Will Windows 9 reintroduce the classic theme?

[mzta cody]

The classic theme is still there underneath the skin, it's just that they removed access to it.

It seems to me it is a fundamental part of the win32 core user interface, and is just "draped" with the PNG-based imagery and graphics. With the right hack, it is revealed that classic theme has been there all along in Win 8.x, and can even run with all of the DWM-enabled animations.

[bandit_liberty_rumble]

The classic theme is still there underneath the skin, 

Good grief...

[LimeMaster]

The Classic and Basic themes are still in Windows 8, but they can only be accessed through programming or by using compatibility mode:

 

Edit: Nevermind! Didn't see mzta cody's post. :)

[HawkMan]

No but there is definitely a need for a nice basic theme in future versions.

 

Why? What benefit does it have on any computer in use today?

[mzta cody]

Why? What benefit does it have on any computer in use today?

Why not? What drawbacks would it have on any computer in use today?

If it renders utilizing modern 3-d acceleration techniques, then it becomes simply a matter of subjective preference... you know, "taste".

Impossible to be logical about that sort of thing is it not?

[notchinese]

Microsoft having to maintain code that almost NOBODY uses. Bloating the size of the Windows installation more than it already is by including UI options that almost NOBODY uses.

[Lamp0]

Hi,

 

Will Windows 9 reintroduce the classic theme?

 

It's just so ultra clean and simple

 

I find it clunky & actually quite sickening to look at for long periods. I wouldn't call it "clean" or "simple".

[HawkMan]

Why not? What drawbacks would it have on any computer in use today?

If it renders utilizing modern 3-d acceleration techniques, then it becomes simply a matter of subjective preference... you know, "taste".

Impossible to be logical about that sort of thing is it not?

 

You don't add a bunch of useless stuff and a whole lot of development costs because of "why not" adding a single theme to windows DOUBLES all QnA testing as EVERYTHING even non GUI related stuff has to be tested on both. for what reason. why would you add a basic theme ? there's no reason to, it serves no purpose and costs a lot of development time and resources, in a time where MS is trying to speed up release schedules. 

[mzta cody]

Microsoft having to maintain code that almost NOBODY uses. Bloating the size of the Windows installation more than it already is by including UI options that almost NOBODY uses.

Everyone who uses Windows is using these functions and libraries. These are responsible for governing the logic, behavior and arrangement of UI abstractions like windows, controls and everything else on the desktop. The classic look, though buried, is an inextricable part of this, and will definitely be present (and still buried of course) in Windows vNext.

Bloat? We are talking about small things in modern times as far as file sizes, don't know why "bloat" would be the adjective used. USER32.DLL, COMCTL32.DLL and so on do not use much space considering their fundamental nature.

[mzta cody]

You don't add a bunch of useless stuff and a whole lot of development costs because of "why not" adding a single theme to windows DOUBLES all QnA testing as EVERYTHING even non GUI related stuff has to be tested on both. for what reason. why would you add a basic theme ? there's no reason to, it serves no purpose and costs a lot of development time and resources, in a time where MS is trying to speed up release schedules. 

To return the classic look, no one has to add anything because it is ALREADY there.

All MS has done is to completely bury all access to it through any officially-supported means,

C'mon now...

[HawkMan]

To return the classic look, no one has to add anything because it is ALREADY there.

All MS has done is to completely bury all access to it through any officially-supported means,

C'mon now...

 

That's not how it works.

 

when you have some education and experience in high level developement of OS software you can talk about what keeping and adding elements affects and costs.  As I said just the QnA for having it there doubles. of course since the classic isn't technically in windows and isn't used except for fallback it isn't required for full testing. a basic skin would require to be tested in EVERY POSSIBLE use case test scenario along with the normal skin. 

[Ian S.]

To return the classic look, no one has to add anything because it is ALREADY there.

All MS has done is to completely bury all access to it through any officially-supported means,

C'mon now...

