RSSVista Gets New Standard UI Theme
by Nate Mook
While Microsoft has always shown off Windows Vista with its new Aero user interface and "Glass" theme, not all customers will have the required hardware to power the advanced graphics. In turn, Microsoft has spruced up its Standard theme, which had been the subject of many complaints.
Vista beta testers have long voiced their distaste for the Standard theme, even giving it the nickname "scrap metal" due to its lackluster gray appearance. "We heard you loud and clear," wrote Vista community leader Nick White. "In fact, we too wanted something better, and we’ve overhauled this theme with an all new version."
Explaining why Microsoft needed to build two themes, White said that "Vista uses the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) to deliver some amazing user experience features collectively called Windows Aero which include; Desktop Composition, Glass window frames with colored glass, window thumbnails and Flip3D."
However, those users with a graphics card that cannot run WDDM will not be able to utilize Aero, which is included with Windows Vista Home Premium, the Business SKUs and Vista Ultimate Edition.
"You’ll get the Windows Vista Basic theme which does not benefit from some of the more graphically intensive features such as desktop composition and glass window frames," White said.
Brandon LeBlanc, a Vista tester who first reported on the change, applauded Microsoft's efforts to improve the Standard theme, but also had some criticisms. "I dislike the way the maximize, minimize, and close buttons are so small. I also dislike how thick the borders are and how there isn't any real transition from the application into the window frame," he said.
Microsoft has not said when the new Standard theme will appear in public Vista builds. It is not part of build 5456, the first interim release to follow Beta 2.
53 Comments
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So ummm, the big change is now the basic UI is blue instead of gry? Wow, way to put yourself out there MS. Sit down and take a moment.. dont over do it. :)
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Vista graphics is really amazing, and vector graphic in general.
I've just watched this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fdSlw3F92U some minutes ago, it's an awesome demostration that the vector graphic is the future. I wish that OpenVG will be provided by hw manufacturers as well OpenGL, also for the desktop and not only for mobiles. Browsing http://www.amanithvg.com seems that this possibility is not to far away.
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The future? For OSX users, this has been the present for 3 years now.
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Vista Bad:
1. To bloated
2. To expensive
3. To many editions
4. To slow
5. To many good features dropped
6. To rushed to get it out the door
7. Explorer has no toolbars and still no file manager like OS X.
Vista Good:
1. Love the new Start menu
2. The new open save dialog boxes are ok but could have been better.
3. Symbolic links
4. Taking advantage of the newer GPU's.
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You mean "Too".
Anyway, what do you mean that Explorer "has no toolbars"? I find it to be more powerful than OS X's...
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As much as I'm an OSX user and fan, it's Finder is not exactly one of it's strong points. Cut and paste? It's such a draaaag.
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I have tested Windows Vista public preview. Frankly no one has beeten Microsoft interms of UI (User Interface). I installed Fedora Linux 5 on the same machine to check the preformace. Fedora Linux 5 booted significantly fater than Vista and also it's using less resources. I hope Microsoft also support who are having resonable hardware resources. I am from Sri Lanka and Tamil is an official language of my Country but I have noticed that Tamil didn't came up when I choose country as Sri Lanka. Though it came when I choose the country as India. Date in Tamil appers only half of the character when click the notification area on the lower right hand corner. Hope all these will be fixed on the final version.
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Anyone else think it's emblematic of Microsoft that Vista Basic and Standard deviate from Aero's UI concepts? Way to go with that close program button, Microsoft.
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still has a long way to catchup to the Open Source XGL
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here here
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To be honest the UI cant be much of a selling point anymore. Not with the tons of 3rd party UI programs. Vista might have a cool UI, but the fact is it's 3rd parties that always add the additional styles and themes. Basic windows is just a few different styles that get old very quikly even if it has alot of special effects.
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why would i spend hundreds of dollars for a new windows that is bloated and spend another couple of hundred dollars in hardware upgrades and then get the message of death when launching my other expensive software and it tells me "this version of windows is uncompatiable with this software". boohoohoo A faux Vista look is avail for free
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Because thats an ignorant statement considering there are also a lot of good features. You really just don't like it because it costs money and is from Microsoft.
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Nice, MUCH better than what they had before. My laptop doesn't support ALL of the new features, so when I got my Beta 2 dvd, thats the theme I was staring at. That's part of the reason I took it off. I'll be getting a new comp that will support it before Vista comes out anyways.
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Who freakin' cares about how it looks like now. As long as it works and looks different than XP, then it's all good. Stop complainting!
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I wish they would use another color other than blue. At least don't use light blue. Blue is one of my favorite colors (especially skyblue); however, some groups of people (such as the elderly) have trouble perceiving blue.
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MS haters, stick with Linux and shut up!!!
Vista rules!
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Tell me something... what makes Vista so good?
I really haven't seen anything myself, so I am hoping that you will be able to enlighten me.
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I like much better the light blue color scheme. Generally I prefer color over black and white. The blue scheme is certainly welcome. And I hope MS will release other colors. Even if I have the necessary hardware, I am not interested in Aero transparency.
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Same here. I built this computer with SLi configuration, AMD 4200 x2, 4GB RAM... and I don't plan to let an OS eat the resources because "it's cool". Still, that's a very nice sell topic for many people out there (either MS has excellent salesmen, or users will surprise us with new lows) :)
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EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
DISGUSTING! What were they thinking!!!
