No Glass Sucks

OK, so now I can use Vista as a permenant OS (Most the applications I NEED I can run) I've determined that I would like a better UI. However as we know my laptop wont run Aero Glass (unless someone can hack that in) which means for the most "efficient" experience I have to switch to classic which I hate. So that brings me to my complaint...

WHO DECIDED GREY WAS GOOD?

I mean bleh! I'd like something else....I'd even go back to Luna on Vista if it ment it looking better. So anyone have any ideas to make it look better?

EDIT: Adam, Erik, Jonathan, etc....

If you know they have themes for non-Aero Glass compatible cards PLEASE say something!!!

..so...your Glass is half empty? or half full? 

Yeah I to have had this argument... I want the ability to turn AeroGlass on as a registry hack for the enthusiasts so that I can decide if it runs really really crappy on my computer to a point where I cant use it or not.  Otherwise the step down interface IMO is so nasty that XP is a couple steps up...

Also while I am at it, what is up with Microsoft and Black?  Dunno if you remember but MSN was Black and Orange back in the day, soooo depressing.  When I use vista it also makes me a bit depressed since its so dark and dreery feeling...the first thing I do is turn up all the colors which still doesnt help a great deal in vista!!

 

Its far better than the blue UIs that XP and OSX abuse. Blue is far overused by UI designers and is becoming passe and boring in my opinion.

Lets see some bold new colors like Red, Orange, Purple, etc.


Regards,
Vincent

You've been able to tweak the colors of the classic theme since Windows 95

The dialog is still there under Appearance Settings->Advanced

DCMonkey wrote:

You've been able to tweak the colors of the classic theme since Windows 95

The dialog is still there under Appearance Settings->Advanced

If that worked it would be something as well

Cybermagellan wrote:



DCMonkey wrote: You've been able to tweak the colors of the classic theme since Windows 95 The dialog is still there under Appearance Settings->Advanced

If that worked it would be something as well

With the Windows Classic theme enabled, right click on the desktop, click personalize, click visual appearance, click advanced, tweak the colors of the various UI items and click OK. Works for me. Not the prettiest thing. but it works.

DCMonkey wrote:

Cybermagellan wrote: DCMonkey wrote: You've been able to tweak the colors of the classic theme since Windows 95 The dialog is still there under Appearance Settings->Advanced If that worked it would be something as well

With the Windows Classic theme enabled

THAT is what I don't want....this is rediculous....almost looks places like Neowin and the other theaming sites are doing better than MS when it comes to this stuff

I have a Tecra S3 Laptop with Nvidia GeForce Go 6600 video card (128MB RAM on it) and there is no Aero Glass by default with Vista Beta 2.

1) I downloaded (from nvidia.com) and installed the Nvidia Forceware driver for Vista Beta 2, but there is no GeForce Go 6600 in the list, I choosed a similar one: GeForce 6600 GT

2) I adjusted the settings to the 32bit color depth and 1400x1050 for the builtin LCD display

3) finally I forced to refresh the performance rating (it was "1" with the default SVGA driver, it is "4.3" with the new driver).

And I have Aero Glass now

I've heard rumours that there will be better non-glass theming options come RTM. Some hints here and there in MS comments on bug reports on the matter. But nothing substantial.

It would be nice, though.

Sven Groot wrote:



I've heard rumours that there will be better non-glass theming options come RTM. Some hints here and there in MS comments on bug reports on the matter. But nothing substantial.

It would be nice, though.

Allchin mentioned at a WinHEC dinner that a better theme is coming for non-Aero.


(PS, this flickering in IE7 hurts my eyes)

Windows windows windows I get it, I'm running Windows

Kazi wrote:

I have a Tecra S3 Laptop with Nvidia GeForce Go 6600 video card (128MB RAM on it) and there is no Aero Glass by default with Vista Beta 2.

1) I downloaded (from nvidia.com) and installed the Nvidia Forceware driver for Vista Beta 2, but there is no GeForce Go 6600 in the list, I choosed a similar one: GeForce 6600 GT

2) I adjusted the settings to the 32bit color depth and 1400x1050 for the builtin LCD display

3) finally I forced to refresh the performance rating (it was "1" with the default SVGA driver, it is "4.3" with the new driver).

And I have Aero Glass now

nVidia does provide drivers for GeForce Go via their website.

Laptop video drivers are available from http://www.laptopvideo2go.com

Cairo wrote:

Windows windows windows I get it, I'm running Windows

 

But think about the alternative.. 
Calendar, Collaboration, Contacts, Defender,.. Mail,.. Update

That would be confusing to people who might be expecting thier mail client to come up if they clicked Mail.  "Update".. without some context, what would that mean, etc..

So yeah , its sort of overkill to see Windows that many times in a list but other than giving each applet a different name (like say Pidgeon instead of Windows Mail) no one would know what any of those programs were for.

Do you have any suggestions?

Going back to 5308 I think it was, on a P4 2.4 Celeron with 512Meg and a TNT64 or something of the likes (ie. Rubbish Video) I found Aero Glass did not work so I switched to 'Classic Themes' and it ran slower than Vista without Glass and as such I quickly ditched Classic and went back to Vista without Glass and it was a faster UI in Non-Glass Vista than it was running 'Classic'.

The classic theme is from what I remember the look of classic(XP) though programs such as Explorer still used the 'new' Vista style navigation.

pacelvi wrote:



Cairo wrote: Windows windows windows I get it, I'm running Windows

But think about the alternative.. 
Calendar, Collaboration, Contacts, Defender,.. Mail,.. Update

That would be confusing to people who might be expecting thier mail client to come up if they clicked Mail.  "Update".. without some context, what would that mean, etc..

So yeah , its sort of overkill to see Windows that many times in a list but other than giving each applet a different name (like say Pidgeon instead of Windows Mail) no one would know what any of those programs were for.

Do you have any suggestions?

perhaps a folder or two to "organsie" the apps?
Mail and Contacts +> mail, colab, cal etc....
Media and tools +> DVD maker, Media Player etc....

Defender and Update under "Maint" or "utility"

the folder names might be like "Windows xxxxxx xxxx xxx"
so as to be clear they are Msft apps.

I know the first thing I do with XP or server 2003 is edit the start menu to group stuff better -- IMHO
that's the rub: no matter what MSFT does every user may have a
"Better" idea of how they want it. I guess the best thing Is help them customise what folders and apps they see.

pacelvi wrote:

Do you have any suggestions?

My suggestions, in the order they appear in the screenshot:

Calendar, or Date Book, or Appointment Book
(Windows collaboration is an odd bundle of things. How about "sharing"?)
Address Book
Windows Defender is fine -- it's defending Windows, after all
DVD Maker
Fax and Scan (how about breaking these apart?)
Mail, or E-Mail
(Windows Marketplace? wtf)
Media Player, or Movie and Music Player
Movie Maker
Photo Gallery
Software Update

My computer specs:

Intel Pentium 4 Northwood @ 2.66 GHz, 512 KB L2 cache
ATI Radeon 9600 XT w/ 128 MB SD-RAM, 400 MHz DAC
60 GB UIDE Seagate HDD, 7200 RPM w/ 2 MB Buffer
30 GB UIDE Maxtor HDD, 7200 RPM w/ 2 MB Buffer
1 GB DDR Non-ECC SD-RAM @ 333 MHz
OEM Integrated Audio Device
4x DVD+/-RW burner drive
12x DVD-ROM drive
3.5" floppy drive

Can I run a full-experience Vista with those specs?


Regards,
Vincent