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oops I meant "Vista looks better THAN Win7"

Don't get me wrong, win7 is fast stable and reliable...no question it's better...but cosmetically, I'm afraid it's not.

People are not going to be able to tell this is a new version of windows, as it looks way too much like Vista. They may just not upgrade thinking its just vista, and vista has a bad rep.

But in cosmetic dept.

These are the things I prefer in Vista.

-Fade in into the login screen - not in win7 it just abruptly pop-ups after boot screen ? not very elegant.

Never noticed it. Don't particularly care as I skip the login screen.

-Toolbar is plain looking in win7 with no icons - this looked much better in vista.

I much prefer the Windows 7 taskbar. I love clean and minimal interfaces.

-Start orb glow in win7 looks odd

Not really, but I'm using 7000. I know they changed it a bit in later builds, though.

-Transparency when window is maximized does not look good at all ? should be black like in vista. Same with the taskbar.

Have to absolutely disagree with you here. The black in Vista really turned me off. I really, really hated it.

-Default background for login and installation ? it?s nice and all ? a little feminine looking but it really does not make the login screen look good or modern. And the white font ?windows 7 ultimate? at the bottom blend in too much with the background.

Don't know what you're referring to, sorry.

-The animations while coping or moving or deleting files is pretty ugly and looked better in Vista.

The animations are fine, IMHO.

That?s about it.

But although I love Win 7 so much more than Vista (win 7 screams) cosmetically win7 seems unfinished.

Edit - I would like to add the following.

--The boot screen in Win7 - is leaps and bounds better than Vista. It's hard to explain, but I get the sense that it's modern/futuristic and a look (peek) into what is coming for Win7

OK.

You're entitled to your opinion, but I think the Windows 7 GUI is leaps and bounds better than the Vista GUI.

Please don't bring Black Vipers guide into all of this. How Windows 7 handles it's services is different from Vista or XP.

Windows 7 uses "triggers" to start services only when you need them. Disabling loads of services makes little to no difference and you are only crippling Windows 7's features by doing so.

Also to add onto my post. While the argument that Windows 7 doesn't look much different from Vista, Windows 98 didn't look more different than Windows 95, Windows 98SE didn't look much different than Windows 98FE, Windows ME didn't look much different than Windows 98SE and Windows 2000 didn't look much different than Windows ME, 98FE/SE or Windows 95, but at the end of the day is, they were different, not visually, but under the hood, they were.

If anything, the one version of Windows which does look out of place is XP with it's stupid blue/silver/olive green/zune/royale themes.

Please don't bring Black Vipers guide into all of this. How Windows 7 handles it's services is different from Vista or XP.

Windows 7 uses "triggers" to start services only when you need them. Disabling loads of services makes little to no difference and you are only crippling Windows 7's features by doing so.

Also to add onto my post. While the argument that Windows 7 doesn't look much different from Vista, Windows 98 didn't look more different than Windows 95, Windows 98SE didn't look much different than Windows 98FE, Windows ME didn't look much different than Windows 98SE and Windows 2000 didn't look much different than Windows ME, 98FE/SE or Windows 95, but at the end of the day is, they were different, not visually, but under the hood, they were.

If anything, the one version of Windows which does look out of place is XP with it's stupid blue/silver/olive green/zune/royale themes.

Using the classic theme all of them look like W98, with the blue gradient bar... oh, and Royale rules :p

oops I meant "Vista looks better THAN Win7"

Don't get me wrong, win7 is fast stable and reliable...no question it's better...but cosmetically, I'm afraid it's not.

People are not going to be able to tell this is a new version of windows, as it looks way too much like Vista. They may just not upgrade thinking its just vista, and vista has a bad rep.

But in cosmetic dept.

These are the things I prefer in Vista.

-Fade in into the login screen - not in win7 it just abruptly pop-ups after boot screen ? not very elegant.

-Toolbar is plain looking in win7 with no icons - this looked much better in vista.

-Start orb glow in win7 looks odd

-Transparency when window is maximized does not look good at all ? should be black like in vista. Same with the taskbar.

-Default background for login and installation ? it?s nice and all ? a little feminine looking but it really does not make the login screen look good or modern. And the white font ?windows 7 ultimate? at the bottom blend in too much with the background.

-The animations while coping or moving or deleting files is pretty ugly and looked better in Vista.

That?s about it.

But although I love Win 7 so much more than Vista (win 7 screams) cosmetically win7 seems unfinished.

Edit - I would like to add the following.