How do you know? MS could have removed stuff that you may not see on the surface of things. It may cause huge errors and massive amounts of bugs.

[Dot Matrix]

Why not? What drawbacks would it have on any computer in use today?

First of all, it doesn't scale. That UI was built for a different age, with different needs than today.

[Ian S.]

To return the classic look, no one has to add anything because it is ALREADY there.

All MS has done is to completely bury all access to it through any officially-supported means,

C'mon now...

Wrong.. The new mini-start (w/ reported scale-ibility) would not be there. Neither would multi-desktop UI.

[Andre S. Veteran]

Will Windows 9 reintroduce the classic theme?

 

It's just so ultra clean and simple, allowing me to go about my work without getting distracted by the latest fad whether it's shiny 3D buttons, gradients and transparent this or that. Felt like Windows lost its soul after MS took it away.

To be fair, the Windows 8 desktop theme is remarkably devoid of shiny 3D buttons, gradients and transparency. It's quite flat; much more so, in fact, than the classic theme which emulated 3D borders everywhere.

[BajiRav]

To return the classic look, no one has to add anything because it is ALREADY there.

All MS has done is to completely bury all access to it through any officially-supported means,

C'mon now...

If it's buried and inaccessible by default then they don't have to test and support it officially.

"C'mon now..."

[neo1911]

That classic theme is more pleasing to the eye compared to current Metro abomination.

 

I would still use it over the current rainbow.

[blerk]

I would much rather that the designers from the Office team went and designed Windows. They seem to me to be the best at designing good looking interfaces of all of the teams at Microsoft. 

[(Account no longer active)]

Windows 7's Aero theme should become the new Classic.

[Torolol]

One thing I like about classic Theme is consistency among any program that adhere to it,

but hell, it was Microsoft who break it with introduction of Office 2007 which jaggering inconsistency with existing programs' look & feel at that time.

And its obvious other program starting to disregard the windows' theme as well.

[Quillz]

To be fair, the Windows 8 desktop theme is remarkably devoid of shiny 3D buttons, gradients and transparency. It's quite flat; much more so, in fact, than the classic theme which emulated 3D borders everywhere.

This is why I like Aero Lite, it uses flat elements and opaque color, including on the taskbar. I dunno why Microsoft hid it by default, but it's easy enough to bring back. 

 

I do wonder if anyone ever made a Windows Classic theme with flat elements, no gradients or 3D, etc.

 

One thing I like about classic Theme is consistency among any program that adhere to it,

but hell, it was Microsoft who break it with introduction of Office 2007 which jaggering inconsistency with existing programs' look & feel at that time.

And its obvious other program starting to disregard the windows' theme as well.

There might have been consistency in terms of program chrome, but there was hardly consistency in how programs worked, looked or how things like toolbars were laid out. Not to mention how many vendors completely overwrote Windows Classic with their own chrome and UI.

[DeusProto]

DWM recently crashed for me in Windows 10 revealing that the vanilla GDI theme does exist in some form - of course its only seen when DWM crashes.

 

So this appears to be an artificial limitation to not let us have the classic GDI [Windows 2000 and before] look.

[Dot Matrix]

DWM recently crashed for me in Windows 10 revealing that the vanilla GDI theme does exist in some form - of course its only seen when DWM crashes.

 

So this appears to be an artificial limitation to not let us have the classic GDI [Windows 2000 and before] look.

It's not artificial. It hasn't been developed for in years.

[Argi]

I don't think it's worthwhile them investing the time to get the theme working again.

[HawkMan]

DWM recently crashed for me in Windows 10 revealing that the vanilla GDI theme does exist in some form - of course its only seen when DWM crashes.

 

So this appears to be an artificial limitation to not let us have the classic GDI [Windows 2000 and before] look.

 

The the base fallback "classic" is missing major and large parts of the GUI elements used in modern windows, resulting in those just being white areas.