84 replies to this topic 4 votes

[laz45]

I want glass!

[ArialBlue]

I am sorry but ... what?

I mean,
I think OP is horribly confused or something.

[Nazmus Shakib Khandaker]

Brandon Live, on 03 August 2012 - 22:43, said:

You are confusing desktop composition (provided by the DWM) with the Aero theme. The Aero theme required desktop composition, but it is not the same thing. Desktop composition is now always on in Windows 8 and cannot be disabled.

Technically, yes, it is the Desktop Window Manager. However, through the lack of clear communication from Microsoft, many people are mistaking the removal of Aero Glass as the removal of Desktop Window Manager. As theyarecomingforyou pointed out, people replying to the thread "Why did Microsoft remove aero?" are clearly confused and many are thinking that DWM is gone in RTM of Windows 8.

Furthermore, many of the features are still present in Windows 8 that was once branded as Windows Aero back in the days of Windows Vista and Windows 7 Beta. For instance, in Windows Vista Home Basic, the DWM was in fact turned on, however, some of the "premium" features of Aero was intentionally turned off, including Glass, taskbar thumbnail, Minimize/Close animations, etc. These features, along with Flip 3D, were the big advertisement point of Aero back in the day. In the Beta of Windows 7, the Snap, Peek, and Shake, were branded with the prefex of Aero.

In Windows 8 RTM, only the visual look is gone, but many of the features are present that once were branded as the hallmark of Windows Aero.

[ChrisJ1968]

I rather like Aero glass. MS is this Vista 2?

[Matthew_Thepc]

Nazmus Shakib Khandaker, on 03 August 2012 - 21:25, said:

Final Remark: STOP CRYING ABOUT "NO AERO IN WINDOWS 8".

LOL, before I read this part I thought the whole post was you complaining about how Aero's still a part of Windows 8
but I was a little disappointed that they didn't replace more of the Aero icons with Metro (excuse me, Windows-8-Style ) icons.

[Panda X]

People want transparency on their windows. Also you confused Aero and DWM in some parts.

DWM is needed for the animations and magnification. Not Aero.

[Nazmus Shakib Khandaker]

Panda X, on 04 August 2012 - 03:02, said:

People want transparency on their windows. Also you confused Aero and DWM in some parts.

DWM is needed for the animations and magnification. Not Aero.

Please read my response a couple of posts above yours about desktop window manager. I explain it all there.

[BajiRav]

Nazmus Shakib Khandaker, on 04 August 2012 - 00:32, said:

Technically, yes, it is the Desktop Window Manager. However, through the lack of clear communication from Microsoft, many people are mistaking the removal of Aero Glass as the removal of Desktop Window Manager. As theyarecomingforyou pointed out, people replying to the thread "Why did Microsoft remove aero?" are clearly confused and many are thinking that DWM is gone in RTM of Windows 8.

Furthermore, many of the features are still present in Windows 8 that was once branded as Windows Aero back in the days of Windows Vista and Windows 7 Beta. For instance, in Windows Vista Home Basic, the DWM was in fact turned on, however, some of the "premium" features of Aero was intentionally turned off, including Glass, taskbar thumbnail, Minimize/Close animations, etc. These features, along with Flip 3D, were the big advertisement point of Aero back in the day. In the Beta of Windows 7, the Snap, Peek, and Shake, were branded with the prefex of Aero.

In Windows 8 RTM, only the visual look is gone, but many of the features are present that once were branded as the hallmark of Windows Aero.

You are explaining all that to a Microsoft employee? Brandon is a very well known name around here. I think now that he is actively posting here again, we can conclude that his work on Windows "codename" 9 hasn't started yet.

[libertas83]

Nazmus Shakib Khandaker, on 04 August 2012 - 00:32, said:

Technically, yes, it is the Desktop Window Manager. However, through the lack of clear communication from Microsoft, many people are mistaking the removal of Aero Glass as the removal of Desktop Window Manager. As theyarecomingforyou pointed out, people replying to the thread "Why did Microsoft remove aero?" are clearly confused and many are thinking that DWM is gone in RTM of Windows 8.

