More Windows 8 RTM Screen shots!

[rfirth]

That. I really, really don't get why teams within Microsoft can't work together. None of their software products has ever had any sort of coherence with the others. Office, Windows, Windows Live/MSN, Zune, Xbox, ... Lately they have been sharing some Metro ideas (really just the huge light Segoe/Zegoe) but it still all looks completely different. Even Office 2013 doesn't fit into Windows 8 properly. It gets close, but it's just not as it should be.

Office 2013 and Visual Studio 2012 are nearly identical... exactly what you're asking for. Looks like we have more of this consistency to look forward to.

[ATLien_0]

Only thing I wish they would do is a darker taskbar color, similar to the background in the start screen. Other than that Im liking the direction moving from Aero to Metro

[anidais]

Only thing I wish they would do is a darker taskbar color, similar to the background in the start screen. Other than that Im liking the direction moving from Aero to Metro

I'm also liking the direction. Months ago I thought MS was going to stick with aero but I'm glad they listened to the feedback and are at least trying to match the new start screen and the desktop. But the fact that at this stage the icons are still the ones from Vista/7 bothers me. Getting rid of aero? Good, but get rid of it completely.

[migo]

I'm also liking the direction. Months ago I thought MS was going to stick with aero but I'm glad they listened to the feedback and are at least trying to match the new start screen and the desktop. But the fact that at this stage the icons are still the ones from Vista/7 bothers me. Getting rid of aero? Good, but get rid of it completely.

How hard will it be for people to fix the icons after the fact though? I'm thinking not very, half an hour of tweaking should have it looking very nice.

[anidais]

How hard will it be for people to fix the icons after the fact though? I'm thinking not very, half an hour of tweaking should have it looking very nice.

That's something that could come with the OS (I mean updated icons). Either way new icons are most likely not coming so we'll have to get used to having a shiny new theme with the old icons. Not a big deal, but would've been nice to get a "complete" experience out of the box.

[Denis W. Veteran]

About the icons: if the reason they were not updated was the breaking of familiarity for traditional users, then how do they expect people to adapt to monotone icons in Metro or the new icon set in Office 2013? Or how people adapted from XP's icons to the Vista style? Office 2013's icon set is decent and would've sufficed in the desktop.

Seems like a convenient excuse for not completing the icons on time.

Besides that, the desktop theme is okay in its current state.

[migo]

If they're going to skip on something, I'd rather it be the icons rather than some stability issues. There's a few bugs in the behaviour of IE10 metro that I hope they get ironed out. Most of the time I don't see the icons anyway.

[.Neo]

Office 2013 and Visual Studio 2012 are nearly identical... exactly what you're asking for. Looks like we have more of this consistency to look forward to.

If you read his post properly you'll come to the conclusion two products only isn't exactly what he's asking for. And what exactly are you basing on we'll have "more of this consistency" to look forward to. Windows 8 is a huge sign showing the opposite.

[.Neo]

About the icons: if the reason they were not updated was the breaking of familiarity for traditional users, then how do they expect people to adapt to monotone icons in Metro or the new icon set in Office 2013? Or how people adapted from XP's icons to the Vista style? Office 2013's icon set is decent and would've sufficed in the desktop.

Seems like a convenient excuse for not completing the icons on time.

It's a BS excuse.

[Defcon]

I don't know what the designers were thinking, but there's no way I can use that without going blind. Its simply terrible design, the idea of Metro is to remove extra UI elements such as 3d gradients, borders and make things easily visible and discoverable. This UI looks like someone who knows nothing about Metro or design and simply decided to make everything flat and white.

For the love of god at least give users a dark theme. I've given up hope that we'll ever see a decent looking Windows UI. I guess the other teams like Office/Zune are where the actual designers went.

[alisalem]

I always wonder why Microsoft never uses transparent borders on their windows the way Apple does on OS X. They look much cleaner. Check the below link.

http://localhostr.com/files/UqaQxYB/windows.png

[BoneyardBrew Member]

I always wonder why Microsoft never uses transparent borders on their windows the way Apple does on OS X. They look much cleaner. Check the below link.

http://localhostr.co...xYB/windows.png

I completely agree. It makes the windows look blurry against any wallpapers or backgrounds that are darker than the border itself.

I don't consider myself a professional by any means but this is something really basic that all designers should know.