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Windows Vista Gamers Journal 2
Saturday, August 12th, 2006
Today is part 2 of our Windows Vista journal. Following our introduction yesterday, we’re now ready
to dig deep into Vista Beta 2’s GUI (Graphic User Interface) and gaming support. Any new OS worth its salt, and $400 of upgrade fees, has to look pretty and futuristic. Vista’s Aero Glass theme incorporates many of the modern design innovations first seen in Mac OS X with a familiar Microsoft twist.
Compared to Windows XP, Vista does feel significantly upgraded in terms of visual appeal. Applications minimize and maximize with a smooth animation, shrinking and swooshing in and out of their particular location on the task bar as opposed to XP’s flying, flickering blue bar. Holding the mouse over a minimized application on the task bar creates a small preview pane, a cool addition if you’ve only used XP before. Alt-Tab performs its usual duty but with window previews, and the new The Windows-Tab claw generates a 3D preview of the running applications. It’s a cool new feature for Windows, but again, not something we haven’t seen the equivalent of in OS X.
We were struck by how large the "medium" icons on the desktop appear in Vista. On our 1280×960 display icons are a solid inch square and almost feel like running Windows 98 at 640×480. At 1024×768 Vista icons look gigantic, and must be reduced to "Classic" size via the View menu. Microsoft is apparently planning ahead in preparation for larger and higher-resolution displays becoming ubiquitous in the coming years. IGN: Windows Vista Journal 2
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