Furthermore, many of the features are still present in Windows 8 that was once branded as Windows Aero back in the days of Windows Vista and Windows 7 Beta. For instance, in Windows Vista Home Basic, the DWM was in fact turned on, however, some of the "premium" features of Aero was intentionally turned off, including Glass, taskbar thumbnail, Minimize/Close animations, etc. These features, along with Flip 3D, were the big advertisement point of Aero back in the day. In the Beta of Windows 7, the Snap, Peek, and Shake, were branded with the prefex of Aero.

In Windows 8 RTM, only the visual look is gone, but many of the features are present that once were branded as the hallmark of Windows Aero.

Actually, Microsoft has been very clear about it only being Aero Glass and not DWM being removed. The people who are confused are non-technical people who come onto a technical forum to discuss something they know nothing about.

All the information is there for those who know anything about Windows and have followed it for a few years. Microsoft always references the DWM in documentation and in technical blogs when discussing the engine behind Aero Glass. It's also very clear that DWM is used in all videos showing the Desktop. It's even clear when I go into the task manager by a process called DWM.

While on the subject, Microsoft has also stated that the underpinnings of Metro Apps uses Direct2D. Direct2D as many will know here was Microsoft's answer to the failure of WPF catching on by moving the Graphical capabilities to Native Code so that apps can rewrite the UI while keeping their back-end in C++. That is why the vast majority of Microsoft's apps are not in WPF now, they are all moving to Direct2D, hence the loss of support of XP. This includes IE9/10, Windows Live Essentials, and now Office 2013 (surprise, surprise).

[Manarift]

GP007, on 03 August 2012 - 22:13, said:

Seeing how even in the RTM they left the taskbar with a bit of transparency then then option or ability to turn it back on to how it was at the RP should still be in there, just hidden. I doubt they actually went though all the trouble to just rip out the code for windows borders yet left the taskbar with it.

I give it a few weeks and someone will find and release a hack or a tweak tool that will let you go crazy with transparency again, or if not that then some custom theme will add it back

Personally I'm ok without glass borders as long as I can tweak the thickness of the new solid borders. I'm all for the Office 2013 style thin borders with a thin drop shadow.

They did actually remove the code like they did the startmenu

[Panda X]

Manarift, on 04 August 2012 - 03:43, said:

They did actually remove the code like they did the startmenu

Or removed/changed the shader.

[Mohitster]

Am I the only one who wants to cry whenever I look at these screenshots of Windows 8 RTM? Colors are just dull for a full fledged interface. I didn't expect this from Microsoft! I guess first thing I would be doing after upgrading to RTM is to upgrade Windowsblinds as well, as and when it becomes available....or may be find a way to enable some other colors.....although, that's not what I always intended to do......Aero in RP looks (looked) so promising and usable!!

Nazmus Shakib Khandaker, on 03 August 2012 - 21:31, said:

The reason I din't do RTM screenshots is because these screenshots would look almost exactly the same in Windows 8 RTM.

No, they don't!

[+GreenMartian]

Terracotta, on 03 August 2012 - 21:30, said:

I think people are "crying" about transparent window boarders missing in Windows 8.

I think the point of boarding your windows is so people can't see through them?

[Nazmus Shakib Khandaker]

stumper66, on 03 August 2012 - 23:24, said:

Forget Aero. I want to know why you have Miley Cyrus in the 'Awesome 80's' folder!

Oh, that's because the song I had was "Every Rose Has Its Thorn". It is a remix of the 80's song, so I put it there.

[thenetavenger]

Javik, on 03 August 2012 - 21:32, said:

Trolltastic

My complaint is about the transparency being gone, and the general ugliness of the new design. I'm well aware that the UI is still GPU accelerated, that doesn't make it any less ugly though.

You do realize you can use third party utilities to flip any type of transparency back on you want.

By creating the shader blur of the borders, Microsoft left the chrome of Windows less customizable. In removing this effect, the ability for developers to touch the chrome and create borderless applications with more consistency is far easier.

Additionally, because of the new rendering order by removing this, more functionality is possible. This spans a lot of topics from the RDP aspects to the Software DWM fallback features Windows 8 has. (The vector composer does not need a GPU to operate anymore.)

If you really need the 'glass' effect, there will be utilities that flip it back on, trust me.