--The boot screen in Win7 - is leaps and bounds better than Vista. It's hard to explain, but I get the sense that it's modern/futuristic and a look (peek) into what is coming for Win7

Windows 7 has a newer appearence with how you deal with things, also you just have to think that Windows 7 isn't finished and Vista is now upto SP2 RTM.

wow OP is on glue lol :D

Windows 7 got it right this time around in terms of UI, i liked it since beta and its ever so slightly more refined now... in fact awhile back when i was still using XP (i use Vista as my primary atm) i wanted XP to look like Windows 7 does today, believe it or not

i can't even go back to using Vistas default theme now, i'd prob be angry all the time haha, instead i use http://giannisgx89.deviantart.com/

this guys 'Windows 7 Style for Vista'

Like i've said, Vista's UI was great but Windows 7 builds on this and makes it more refined, more snappier and more efficient. Looking at XP now (after using Vista/7) its just so archaic, so inefficient and even more important, UGLY!

To a slight, slight degree I agree with the OP, but If Microsoft keeps the skin the way it is, ill be very happy.

And there isnt anything stopping them creating a new skin (not GUI), why dont they make it slightly less blue? And change the fish wallpaper haha.

The fish is a Betta. It's just a pun. :) I'm sure it'll be gone for RTM.

Well well I also want to throw in my honest opinion, Win 7 looks waay better then Vista.

I'm a user that customizes his Windows to no end and goes for eyecandy to the max. I love changing every part of an OS to make it look like I want and the default Windows UIs where always plain boring for me. Yeah sure XPs Luna finally made Windows stop looking like a gray something but in exchange it felt a little like some child toy.

When I installed Vista Beta 2 I was overwhelmed at first by the beauty and freshness of AERO but soon I realized there was still a bit of a XPs/98s feeling in it after it went RTM. Sorry I can't point my finger on it, it's just a feeling I have when I use Vista. Also I never liked this greenish color Vista had, of course different people like different colors but this color which could not decide if it was green or blue together with that babyblue at most places and the black maximized Windows quickly became annoying for me.

So now we are at Win7... when I first booted build 7000 I was like... wow..... this looks like Vista but it's so pretty from start to end. (Not to mention the bootscreen) No more annoying colors or black stuff, just a 100% modern looking, for the most part consistent AERO UI. I don't even felt like customizing it much, it was the first default Computer UI which I was happy with. And that comes from someone who used everything from Win98 upwards, Linux and OSX. I can't even sense a bit of this Win98/XP feeling for the most time, just in some rare places like Device Manager.

It's really as someone said here before, Vistas UI was a cocoon and 7s UI is the beautiful butterfly that evolved from it.

The only things I would like to see change in RTM are the removal of the few remaining things that where 1:1 taken over from Vista like the Close, Maximize and Minimize buttons, a fresh soundset along with a fresh iconset to shake off the last bit of old Vistaness.

Now for the OP (man this is the longest post I've ever written^^):

- I agree the fade on login was nice.

- I think the text toolbar blends well with the rest of the UI but it should be the users choice.

- I disagree, the start glow fits just fine.

- The black maximized borders where just a horrible distraction if you switched to fullscreen.

- What about it is feminine? I think it has a nice fresh look to it. (It's the same with the color pink... everyone thinks pink is a girls color whilst it is a totally normal color like blue, yellow etc. just our society taught us pink = girl)

- Ummm the animations look the same it's just they changed it to a matching color oO

Conclusion, as said Win7 has the most polished default UI I've ever seen and is by no means unfinished.

The last thing I want to talk about, I think most people just talk bad about new UIs because ever since Win95 they are used to how Windows works since the most basic things never changed and whenever some radical UI changes are introduced like the Ribbon UI people have to relearn everything because what they know does not apply anymore.

Whilst I agree this can be tough for companies and such I believe that exploring a new OS can be quite a fun thing for a normal user.

When I first used Office 2007 I almost found nothing. But I didn't accursed Microsoft and their damn new Ribbon UI, I just threw most things I knew about Office out of the window and started to discover the new Ribbon UI. After a very short amount of time I was able to use office as fast as before if not faster.

Same with Win7, out of my habit I clicked on the last point in the context menu to access screen resolutions which lead me to Personalize.

I was a bit like... umm... okay... then looked again and found it instantly. I wont blame and say Microsoft put it back where it was, I just will adapt. Technological innovations and evolution cannot happen if the users aren't willing to evolve and adapt themselves.

I believe that's a major point of Microsoft why they don't want to make a total revolution of Windows, they are scared that the userbase isn't willing to adept a learn from anew.

But if people hadn't done this in the past we would maybe still use text based OSs like DOS, I mean Bill Gates didn't said "Oh making a Graphical User Interface for PCs wont work out, people are used to text based input and a scared of new things..."

