Windows 8 RC To Get Flatter Explorer UI, Other Changes

[Lee G. Veteran]

The desktop screenshot looks great, and the desktop UI complements Metro. I can't wait to see the final UI.

[Zain Adeel]

for anybody who thinks that this reduces eyecandy > this leads to consistency, which matters more and majority will agree.

2ndly. Most devices are going to be tablet or laptop and they autoadjust for when there is a lot of white on screen,

[bogas04]

My thoughts :

*Aero is not yet removed from the code , superbar has it.

*That new icon has the active state , and the library is opened , so maybe library is now segregated from Explorer.

*Yes there is more empty space @ bottom right. Maybe they are bringing User Account icon there (again) ?

*If this stays white , how will the new autocolor feature work?

*Win8 seems to be very lite in looks/UX/battery :D Which is a good step IMO , might given laptops an extra half an hour or maybe one?

Also... I see Indians will rule the world!

[Zain Adeel]

Reduced eyecandy very well makes up with the increase in consistency. Its welcome

One more thing I should add is that I still think it can be improved. And I believe till RTM we might actually see it take shape like the Office UI or the Visual Studio UI.

(I still think they should remove transparency from the taskbar and give it a dark grey color. It will pop out so beautifully!

[Detection]

Aero is gone :o

http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/18/microsoft-reveals-new-windows-8-desktop-ui/

[nub]

why are the 9x icons even still in there? they need to be removed completely

Backward compatibility. Microsoft takes it very seriously. I installed a version of Microsoft Works intended to run on Windows 3.1 (a 20 year old OS) and still ran on Windows 7. Windows 7 is has an NT kernel, Windows 3.1 had a dos kernel. Program sill ran. (Wouldn't run in 64-bit because its a 16-bit program)

[George P Global Moderator]

We don't know how close to final that desktop screenshot is but I'd say pretty close at this point. But the blog points out that the release preview won't have all the changes yet which is interesting. Is the screenshot what we get in the RP? Or is that closer to RTM?

As far as the window color and taskbar, I think the fact they don't match is interesting. I also agree that the window color is too bright, I'm down for a darker gray, or maybe a more midnight blue type color personally. I still expect we'll be able to change them though, I don't see why not unless MS wants to go back to the XP way and have preset themes?

[Subhadip]

The article says the new UI would only be complete for final release. It's probably the last thing they finish, so everything we see till RTM is incomplete.

[trek]

rofl they've actually been able to make windows 8 look even worse.

[jakem1]

Aero is gone :o

http://www.engadget....s-8-desktop-ui/

No, Aero is still there but Aero Glass won't be the default visual style any more (although I presume it will still be available to switch to).

This is a good move on Microsoft's part and I'm really pleased to see that desktop apps will have a Metro-like appearance. Users will no longer find the transition from Metro apps to the desktop so jarring.

[Calum Veteran]

We don't know how close to final that desktop screenshot is but I'd say pretty close at this point. But the blog points out that the release preview won't have all the changes yet which is interesting. Is the screenshot what we get in the RP? Or is that closer to RTM?

As far as the window color and taskbar, I think the fact they don't match is interesting. I also agree that the window color is too bright, I'm down for a darker gray, or maybe a more midnight blue type color personally. I still expect we'll be able to change them though, I don't see why not unless MS wants to go back to the XP way and have preset themes?

Hopefully they'll give people the option of changing it, but hopefully they'll keep this white colour and shade in for those of us who love it :p I use that colour theme in Office 2015 and I love it.

[George P Global Moderator]

No, Aero is still there but Aero Glass won't be the default visual style any more (although I presume it will still be available to switch to).

This is a good move on Microsoft's part and I'm really pleased to see that desktop apps will have a Metro-like appearance. Users will no longer find the transition from Metro apps to the desktop so jarring.

It'd also help if the desktop and the start screen could share the same wallpaper I'd say. Now that I look at the screenshot a bit more I think the taskbar is blue'ish mostly because of the blue wallpaper behind it, the taskbar itself is still transparent etc. If so maybe the windows being "white" actually matches with the taskbar being "white" in a way? Either way we'll know in time I guess. I still expect the taskbar to go through a big change come Windows 9.

[Anthonyd]

XP lovers are going to love Windows 8 now that Aero is gone :D

[jakem1]

It'd also help if the desktop and the start screen could share the same wallpaper I'd say.

