Windows Vista: The Missing Manual

Chapter 4. Interior Decorating Vista

In designing Windows Vista, Microsoft had three giant goals. First, beef up Windows's security. Second, modernize its features. Third, give it a makeover. That last part was especially important; it drove Microsoft nuts that little old Apple, with its five-percent market share, was getting all the raves for the good looks and modern lines of its Macintosh operating system.

Without a doubt, Vista looks a heck of a lot better than previous versions of Windows. The new system font alone, so much clearer and more graceful than the one that's labeled your icons for decades, contributes to the new look.

And then there's Aero, the new visual design scheme described on Section 1.2. Its transparent window edges may not add much to your productivity, but they do look cool.

Still, all of these changes aren't for everybody. Fortunately, Vista is every bit as tweakable as previous versions of Windows. You can turn off Aero, or just selected parts of it. You can change the picture on your desktop. You can bump up the text size for better reading by over-40 eyeballs. As Microsoft might say, "Where do you want to redesign today?"

Aero or Not

Home Premium • Business • Enterprise • Ultimate

If you ask Microsoft, the whole Aero thing (the look and the features) is a key benefit of Vista. Indeed, those glassy surfaces and see-through window edges are, in large part, where Vista got its name and its breathless marketing slogan ("Bring clarity to your world").

But there's ...