There ends my longest post ever, and remember it's all my personal opinion ;)

Oh and how would I get this small "quicklaunch thingy"?

post-107785-1241110576_thumb.png

Edited by SkyDX
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    • Nope. That lack of surround sound capability (analog) won't fly with me. Sure, I use headphones most of the time, but still.
    • Creative Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe review: your headphones will love it by Steven Parker If you have been reading Neowin for any length of time, you may remember that I reviewed the Sound Blaster Audigy FX Pro back in April. I found it to be an excellent budget sound card, even though it lacked support for formats such as DTS over the included SPDIF port. Anyway, Creative reached out to me again asking if I was interested in reviewing the Sound Blaster AE-X. It is a card mainly targeted at headphone wearers, which I'll get into a bit later. Before we get underway, here is a disclaimer: Creative Labs provided a free sample without any review pre-approval. Here are the full specs of it: Creative Sound Blaster AE-X Dimensions: 179 x 126 x 18 mm Weight: 263g / 9.28 oz Platform: PCI-e DAC: ESS ES9039Q2M Connectivity Options Side: Rear: 1 x HD Audio Front Panel Connector, 1 x ⅛“ Headphone port, 1 x RCA Line-out (Left) port, 1 x RCA Line-out (Right) port, 1 x Coaxial SPDIF-out port, 1 x ⅛“ Mic in/Line-in port, 1 x TOSLINK SPDIF-in port Surround: No DNR / SNR: THD+N: 0.0001% Dynamic Range 130 dB Recording Resolution: PCM up to 32-bit / 192kHz (Stereo) Direct Mode: Line Out (Stereo): PCM up to 32-bit  384 kHz Coaxial SPDIF Out: PCM up to 24-bit 192.0 kHz Headphone Amp: PCM up to 32-bit / 384kHz (Stereo) Native DSD: DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 Output Impedance: 1Ω, Supported Headphone Impedance: 8–600Ω, IEM: 0.5Vrms, Low: 1.5Vrms, Mid: 3Vrms, High: 6Vrms, Maximum output power: 350mW @ 32Ω (High), Maximum output voltage: 6Vrms (High) Front Panel Headphone Amp: PCM up to 32-bit / 192kHz (Stereo) Native DSD: DSD64, DSD128 Output Impedance: 10Ω, Supported Headphone Impedance: 32–300Ω, Maximum output power: 40mW @ 32Ω, Maximum output voltage: 1.9Vrms ASIO: ASIO 2.3 Total Harmonic Distortion: THD+N: 0.0006% Dynamic Range: 114 dB Scout Mode: Yes EMI shielding: No (but it passed all the FCC emission tests) Operating temperature: 0–45°C Input Power: 12V⎓0.5A Warranty: 1 Year (MSRP) Price: $179.99 / £169.99 The Sound Blaster AE-X was announced at the end of May, and it becomes clear that it is mainly for headphone wearers. I should also note that the card does not support DDL/DTS encoding technology, but it is said to support decoding through the coaxial SPDIF port. I was able to test this working with the classic Windows Sound properties, but I could not get a DTS (decode) signal through my Logitech Z906, it defaulted to 3D sound whenever I played DTS content through Plex or Emby. In addition, this card only supports two channels (stereo) over the speakers. The surround support is limited to the Headphone Amp, so before I get underway, what we have here is a card mostly intended for headphone use, especially with its SPDIF In (Toslink) port where you could connect another device like a console. So what about the highlights of this card? The AE-X is powered by the ESS SABRE DAC (ES9039Q2M), which is capable of a 130 dB dynamic range. In addition, it supports 32-bit/384 kHz playback for deeper detail and clarity. The headphone amplifier delivers up to 350 mW @ 32Ω, which admittedly far surpasses standard onboard audio, offering support for studio-grade headphones. DSD256 and ASIO 2.3 are also supported. What doesn't it have? No support for What-U-Hear, Super X-Fi, or the SmartComms Kit No EMI shielding, but it passed all the FCC emission tests (from the FAQ) I also want to make it clear that I am no audiophile. For me, it's purely subjective and it should just "work" out of the box. First impressions As I said in the introduction, I was a bit sad to see that the AE-X only supports stereo output, meaning it would not be on par with my ALC1220 over my speakers, as I mentioned it seems like this card is marketed toward headphone users. Since I am not an avid gamer that would rule me out as a potential customer, but I can still test its capabilities! The card arrived in a nice-looking box, as shown above. It's quite a bit larger than the Audify FX Pro that I reviewed back in April, and at first I thought the covering meant that it was EMI shielded, but it isn't as mentioned above in the highlights section. What's in the box: 1 x Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe card 1 x 3.5 mm CTIA TRRS to Dual TRS Headset Splitter Cable 1 x Quick Start Guide Aside from the Quick Start Guide, which someone at my age (I guess) needs a magnifying glass to read thanks to the tiny fonts, Creative Labs also has the manual online, which first requires you to prove that you're human in order to access it (so I can't direct link it). Anyway, the box is mostly made up of cardboard, and the only plastic in it is the anti-static bag for the card itself. Design Top Bottom The card itself looks pretty cool and actually wouldn't look out of place in an all-white build. There's only one connector, and for some reason it is awkwardly placed on the side (front-facing) that is for the front