Yep, that would be a good idea although it would also be nice to have an option to set different backgrounds. I suspect we will get that option though as you can change the background in the CP and the backgrounds currently on offer are far too ugly to make it to the RTM version :laugh:

I think it would be good if the Start screen background was made slightly darker or even blurred a bit to make the tiles stand out against it. This would be similar to the changes MS made to the Zune backgrounds in Mango where they ensured that the background art didn't detract from the controls in the foreground.

[George P Global Moderator]

Yep, that would be a good idea although it would also be nice to have an option to set different backgrounds. I suspect we will get that option though as you can change the background in the CP and the backgrounds currently on offer are far too ugly to make it to the RTM version :laugh:

I think it would be good if the Start screen background was made slightly darker or even blurred a bit to make the tiles stand out against it. This would be similar to the changes MS made to the Zune backgrounds in Mango where they ensured that the background art didn't detract from the controls in the foreground.

Yeah, I agree, it would need some type of effect so the tiles don't get lose in the background image since they don't have any borders etc. I think darkening it would be the better of the two options though before they decided to drop "glass" I always thought of doing a glass (make it look like the taskbar does for example) layer between the tiles and the background image. That could also do the trick, GNOME3 tosses up a darkening effect though when you bring up it's app list window or w/e the heck they call it.

[Quillz]

I just hope the RTM lets me change the font. It really annoys me that I can't do this when it was possible in every previous version of Windows.

[Knife Party]

ugh, I honestly can't see where this metro design is going..... its just a fusion of some metro with some aero? Hope MS doesn't toy around with metro as they did with aero, can't belief they keep on dumping GUI's like this.... Now, its all white everywhere, matte colouring gone wrong, huge border titles, ****ty cursors, bloody huge coloured tiles on my desktop....and for what? wish they would stop making half ass attempts.....

so far win8 brings this to the table - metro, skydrive, some explorer functionality and ...... ?

[Quillz]

ugh, I honestly can't see where this metro design is going..... its just a fusion of some metro with some aero? Hope MS doesn't toy around with metro as they did with aero, can't belief they keep on dumping GUI's like this.... Now, its all white everywhere, matte colouring gone wrong, huge border titles, ****ty cursors, bloody huge coloured tiles on my desktop....and for what? wish they would stop making half ass attempts.....

so far win8 brings this to the table - metro, skydrive, some explorer functionality and ...... ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_new_to_Windows_8

[Anthonyd]

ugh, I honestly can't see where this metro design is going..... its just a fusion of some metro with some aero? Hope MS doesn't toy around with metro as they did with aero, can't belief they keep on dumping GUI's like this.... Now, its all white everywhere, matte colouring gone wrong, huge border titles, ****ty cursors, bloody huge coloured tiles on my desktop....and for what? wish they would stop making half ass attempts.....

It would be nice for you to read the article before posting such a comment.

[Arkanius]

Love the changes, but why aren't they using their Windows Phone (Which is one of the pillars of their Metro theme) throughout the whole OS?

[Subhadip]

Love the changes, but why aren't they using their Windows Phone (Which is one of the pillars of their Metro theme) throughout the whole OS?

As Anthonyd points above, read the blog post (http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/05/18/creating-the-windows-8-user-experience.aspx). It explains every decision in detail.

[Zain Adeel]

To everyone who thinks removing Glass is a mistake. Let me tell you a simple thing. When you go about using it. Using desktop and switching between desktop and start screen and metro apps. You will see how the consistency would make up for the lack of eyecandy.

Just wait for the Release Preview.

[LightShadow]

To everyone who thinks removing Glass is a mistake. Let me tell you a simple thing. When you go about using it. Using desktop and switching between desktop and start screen and metro apps. You will see how the consistency would make up for the lack of eyecandy.

Just wait for the Release Preview.

It's very unlikely that this theme will be in the Release Preview, from their comment and from leaked shots, it seems in the RP we'll just Aero glass with the flat ribbon and buttons.

[Anthonyd]

It's very unlikely that this theme will be in the Release Preview, from their comment and from leaked shots, it seems in the RP we'll just Aero glass with the flat ribbon and buttons.

You missed read the blog then.

They are showing you the RP build but some icons/ui element will only land on the RTM.

IMO, they are going to change many icons, like the "music" "picture" folder and so on.

[Guest]

It's very unlikely that this theme will be in the Release Preview, from their comment and from leaked shots, it seems in the RP we'll just Aero glass with the flat ribbon and buttons.

The screenshot is where they are going with the RC, RTM will have even more work put into it, I'm actually quite excited about Windows 8 again.