Why Microsoft Refuses to Name the Windows 8 User Interface


Recommended Posts

According to Microsoft, Windows 8 is ?a bold reimagining of Windows, from the chipset to the user experience.? This reimagining, then, brings a completely new user interface to Windows 8, an UI that is a complete departure from any previous versions of Windows. And since the first unveiling of Windows 8 and throughout its public preview releases, this new UI has been referred to, by the community, as the Metro UI because it follows the Microsoft?s design language that was known as the Metro design language. Microsoft itself referred to apps running on the reimagined Windows 8 platform (WinRT) as Metro Style apps. Why, then, isn?t the term ?Metro? ever referred to in the operating system itself? More importantly, why does Microsoft officially refuse to name the new, reimagined, user interface?

According to Paul Thurrott in Windows Weekly podcast episode 274, when asked, Microsoft personnel would gladly call the classic desktop as the Windows 8 desktop, but they would never call the new UI by any particular name. When asked explicitly what the name of the new UI in Windows 8 is, they just called it Windows. So basically, we have the Windows desktop and, simply, Windows, and not desktop and Metro. At first, this seems quite strange because why would there not be an official name to the new UI in Windows 8; I will admit that I was quite confused by this as well. However, given some time to think about this, I am able to understand what Microsoft is trying to get at.

The trick to all this is to approach Windows 8 in a fundamentally different way. That is, we must not think of Windows 8 as having the Metro UI on top of the Windows 7 desktop, but rather, we should approach Windows 8 as having the Metro UI as the primary UI with desktop as the secondary option. Conceptually, Windows 8 is Metro plus desktop, and not the other way around. Technically, Metro is not primary nor secondary because both desktop and Metro is part of explorer.exe. But if we conceptually see the Metro UI as the primary Windows user interface, there is no need to really call it anything but the Windows UI. For instance, we don?t call the UI in Windows 7 the desktop UI or the Aero UI, but, rather, we call simply call it the Windows 7 user interface. This is the same with Windows XP, or Mac OSX. We call OSX?s Aqua user interface by, well, OSX user interface. The same principle applies to Windows 8, if we consider metro to be the primary UI. Metro, then is the Windows 8 UI, and because the desktop is now secondary in Windows 8, the classic Windows UI in Windows 8 is given a name of ?desktop?.

Paul Thurrott does bring up a valid point that term Windows 8 UI is time bound, whereas something like Metro is timeless. That is, when, say, Windows 9 is released, the term Windows 8 UI will make no sense. I completely agree with this argument. I believe the proper name of the Windows 8 UI is Windows UI. In Windows 7 and prior, for example, the tem Windows UI represented what is now the classic desktop. There was no need to call it Windows 7 UI or Windows Vista UI because the UI paradigm was the same in these versions of Windows. Because the UI paradigm is changing in Windows 8, the metro UI in Windows 8 is being referred to as ?Windows 8 UI? rather than simply ?Windows UI? for differentiation. However, I do think that in the future, the new Metro UI will simply be referred to as the Windows UI. I believe in the future, when we hear the term Windows UI, we will think of what is now called Metro and we will refer to the classic UI as the desktop. Similarly, we will soon refer to Metro Style apps as Windows Apps and the traditional Windows apps as Desktop Apps.

Windows 8 is as much a transitional OS as it is a reimagining of Windows. Hence, terms such as Windows 8 UI or Windows 8 Apps are only temporary, which will eventually be replaced by broader terms such as Windows UI and Windows Apps. Metro, or Modern, or whatever they are calling it these days may be still referred to the design language itself, just like Aero or Aqua is.

metro-metro.jpg

Yeah, I think it's silly to give it a name, doubly so for Windows. You name the GUI if there's an option, like in Linux, or to some extent in OSX (you can run X11, and older versions still had older interfaces floating around). But Windows? It's Windows, no matter how the windows look.

I think it's stuck with Metro UI for most people due to it being referred to as such since its birth

Unless they give it an extremely catchy new name, I`ll be calling it Metro, it's better than "The new tiles start screen thing"

Because some of the people at MS which feel as I do about a desktop, are hoping that by not calling it anything it will go away. "Metro UI? What?? Oh that thing, yea.. we just kinda forget about it."