panel audio connector, which will let you use the headphones through the front PC audio jack. Since the front panel Headphone Amp has fewer capabilities than the rear headphone port, I decided not to use it. Rear of card PCI-e interface The rear of the card is completely open and is normally where you would find the front panel connector. The PCIe interface side is completely covered, which initially made me think it was EMI shielded. I/O panel Side (front-facing) with Front panel connector On the outer rear bracket side we have the TOSLINK SPDIF in, Coaxial SPDIF out, RCA line out (Right), RCA line out (Left), Headphone out, and Mic/Line in ports. On the front facing portion of the card itself is the F-panel connector. Usage Test System Our test system consists of the following: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D Gigabyte X870E AORUS MASTER (BIOS F12) Corsair RM1000x (2024) Thermal Grizzly Kyronaut (33x33x0,2mm) 2x 32GB Kingston Fury Beast RGB DDR5 6000MT/s CL36-38-38-80 T-Force Z540 2TB (PCIe Gen5) NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition (NVIDIA) Creative Sound Blaster AE-X Windows 11 25H2 Pro I installed the card into the Gigabyte X870E AORUS MASTER which includes the RealTek ALC1220 onboard audio. For our subjective listening tests, I used the Coaxial SPDIF port to my Logitech Z906 speakers. For headphone tests I used the OneOdio Studio Max 2 Wireless DJ Headphones that I reviewed last month. After installing the audio driver, I installed Creative Nexus, which is a relatively new app designed for the latest Sound Blaster cards. Then I discovered the AE-X needed both a driver update from 1.00.15.0001 to 1.01.09.000 and a firmware update from 1.00.06.0000 to 1.00.06.0002, then I was set to go. It should be noted that the card did not work without the driver (not Plug and Play). As you can see above, you can manage the firmware, driver, and inputs via Advanced Settings on the Device tab. By default Nexus enabled "Direct Mode". Upon clicking on Acoustic Engine, the Equalizer can be enabled and set to four different presets, which are: Gaming Music Movies Footsteps Enhancer There's also a dedicated Scout Mode for gamers. I mainly used Tidal and Spotify in the past week to listen to some of my Liked Songs (which now total over 700) in Shuffle mode; there were no pops or interference that I could hear. I also found a 5.1 Surround Music playlist on Tidal that sounded really great over Studio Max 2 headphones. When I reviewed the Audigy FX Pro, I went out and purchased a Logitech Z906 set second-hand for €100 specifically to use with the card, but in this instance all I could get on the AE-X was the 3D output of surround sound through Coaxial SPDIF and although it still sounded great, it isn't quite as good as DTS Interactive via my onboard Realtek ALC1220. Conclusion So what have I learned? The AE-X lacks multi-channel support for 5.1/7.1 setups and drops support for modern surround technologies like Dolby or DTS, functioning strictly as a stereo output device. So to really benefit, you will need Studio-grade headphones to "hear" the benefits of this card. With that being said, I can imagine it will appeal to gamers who are switching between console and PC. By utilizing the SPDIF in port, you could just plug your headphones into the AE-X (front or rear port) and then switch between PC and Console without having to move the headphones to a different port. As I said in the Sound Blaster Audigy review, the EQ in the Creative Nexus app offers safe presets, which allows a user to further tweak the lows, mids, and highs for a personal listening experience. Of course it all depends on the headphones you hook up to it. Speaking of headphones, I kind of wish I had higher-quality Studio-grade headphones to really test this card with; I'm not usually wearing headphones in my day to day duties. The only time I will wear them is if I want to listen to music very late at night and I don't want to disturb my neighbors, so my rating (verdict) is based on this fact. Someone with a PC/Console setup and wears headphone religiously to game, and consume media will benefit much more than I from the high-quality Headphone Amps that are included in the AE-X. Once again, I do feel like Creative could have gone the extra mile to support the S/PDIF port a bit more. Why include it if you're not supporting the main popular digital formats? It seems like the decision was more of a legacy-based one, offering uncompressed 2-channel PCM audio, for users with high-fidelity audio systems and external DACs. Maybe I will be lucky enough to review a card that truly includes all these features in the future. I am sure readers with far more knowledge on audio systems than me will correct me in the comments below. I'll just say I am happy to learn what I don't know! Where to buy The Sound Blaster AE-X is available to purchase now in preorder for $179.99 on the U.S. Creative website, or for £169.99 on the Creative UK website and will start shipping to customers from June 25.
    • $80 or 90%, anything else would be financial suicide one way or another.
    • Or... just use Bitwarden. Free, and has on-prem option as well. Works both on desktop and mobile, wherever you are. The age of local password files is over.
    • Thanks
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