Aesthetics of Windows 8 RTM desktop...

Posted by Luffy07 on August 3, 2012 08:50 am 56

Hello, I've installed the leaked RTM version of Windows 8 and I must says I'm a little disappointed by MS inattention to details.

First of all, I didn't like aero at all so I'm glad they got rid of it and from the early leaked screenshot I found that solid colors could be a great idea. So I'm going to explain why I'm being disappointed.

First of all: icons. I know that you can argue that changing icons might be too much of a deal for some users, that they won't find this as easy as they used to. But really, they already changed icons in Office 2013 they might as well change them on the desktop. Aero icons on a metroified desktop is really ugly. See those screen shots, there is something wrong with them. (PS: I know I can have hide the ribbon, I let it open for you to see those ugly icons)

Second: universal color for the taskbar and windows. Having only the choice for a single color for both windows and the taskbar is really limited. First I wanted to have to borders of the window in soft grey, but then the taskbar became translucent greyish and it was ugly.

Teal was great on the taskbar but not on the borders.

What I find gorgeous is the combination of the two, soft grey and teal, as you can see with an unselected window.

It is really a shame that they don't let you do that. Even the buttons (x for close) are beautiful when in an unselected window...

Third: Inconsistencies. Window border are solid but the taskbar is translucent and there is still a glass feeling to it... Kind of weird... not bad just weird...

Other than that I'm happy, I'll be waiting 26th October to buy a Surface RT !

EDIT:

As pointed out by MarvinS you actually can change the color of the window to white while keeping the color selected for the taskbar. You'll need to go in the registry:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM] ->EnableWindowColorization = 0

After that you'll need to log off.

Another tip from MarvinS, you can also change the width of the borders. You'll need to go in the registry:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics] ->BorderWidth = 0 (normal -15) ->PaddedBorderWidth = 0 (normal (-60)

EDIT:

I've also made a little comparison between Office 2013 and the File Explorer in Windows 8. These guy should realy work more closely...