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Windows Aero is the name for the new graphical user interface and visual style in Windows Vista. Its name is an acronym (or backronym) for Authentic, Energetic, Reflective and Open. Intended to be a cleaner, more powerful, more efficient and more aesthetically pleasing user interface, it also includes new transparencies, animations and eye candy. Since mid-2005, Microsoft has gradually added elements of Aero to released Windows Vista builds. Build 5270 (released in December 2005) contained an implementation of Aero which was virtually complete, according to sources at Microsoft; however, small changes will continue to be made until Windows Vista is released.
History
Until the release of Windows Vista Beta 1 in July 2005, little or nothing had been shown of Aero in public/leaked builds. However, Microsoft makes it clear that the changes are by no means superficial. Previous user interfaces were Plex, which was featured in Longhorn builds 3683-4029; Slate, which was featured in build 4051 and was available until build 4083; and Jade (build 4074 and 4083, actually an early preview of Aero). Microsoft started using Aero in public builds since build 5048. The first build with full-featured Aero was build 5219. Originally, Aero was to have three levels available, one code-named "To Go", which had the Desktop Window Manager (DWM) composition engine (previously known as DCE) disabled. The next was to be AeroExpress, lacking many features of the highest level code-named Aero Glass. However, in December 2005, Microsoft announced that there would only be two levels available, "Windows Vista Aero" and "Windows Vista Basic", with the previous "Express" level integrated into the new "Windows Vista Aero" level. A control panel was added to enable the user to fine tune this functionality, such as being able to turn off the "glass" translucency effect. These levels are provided so that the Aero interface (to some extent) can be used with a relatively low-end graphics card. However, some translucency can be achieved in Windows XP with 3rd party programs.
Initially, a variation of Aero, code-named "Aero Diamond", was slated to be the user interface for Windows Vista Media Center, although there has been no mention of Diamond for a number of years; it may refer to the expectation that the interface will be written in pure XAML (as was Aero initially) but this has not been confirmed.
User interface
For the first time since the release of Windows 95, Microsoft has completely revised its user interface guidelines, covering aesthetics, common controls such as buttons and radio buttons, task dialogs, wizards, common dialogs, control panels, icons, fonts, user notifications, and the "tone" of text used.
Aero Wizards
"Wizard 97" has been the prevailing standard for wizard design, visual layout, and functionality used in Windows 98 through to Windows Server 2003, as well as most Microsoft products in that time frame. Aero Wizards are the replacement for Wizard 97, incorporating visual updates to match the aesthetic of the rest of Aero, as well as changing the interaction flow.More specifically:
- To increase the efficiency of the wizard, The "Welcome" and "Completion" pages in Wizard 97 are no longer used. (A precursor to this change was implied in a number of wizards in products such as SQL Server 2005 where a check-box was added to welcome pages, allowing a user to disable the welcome page in future uses of the wizard)
- Aero Wizards can be resized, whereas the Wizard 97 guidelines defined exact sizes for wizard window and content sizes.
- The purpose of any given Aero Wizard page is more clearly stated at the top
- A new kind of control called a "Command link" provides a single-click operation to choose from a short list of options
- The "Back" button has moved to the top-left corner of the wizard window and matches the visual style of the back button in other Vista applications. This is done to give more focus to the commit choices. The "Next" button is only shown on pages where it is necessary.
- The notion of "Commit pages" is introduced, where it is made clear that the next step will be the actual process that the wizard is being used to enact. If no follow-up information needs to be communicated, these are the last pages in a wizard. Typically a commit page has a button at the bottom-right that is labelled with the action to be taken, such as "Create account".
- At the end of a wizard, a "Follow-up page" can be used to direct the user to related tasks that they may be interested in immediately after completing the wizard. For example, a follow-up for a CD burning wizard may present options like "Duplicate this disk" and "Make a disk label".
Notifications
Notifications allow an application or operating system component with an icon in the system tray to create a pop-up window with some information about an event or problem. These windows, first introduced in Windows 2000 and known colloquially as "balloons", are similar in appearance to the speech balloons that are commonly seen in comics. Balloons were often criticized in prior versions of Windows due to their intrusiveness, especially with regards to how they interacted with full-screen applications such as games. Notifications in Aero aim to be less intrusive by gradually fading in and out, and not appearing at all if a full-screen application or screensaver is being displayed – in these cases, notifications are queued until an appropriate time. Larger icons and multiple font sizes and colors are also introduced with Aero's notification windows.Font
The Segoe UI font is the new default font for Aero with languages that use Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic character sets. The default font size is also increased from 8pt to 9pt to improve readability.The phrasal tone
The Vista User Experience Guidelines also address the issue of "tone" in the writing of text used with the Aero user interface. Prior design guidelines from Microsoft had not done much to address the issue of how user interface text is phrased, and as such, the way that information and requests are presented to the user has not been consistent between parts of the operating system.Research done by Microsoft had informed them that users were finding Windows difficult to use and understand. Users were dissatisfied or felt insulted because of the phrasing of some messages. In particular, computer terminology and jargon were overused and used inconsistently, creating a barrier to understanding for newer users, and messages were unclear or perceived as patronizing.
The guidelines for Vista and its applications suggest messages that present technically accurate advice concisely, objectively, and positively, and assume an intelligent user motivated to solve a particular problem. Specific advice includes the use of the first person and the active voice (e.g. "Print the photos on my camera") and avoidance of words like "please" and "sorry".
Requirements
Microsoft have listed the following requirements for what they call a Vista Premium Ready PC. A PC that meets or exceeds these requirements will be able to use the new Aero technologies.
- a 1Ghz 32-bit (x86) or 64bit (x86-64) processor
- 1 gigabyte of system memory
- a DirectX 9 compatible graphics processor, with a Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) driver, and a minimum of 64mb of Video RAM
- 40GB hard drive with 15gb free space
- DVD-ROM Drive
- audio output and Internet access
The minimum requirements for graphics cards from the major vendors include the Radeon 9500 from ATI Technologies and the GeForce FX from NVIDIA.
Parallels with other designs
PC World reviewer Scott Spanbauer and WinSuperSite reviewer Paul Thurrott have both noted many similarities between Aero and Aqua, the interface to the Mac OS X operating system. In a preview written for PC World magazine, Spanbauer describes parts of the similarity as "striking" , while Thurrott writing for WindowsITPro suggests that the use of translucency in the interface is going to make comparisons with Mac OS X's interface "hard to avoid".. John Rizzo at eWeek wrote "Microsoft seems to have taken many cues from Mac OS X with the user interface and features, right down to some of the terminology. Even some of Vista's icons are amazingly similar to those in Tiger."
The magazine eWeek said: "Vista buttons and other interface details have a shiny bulbous look similar to those in Mac OS X" and "The search icon in the Vista beta is almost identical to Tiger's Spotlight icon, except that the magnifying glass turns the other way."
References
See also
Graphical user interface | Microsoft Windows
Windows Aero | AERO | Aero (interface utilisateur) | Aero | Aero界面
"Windows Aero"