I think the reason they don't want it named something catchy and memorable is so people don't have such a clear target to associate with their fear, uncertainty and doubt regarding the new interface elements. Windows 8 may end up being another Vista, but the Metro (whatever) interface is a big deal for Microsoft, and I think they'd rather have the opportunity to evolve it over time, instead of being forced to rip it out completely in all future versions of Windows. If people see all of Windows 8's problems as being exclusive to this "Metro" thing, if people think of it as a clearly defined and separate part of "Windows", then Microsoft may feel a lot of pressure to remove it in Windows 9. If people just decide to hate Windows 8, they may still be more receptive to a more evolved Metro in Windows 9. That's my theory. I don't think it will affect how people perceive Windows 8 and Metro though.

I've meet many people who have said they hated Vista, and then do something ignorant like get a new computer, look at the Windows 7 desktop, and then ask with deep concern, "Is this thing Vista? I don't want Vista." After explaining what Windows 7 is, and discovering that they didn't even know there was a Windows 7, you really do have to wonder how people end up with such strong opinions based on practically zero personal experience. I think Microsoft's marketing department (such as it is) is desperately trying to avoid another Vista disaster. Not the disaster based on Vista's genuine issues, but the disaster based on out of control FUD.

It's painfully obvious that any modern Windows interface is just plastered on top of classic and can peal off at any second. When an error occurs in Windows 7 you can see Aero revert to Basic or in some cases even all the way back to Classic. User Account Control dialog windows always appear in Basic, rather than Aero. As such these new interfaces never felt like a true integral part of Windows. Even though Microsoft disabled classic in Windows 8 and tried to redirect all calls to the old interface, it's still there.

Aqua on the other hand feels like a truly integral part of OS X; the one can't exist without the other. On OS X you'll never see a window without an Aqua border around it. You won't see the interface fail and revert back to something legacy. Ever. It just isn't possible. Note: I'm not talking about apps that run through some kind of virtualization or whatever.

Rationally I fully understand the concept of Windows 8 where the desktop runs as an app within Metro. It's secondary. Much like how Command Prompt in Windows 7 runs on the desktop and not the other way around. It doesn't change the feeling that Metro seems, once again, like something Microsoft stuck on top of the same old Windows in an effort to hide its true form.

  On 22/08/2012 at 11:04, Nazmus Shakib Khandaker said:
But if we conceptually see the Metro UI as the primary Windows user interface, there is no need to really call it anything but the Windows UI. For instance, we don?t call the UI in Windows 7 the desktop UI or the Aero UI, but, rather, we call simply call it the Windows 7 user interface. This is the same with Windows XP, or Mac OSX. We call OSX?s Aqua user interface by, well, OSX user interface.

I think the author is wrong here. Generally I never hear people talk about the "Windows 7 user interface". People refer to it as "Aero". Same goes with OS X. People don't speak of the "OS X user interface", they call it "Aqua". If I read about the "OS X user interface" or "Windows 7 user interface" it's when someone uses it as a synonym to avoid having "Aqua" / "Aero" multiple times in a row. Or simply when someone doesn't know the name. Even today I still read about "Luna" being the Windows XP theme.

Apple themselves actively used the term "Aqua" to refer to the OS X user interface up to Mac OS X Tiger. After that I haven't seen the name being mentioned on the OS X website.

  On 22/08/2012 at 12:39, .Neo said:
User Account Control dialog windows always appear in Basic, rather than Aero.

That's actually by design for security reasons; UAC notifications are handled by a process outside the security bounds of your current desktop, and since DWM is running under your credentials, it can't interact with the UAC prompt. You can tell UAC prompts to run in the context of your own desktop via a local security policy, but that's a security risk as if that's enabled, any process running under your credentials can mess with that UAC prompt.

  On 22/08/2012 at 12:54, Max Norris said:

That's actually by design for security reasons; UAC notifications are handled by a process outside the security bounds of your current desktop, and since DWM is running under your credentials, it can't interact with the UAC prompt. You can tell UAC prompts to run in the context of your own desktop via a local security policy, but that's a security risk as if that's enabled, any process running under your credentials can mess with that UAC prompt.

Huh. Sounds more like a design flaw. Why should I as a user care about all of that?!

  On 22/08/2012 at 12:54, Max Norris said:

That's actually by design for security reasons; UAC notifications are handled by a process outside the security bounds of your current desktop, and since DWM is running under your credentials, it can't interact with the UAC prompt. You can tell UAC prompts to run in the context of your own desktop via a local security policy, but that's a security risk as if that's enabled, any process running under your credentials can mess with that UAC prompt.