Looks like we are back in '98
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That does look a bit better. At least they got rid of that morbidly gloomy looking gray gradient on the titlebar. I can't help but think that this hardly is worthy of a news headline though.
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i'd argue it's been a really slow couple of weeks now.
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Wow! I am truly shocked by the innovation! I can't wait for new breathtaking icons!
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and if they left it the same you be whining about that ... grow up already.
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Yeah, no matter what Microsoft does or does not do the trolls come out in force to whine.
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No kidding.
I don't know what the big deal is here.
Whooooooooopie Doooo!
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So do the cry baby fan boys.
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There's another example, except you suck at trolling. Don't try so hard next time.
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I am so bored with the pseudo news on Vista breakthroughs. Yaddi yadda! Microsoft wants to keep us patient as it tweaks eye candy and blulnders release dates. Hardly worth writing about.
This company has blundered everything, from announcing WinFS or Cairo as far back as over ten years ago, to claiming it was reaching for the enterprise and not including WinFS, then focusing on eye candy with it's graphics engine than can only be completly supported with top notch computers. And the standard UI looks like Linux 8 years ago. How much more confusing can it be? Where is Microsoft heading? Do they even know? What are they bringing to the table? Another more stable OS? What fanfare for so little when the expectation is always so high to be brought down when you uncover the wrap.
I don't even care anymore. I will continue to run the so-so capable w2k under my emulator under my Mac. Easy and to the point. What a c***up!
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I don't get it why Standard UI buttons can't be the same as the ones on Aero Glass (minus transparency of course) ?
Both old and new standard UI buttons look like crap compared to my VistaCG theme for Windows XP.
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Perhaps they Standard UI uses the old (current XP) code in order to create/draw the window decorations; i.e. the Vista Glass has certain assumptions that prevent it from being used in a non-3D (trasparancy and other effects) type scenario. Just a guess, but it does seem peculiar that they didn't opt to make a non-Aero them as you suggested...
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"the Vista Glass has certain assumptions that prevent it from being used in a non-3D (trasparancy and other effects) type scenario"
yah,
they assume you'll pay more for the aero version.
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Oh, so that's why they couldn't complete WinFS. They're just too busy working on the standard theme. Nice to know they're not waisting their time with usless features.
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Why would Microsoft's UI design team be working on WinFS? How does this have anything to do with features like WinFS? Hopefully you were only trolling and aren't actually that ignorant.
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Usability is extremely important in ANY product. If average-Joe can't use it, what's the value?... Trivializing their or anyone elses advances in user inteface design is just short-sided.
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You are the one trolling, he said nothing about the kind of thing you're talking about. Stop twisting his words.
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"he said nothing about the kind of thing you're talking about"
"Oh, so that's why they couldn't complete WinFS. They're just too busy working on the standard theme."
He said exactly what I was talking about. The UI team does not work on things like WinFS, there are MANY different people working on Vista. Saying that working on the UI caused WinFS to be cancelled is ridiculous.
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what part of the vista team are you?
fanboy?
or corp. a$$ kisser?
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Is anyone else as sick of all this garbage Vista news as I am? They already completely gutted it, who really cares anymore. Only thing it's got left anymore (other than some new eye candy) is DirectX10. (and some added security features which emulate that found in *nix, which nobody can stand).
BTW, in that screenshot, the 'old' theme looks exactly the same as the 'new' theme, just a different color, wheres the news in that?
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I'm not really sick of the Vista news (in general) because I'm not afraid to admit to the fact that I'm really looking forward to it... Nevertheless, yeah, the screen shot does just look like another color. Not really earth shattering news here...
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"Only thing it's got left anymore (other than some new eye candy) is DirectX10."
Sounds like you don't know much about Vista.
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Actually, unless they gutted DX10 as well, that was supposed to be another exclusive feature of Vista. They have said no DX10 for anything but Vista, trying to force gamers to upgrade. So either YOU don't know much, or they gutted that as well.
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I wasn't saying they gutted DX10. I'm saying that is NOT the only new feature left.
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Why don't they just make it look the same as Glass, just without the transparency effects?
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Because it's Microsoft, they can't code more than 1,000 lines a year, otherwise they would work too much... yep!
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They could do full transparency if they really wanted to (linux has supported it for years with no special video cards required), but that defeats the purpose of the hardware upgrades that they want you to get (and a few versions of vista that don't need to be on the market).
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i think it should be metioned that the vista team is split in mutiple departments, DX10 is handaled by the direct x team, and the UI is handeled by the UI team ect;
in other words the OS is made up from mutiple modules. and as for DX10, i bet that it will come out for XP, i think the public will demand it, and to be honest so will the graphic card companies demand it to, after all Nvidia & ATI will loose a lot of money other wise, and they will get a lot of complaints, and game software companies will not be happy designing games that will only come out on Vista and won't be able to be played on XP, XP is solid as a rock now, and to many people will insists on having DX10 on XP,
and what's the betting that XP will run games faster then Vista (being that vista uses a lot of power just sitting in the desktop)
and as for UI themes, like the main post says above, UI themes come and go all the time, performance / security / reliability is going to be the main issue's,
i for one will stick with XP for a long time to come, and i hope that XP makes it to Service pack 4 before the light goes out.
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you idiot. microsoft doesn't just make operating systems. they have hundreds of coders for many programs. does anyone have anything better to do than whine about ms? yeah some of the things they introduce and make suck, but let's see you make an operating system.
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