Windows 8 designers are blind.

[Dot Matrix]

Another issue would be the "Desktop Widgets", they were completely removed. WT* ?!

Live tiles replace that functionality.

[.Neo]

Yes there are differences, but nothing IMO to get hung up about, especially considering what they have done, and needed to do these past few years. They transformed Windows into a new OS, ported the code for both Windows and Office to ARM chips, and were busy insuring compatibility with older apps. Microsoft is a lot more consistent than they have been past years (Windows 7 is a mess of new, old, and ancient), but things take precedence over others when designing and coding.

The grand Microsoft apologist at work once again. None of that your saying would be much of an issue if Microsoft actually brought some interface designers onboard instead of letting coders do all the work.

[luiscamino]

not to mention the sea of extra inconsistencies that appear when you change the dpi to anything other than 100% (control panel > appearance > display > change size of all items). but then again, this was even worse in windows 7 and was never taken care of.

[anidais]

They didn't have time to work on the desktop UI? Really? A company with almost 100.000 employees couldn't find 20 designers (or even less) to make desktop pretty? Very unlikely.

I agree. People should stop defending Microsoft for this. Even if they plan to scrap the desktop in future releases, there is no excuse for the inconsistencies and bugs in the desktop UI considering it's still an integral part of the OS. People will still use the desktop, perhaps more than the new apps. At least until the "metro" environment is mature enough.

I guess someone can edit the msstyle file and fix the bugs but then again this is something that should've been fixed in the final version. See, Microsoft has always been like this. There is no attention to detail.

[Zain Adeel]

really disappointed. I alone could've redone ALL the icons... The theme... in 2 years with EASE!...

I don't understand what the designers @ Microsoft are working on?

And no I don't just say this for the Desktop stuff. The Metro apps.... I cant even call them apps. They are pretty much USELESS!.. the video music apps are pathetic. Just as they were when the DP came out. I mean.. are they even working on it?

whats their excuse?

[.Neo]

I don't understand what the designers @ Microsoft are working on?

From what I understand there are no dedicated UI designers part of the Windows team. Both the Windows XP and Vista icon sets have been made by a third party.

[Jelly2003]

I've noticed a lot of people on this thread saying "So what?" when it comes to the mentioned minor desktop design / theming issues for Windows 8. My personal opinion is that while we can and should look past the design issues on Windows 8, after all, the issues can be patched later on, and the base Windows operating system itself is absolutely amazing.

BUT... What we can't look past is the fact that this is Microsoft's flagship product and its absurd that they can make these kinds of mistakes on such an important product. When choosing platforms and software the perception that Microsoft knows what they're doing and understands the needs of their users is important to me. These kinds of silly issues that the Windows 8 desktop has make Microsoft appear amaturish and cast doubt in my mind about whether they know what they were doing.

A misaligned icon might not actually affect the system in any significant way but it will affect people's perceptions of the product and the company. Small amaturish issues are part of the reason why I have so much trouble taking Linux seriously as a desktop operating system.

[yasingedik]

Hi,

I think it is good and natural that different products have different GUIs. Targeted user base for Visual Studio, Office and other products are different. So there might be some choices depending on the user habits. Yeah, I know this does not mean to have much more similar interfaces but I am sure most of the people would complain that it is boring.

Personally I really like dark theme of Visual Studio and prefer to have theme editors that can be used across all MS Products to apply all, or some.

For the GUI bugs and old graphics, I agree, they need fixing ASAP.

[luiscamino]

And no I don't just say this for the Desktop stuff. The Metro apps.... I cant even call them apps. They are pretty much USELESS!.. the video music apps are pathetic. Just as they were when the DP came out. I mean.. are they even working on it?

whats their excuse?

all the metro apps will get at least one update beofre october 26th, and will be updated "regularily" over time. the problems here are with the base OS, which is RTM'd and won't change a bit until an update who knows when.

[TheLegendOfMart]

Live tiles replace that functionality.

Can you pin live tiles to the desktop?

[anidais]

Can you pin live tiles to the desktop?

If you mean "metro" apps tiles, no.

[Dot Matrix]

Can you pin live tiles to the desktop?

Yes, yes you can. Omnio. ;)

[MorganX]

Yes, yes you can. Omnio. ;)

How do you pin a live tile to the desktop exactly?