Yeah I read that excuse before and all I think is: "On OS X you don't see Authentication windows suddenly appear in Platinum or whatever". For me it just confirms that Aero isn't an integral part of Windows to same degree as Aqua is on OS X. Quite frankly it comes across as a design flaw on Microsoft's part.

  On 22/08/2012 at 12:59, CJEric said:
Huh. Sounds more like a design flaw. Why should I as a user care about all of that?!

Do you want anything running to be able to watch for the UAC prompt and automatically hit the allow button without your permission?

  On 22/08/2012 at 13:00, Max Norris said:

Do you want anything running to be able to watch for the UAC prompt and automatically hit the allow button without your permission?

Are you saying Microsoft feel themselves unable to design a system where this behavior is prevented, yet where at the same time the UAC prompt is drawn in the expected visual style of the rest of the system?

  On 22/08/2012 at 13:00, Max Norris said:

Do you want anything running to be able to watch for the UAC prompt and automatically hit the allow button without your permission?

This apparently isn't an issue on OS X despite the fact all Authentication windows are proper Aqua. Let's face it, it just confirms that Aero isn't as baked into Windows Vista/7 as it should have been. The sheer fact the entire mess has to revert back to some legacy protocol for security reasons is just ludicrous.

post-128385-0-15821600-1345641073.png

  On 22/08/2012 at 11:57, firey said:

Because some of the people at MS which feel as I do about a desktop, are hoping that by not calling it anything it will go away. "Metro UI? What?? Oh that thing, yea.. we just kinda forget about it."

Huh? Then what do you call it on other devices?

  On 22/08/2012 at 13:04, .Neo said:
This apparently isn't an issue on OS X despite the fact all Authentication windows are proper Aqua. Let's face it, it just confirms that Aero isn't as baked into Windows Vista/7 as it should have been.

  On 22/08/2012 at 13:04, CJEric said:
Are you saying Microsoft feel themselves unable to design a system where this behavior is prevented, yet where at the same time the UAC prompt is drawn in the expected visual style of the rest of the system?

I guess both of you are forgetting the fact that not all systems are even DWM capable (Windows has to run on everything, unlike Apple which has a very strict set of hardware to work with), some users (for whatever reason) prefer it off, and on some versions of the OS DWM isn't even wanted. Servers for example. Hence, it's not part of the "core OS", but a seperate process.

  On 22/08/2012 at 13:09, Max Norris said:

I guess both of you are forgetting the fact that not all systems are even DWM capable (Windows has to run on everything, unlike Apple which has a very strict set of hardware to work with), some users (for whatever reason) prefer it off, and on some versions of the OS DWM isn't even wanted. Servers for example. Hence, it's not part of the "core OS", but a seperate process.

I guess you're forgetting starting Windows 8 Microsoft finally addressed this issue by allowing "Aero" to be software rendered instead of hardware rendered only. Apple did the same with Aqua starting day one, all the way back in 2001. Otherwise my 1999 iMac could have never supported OS X to begin with nor run as a guest in VMware Fusion today. I don't recall it being a problem with OS X Server either.

Is this still neowin.net??? How can we be almost 20 comments into the thread and nobody has said "...that's because they are going to call it BOB". There is a part of me somewhere that is a little dissapointed.

For me. I will still be calling it Metro. They are trying really hard to be clever and change everybodies way of thinking which isn't necessarily a bad thing. What is bad is that it seems the majority don't really have an idea of the meaning behind what they are doing. Most is unclear and we cannot see how the interface can wholly improve over WIMP.

WIMP has evolved over the years from the original 1.0 with it's tiled interface. Im my mind it's hilarious that everything seems to be going back there. It's like we have come full circle. (And i'm not trolling, i'm making a comparison)

  On 22/08/2012 at 11:57, firey said:

Because some of the people at MS which feel as I do about a desktop, are hoping that by not calling it anything it will go away. "Metro UI? What?? Oh that thing, yea.. we just kinda forget about it."

Won't happen.

  On 22/08/2012 at 13:13, .Neo said:
I guess you're forgetting that with Windows 8 Microsoft finally addressed this issue by allowing "Aero" to be software rendered instead of hardware rendered only.

And yet again, it isn't wanted in every Windows installation. Windows isn't just a desktop OS.

  On 22/08/2012 at 13:13, MarkusDarkus said:

Is this still neowin.net??? How can we be almost 20 comments into the thread and nobody has said "...that's because they are going to call it BOB". There is a part of me somewhere that is a little dissapointed.

Did you see what you did there? :/

  On 22/08/2012 at 13:16, Max Norris said:

And yet again, it isn't wanted in every Windows installation. Windows isn't just a desktop OS.

