Upon first sight, Vista Premium looks like a dazzling graphical interface. If you compare the translucent windows and animated icons to how windows 98 used to look, clearly the design has come a long way – though at a price. Even with a higher end spec machine – lots of RAM, high-speed dual core processor – performance differences are generally noticed. Is this a small price to pay for gaining a beautiful desktop?

If you recently bought Vista Premium, Business, Ultimate or Enterprise, you may have decided to stick with the new desktop visual experience. It’s called Windows Aero, and unlike its predecessor called Luna, it carries some graphical delights at the expense of some processing power. The word Aero is an acronym derived from Authentic, Energetic, Reflective and Open. Many windows users (which are most of us) will love the smooth look and feel now adopted.

Aero is also present in the new Windows 7 OS system no doubt to further push Microsoft’s attempt to clasp the market on user interfaces by offering an aesthetic mix of color and content. There are a large number of graphical changes with Aero. There are live thumbnails, and improved display boxes attached offering better information regarding the purpose of a particular button or menu item.

The question here is: Do people want eye candy or just an efficient OS interface?

For example the new Flip 3D function which displays all open windows in a cascaded 3D depth effect, as seen below:

Flip 3D in Windows Aero adds visual appeal with cascading windows

Do we need this? Does it help windows users in any way? It is a nice smooth way to sift through each window, and you can see the display before selecting it.

The new polished effect comes at a price for PCs that were already lacking RAM on their motherboards or graphic cards. Users with lower specs will notice general performance issues such as slow opening windows, browser windows almost crashing and problems when gaming with slow behaviors and jittering graphics.

This has not stopped Microsoft from enhancing Aero for Windows 7 with several features only available on the Windows 7 OS like Aero Shake, which allows the user to drag windows back and forth rapidly to minimize the window. Do we really need that? Also, Aero Snap which snaps the window to the full screen or just half the screen depending on whether you drag the window to the top or side of the screen.

It can be argued that these are not essential additions. For those of use whom work on Vista PCs each day, do we need to be using these visual tools?

In the end, it’s the user’s choice. If you like visual appeal and adore designs that look impressive, then Aero will attract your interest. However, if your PC is simply a tool, then these UI differences may mean absolutely nothing to you.

If any problems do occur, simply turn off Aero in your ‘Appearance and Personalization’ settings in the control panel. Got to Personalize, then ‘Windows color and Appearance’, and select Windows Vista Basic.

So, you are not stuck with the new Microsoft desktop UI called Aero, it can be disabled. Visual appearance has always wowed people when buying computers. It’s a bit like peanut butter; you either love it or hate it.

Popularity: 4% [?]