[+Majesticmerc MVC]

From what I understand there are no dedicated UI designers part of the Windows team. Both the Windows XP and Vista icon sets have been made by a third party.

For real? That's insane if true. Why would they hand over the look and feel (arguably the most impressionable part of the OS) to a third party, and then accept this kind of work for two years effort? That's beyond insane.

[contextfree]

For real? That's insane if true. Why would they hand over the look and feel (arguably the most impressionable part of the OS) to a third party, and then accept this kind of work for two years effort? That's beyond insane.

Of course there are dedicated UI designers on the Windows team. They do sometimes contract certain aspects of the UI like icons out to external companies though (no idea how much they did this with Windows 8 specifically).

[libertas83]

The most obvious answer is that it was a last minute decision to change the Aero theme. They were doing minor tweaks to the theme the previews and had touted a feature to have auto-color for Aero Glass originally. That changed all of a sudden right before the RP came out and suddenly we hear about a new theme to flatten the OS.

[grayscale]

The most obvious answer is that it was a last minute decision to change the Aero theme. They were doing minor tweaks to the theme the previews and had touted a feature to have auto-color for Aero Glass originally. That changed all of a sudden right before the RP came out and suddenly we hear about a new theme to flatten the OS.

It's not just about Glass. It will be stupid if all these people are whining just because of Glass.

[contextfree]

I agree that some aspects of the OS and apps ought to be more consistent, but about the icons and chrome specifically, I'm not really sure it's that contradictory to have flat window chrome and neutral back/forward/etc. buttons but more elaborate icons. I mean, the chrome is just the frame around the window content, it doesn't really have to match it as long as it's "neutral" - like, if you run a game in a window do you expect the window chrome to match the graphics of the game? I think it looks more "jarring" because some parts look the same as in Windows 7 and others don't, but if you came to Windows 8 without being familiar with Windows 7 they probably wouldn't stand out as much. Like, if in a parallel universe Vista had introduced a transparent taskbar but not transparent window chrome, would people have said "hey, the taskbar clashes with the window chrome now!" or just "oh, there's a transparent taskbar now, I {love|hate} it". I don't think it would ever have occurred to people that the window chrome needs to be transparent too, they don't really have much to do with each other inherently.

[libertas83]

It's not just about Glass. It will be stupid if all these people are whining just because of Glass.

I know it's not just Glass. My point is that I don't think the theme was supposed to change that much at all, including icons, windows frame, buttons, etc. Older versions had tweaks to it, but no major changes. That is the best explanation as to why they didn't put in 2 years to do new icons, etc.

It all looks to be a rushed job based on a last minute decision (right as the RP goes public no less).

[TheLegendOfMart]

Yes, yes you can. Omnio. ;)

That isn't built into Windows though, that's a separate third party plugin/program, so no live tiles do not replace gadgets functionality wise.

[Dot Matrix]

That isn't built into Windows though, that's a separate third party plugin/program, so no live tiles do not replace gadgets functionality wise.

Technically, they do. They perform the same function. They just can't exist on the desktop. This is just personal preference, but it actually feels nice to have dynamic updates, and not clutter the desktop with junk.

[contextfree]

Technically, they do. They perform the same function. They just can't exist on the desktop. This is just personal preference, but it actually feels nice to have dynamic updates, and not clutter the desktop with junk.

Tiles on start replace gadgets fine for things like weather and email counts. But could you have a CPU meter tile on the Start screen? No.

[Dot Matrix]

Tiles on start replace gadgets fine for things like weather and email counts. But could you have a CPU meter tile on the Start screen? No.

How do you know this to be the case? No one has tried making one yet, but it wouldn't be hard.

[bandit_liberty_rumble]

How do you know this to be the case? No one has tried making one yet, but it wouldn't be hard.

I'd be surprised if that was possible at all since, afaik, it's the OS controlling the behavior of the tile, not the application. Which was was a deliberate design decision made by Microsoft.

the first fundamental architectural decision that we made was that the platform would be data-driven, that is, no app code should run in the background to power the Start screen.

[argonite]

I'd be surprised if that was possible at all since, afaik, it's the OS controlling the behavior of the tile, not the application. Which was was a deliberate design decision made by Microsoft.

Connect the tile to a data source that's polling the OS. I'm guessing that Windows handles the data fetching frequency, so it won't be a real-time CPU monitor.