Windows Server 2012 doesn't allow for Classic anymore either. It utilizes the same (or similar) desktop theme seen in Windows 8. Where does that leave your story? Nowhere.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants DLC launches this September by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe The Xbox Games Showcase gave a look at the next Indiana Jones adventure today. MachineGames showed up with a trailer for the first DLC pack coming to Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants. Set in Italy, the fresh story will introduce new locations, puzzles, enemies and more. Watch the reveal trailer above. This Indy journey will be taking place during the main campaign and dive deeper into the tribe of giants, Nephilim Order, that players see in the base game. The story will kick off with Indiana Jones offering help to a young priest named Father Ricci, who is attempting to track down a mysterious artifact. The resulting journey expands into this separate storyline that takes the player beyond Vatican City to explore Rome's streets and the crypts beneath it. “One of the most satisfying parts of developing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was the opportunity to create the Nephilim Order, the secret society of giants formed by descendants of fallen angels working to atone for their ancestral sins,” says Production Director John Jennings. “That story spans thousands of years and this DLC has given us the opportunity to develop further upon their lore and look at other aspects not covered in the initial story campaign. There’s something new and unexpected to tell here for fans of the game, and we can’t wait for people to be able to play it for themselves.” The Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants DLC will be releasing on September 4, 2025. It will be available on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5. Premium Edition, Premium Upgrade, Collector’s Edition, and Collector’s Bundle owners will be receiving the DLC for no extra charge at launch.
    • Could we have a desktop version of this lightweight bloat free Windows 11?
    • So they admit that Windows 11 is slow and bloated. Good to know!
    • Real handheld Xbox hardware was canceled, this is just a PC with a screen and controller built-in.
    • Amazon Deal: JBL BAR 1000 7.1.4, BAR 700 5.1 Dolby Atmos wireless subwoofer soundbars by Sayan Sen If you are in the market for an audio system and are after smaller bookshelf speakers delivering highly accurate sound, then take a look at KEF and Polk Audio's Q Concerto Meta and Reserve R200 speakers, respectively, as both of them are up for sale at their lowest ever prices. However, if you are more into shaking your house, which is not possible without a subwoofer, then Samsung has its Q900F, Q800F, and Q600F soundbar systems with wireless subwoofers at the lowest prices. These are the latest 2025 models, and you can take a look at them in this article here. JBL BAR 1000 For those looking for additional options, JBL's BAR 1000 and Bar 700 are also available. The former has hit its lowest ever price too, while the latter is back to its cheapest (purchase links down below). JBL claims that its BAR 1000 model goes as low as 33Hz which is crucial for movie-watching or even some genres of music. The 10-inch subwoofer is rated at 300 watts of RMS power. The total power output of the system is 880 watts at THD (total harmonic distortion) of 1%. JBL BAR 1000 rear view Unlike the 7.1.4 JBL BAR 1000, the BAR 700 is a 5.1 system which means it lacks true Dolby Atmos, but it should still provide an Atmos-like experience. DTS:X is also not supported. The BAR 700 is rated at 620 watts. It is good to see some power ratings, as companies like Samsung, Sonos, Bose, and more tend not to mention them all too often nowadays. Interestingly, both the BAR systems have similarly-specced subwoofers so if bass is what you are looking for and do not care about the Atmos experience so much, you can opt for the BAR 700 too. Get them at the links below: JBL Bar 1000: 7.1.4-Channel soundbar with Detachable Surround Speakers, MultiBeam™, True Dolby Atmos®, and DTS:X®, Black: $799.95 (Shipped and Sold by Amazon US) JBL Bar 700: 5.1-Channel soundbar with Detachable Surround Speakers and Dolby Atmos®, Black: $549.95 (Amazon US) + you also get free 90-day Amazon Music This Amazon deal is US-specific and not available in other regions unless specified. If you don't like it or want to look at more options, check out the Amazon US deals page here. Get Prime (SNAP), Prime Video, Audible Plus or Kindle / Music Unlimited. Free for 30 days. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Dedicated
      Epaminombas earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • Veteran
      Yonah went up a rank
      Veteran
    • First Post
      viraltui earned a badge
      First Post
    • Reacting Well
      viraltui earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • Week One Done
      LunaFerret earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      475
    2. 2
      +FloatingFatMan
      264
    3. 3
      ATLien_0
      236
    4. 4
      snowy owl
      228
    5. 5
      Edouard
      174
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!