Is Vista's Aero Glass all it's cracked up to be?
Wednesday, August 23, 2006 09:38 AM
Windows Vista offers computer users all kinds of new functionality, such as better search capabilities, improved file system navigation, and new built-in applications.
But the first thing you notice about the new operating system is its new look--the slick, sleek Aero interface with its translucent title bars, rounded edges, and sophisticated color scheme reminiscent of (dare we say it?) Macintosh OS X.
Lots of folks, including me, have been wanting that look on a Windows machine for a long time and love it. Others, especially diehard Classic Windows buffs who think every operating system should look just like NT, hate it. Hardly anyone is indifferent to it. In this article, we'll take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of the new interface and what you'll have to do to be able to get the most out of it.
Aero Basic vs. Aero Glass
First, let's explain the nomenclature. Aero is the default
interface for Vista; Glass is the high end "eye candy" version that requires
the right video card. The Glass interface is shown in Figure A.
Figure A |
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| The Glass interface features a slick, sleek translucent look. |
Lots of subtle enhancements adorn the Glass interface. For example, if you hover over the Minimize, Maximize, or Close button in the top-right corner of a window, it glows. And when you minimize or maximize a window, it shrinks into or grows out from the taskbar. Not quite as cool as OS X's "genie" effect, but close.
Note Just in case you were wondering where the name "Aero" came from, we hear it's an acronym for "authentic, energetic, reflective and open."
Another subtle change is the new default desktop font, Segoe UI. The default font size for desktop icons is 9 points instead of 8, which helps with readability, especially at high resolutions. You can change the font and/or font size if you like through the Advanced button in the Classic Appearance Settings dialog box.
Glass system requirements
To enable Glass, you need a 3D card that supports DirectX 9,
and it must have a Longhorn Display Driver Model (LDDM) driver. NVidia and ATI both make LDDM drivers available for a
number of their video card models. The video card also needs at least 64 MB of
RAM, but 128 MB is recommended and 256 MB works even better. My ATI Radeon X600 PCI Express dual head graphics adapter displays
Glass nicely on both monitors. The Matrox 450G on my
other system won't run Glass. If you have an integrated graphics card (built
into the motherboard), you'll probably need to install a "real" video card to
run Glass.
Even if your hardware supports it, some programs aren't compatible with Glass. If you have Glass enabled and you run one of those programs, your display will revert to the standard Vista interface, shown in Figure B, until you close the program. Windows will display a dialog box advising that the program is incompatible with Glass and that Glass will be turned off while you're running the program.
Figure B |
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| The display reverts to the standard Vista interface if a program is incompatible with Glass. |
You won't run into this often, as many programs, even legacy ones, will take on the Glass interface. For instance, Glass worked fine on my machines with such programs as Corel Draw 10.
Enabling and customizing the Glass interface
If your video card supports Glass, it should be enabled by
default, but I found that after upgrading Vista Beta 2 to interim build 5472,
Glass was turned off. To turn it on, right-click on the desktop and select
Personalize or click the Personalization applet in Control Panel. Select Window
Color And Appearance. When Glass is turned off, this will display the Appearance
Settings dialog box, shown in Figure C.
Figure C |
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| If Aero is turned off, you can enable it in the Appearance Settings dialog box. |
Select Windows Vista Aero from the Color Scheme list box and click OK to enable Aero Glass on computers that support it.
You can customize the look of Glass by going back to the same Personalization window and clicking Window Color And Appearance again. When Aero is turned on, clicking this choice displays the Change Your Color Scheme dialog box, shown in Figure D.
Figure D |
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| You can customize the Aero color scheme and level of transparency. |
You can select a preset color, use the color mixer to select a custom color, and adjust the level of transparency from almost completely see-through to almost opaque.
Aero Glass
The Aero is by far more aesthetically pleasing than not. The larger the monitor, the greater the weight on the video card but if you have new hardware it looks amazing (I have a 24" widescreen, it looks darn good on that).
Posted by John on Friday, August 15 2008 10:17 PM