|
 AERO
GLASS by Onuora Amobi 7/12/2006
 Wikipedia
defines aero this way “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.”
Basically, Aero
is a fancy (optional) graphics scheme for Windows Vista. It's
optional because a lot of graphics cards don't have enough
horsepower to run Aero so for those who can't (the rest of the
masses), they get the base user interface.
Since I have
been reviewing Windows Vista (currently Beta 5456), I naturally
wanted to enable Aero and check out this new fancy interface.
You can get to this by Right-clicking on the desktop -> Personalize
-> Visual Appearance. Note though that this
screen is different, depending on if you have Aero working or not.
If Aero Glass is working, you'll get a screen which lets you
change your color scheme. Otherwise you'll get
the classic appearance properties.
I got the
classic properties.. hmm.. I had an
NVIDIA
graphics card with 128 megs of ram and this still wasn't
working...
I found the
NVIDIA Windows Vista drivers,
installed em. Still no luck...
After cursing in
10 languages,
I went to the store and got myself a
Radeon
card with 256 megs of ram ($90). I got back,
installed the card and drivers and voila,(after 3 or 4 restarts) I
was ready to try again.
I went back
to Right-clicking on the desktop ->
Personalize -> Visual Appearance.. Now…AERO is an option…..
In here, I changed the color scheme to Windows Vista Aero and
everything finally worked!
Well kinda... my
machine froze and I had to restart my PC 3 times before Aero
worked..
Let me try and
say this nicely…. I bought a new graphics card for this??
It’s…nice and
it’s a cute party trick to flip between windows (Windows +Tab) but
like so much of Vista, this is not a feature to die for and not even
a must have...
Now a graphics
card like the Radeon used to cost 300 or 400 dollars. It’s 90
dollars now and I am glad I bought one (for games etc) but I really
have to question the overall value of this feature...
Recently
Microsoft
announced that they would revamp
the base UI for non Aero users and make it more sexy..
*sigh* …
Speechless is where I am right now...
It really is
beginning to feel like Vista is one big reality show with Microsoft
and the development community pissing each other off in lockstep.
Ballmer says Microsoft will make dates, Gartner doesnt agree, Bill
says Microsoft MIGHT make dates...
AERO is nice to
have in a purely inane way. It doesn't feel like it adds really any
value whatsoever and requires more graphics horsepower than is
reasonable in 2006.
I have attached
a couple of links here so you guys can check them out in detail…
Aero 1
Aero 2
Regarding Aero,
my overall opinion is... "whatever"...
Till next
time...
Onuora |
