems like that, it's just 7 that trips the hell out xD

 

[phailyoor]

I really enjoyed the new "flatter" aero glass seen in the release preview. If I can't hack aero back in[along with desktop gadgets] then I might just go back to windows 7 with a windows 8 theme.

 

[Hopachi]

I really enjoyed the new "flatter" aero glass seen in the release preview. If I can't hack aero back in[along with desktop gadgets] then I might just go back to windows 7 with a windows 8 theme.

Yes it was a nice theme, a lighter aero. But it seems to be just a transition to the non-transparent version.

Too bad we need hacks to get this in Win7.