The most distinguishing feature about the Windows 7 is its Graphical user interface which is very fantastic. It carries all the positive aspects of Vista, along with the core infrastructure of the operating system. But the interface has been made more user friendly. The international features of Windows 7 are pervasive throughout the system, from low-level aspects as the supported characters in NTFS file names (now upgraded to match Unicode 5.1) to such high-level aspects as the selection of backgrounds and themes.Windows Aero is the graphical user interface and the default theme in most editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. It is also available in Windows Server 2008. The diction Aero in itself means Authentic, Energetic, Reflective and Open. Intended to be a cleaner, more powerful, more efficient and more aesthetically pleasing user interface than the previously used theme (Luna). Windows 7 includes new translucency, live thumbnails, live icons, animations and eye candy. Aero also encompasses a set of user interface design guidelines for Microsoft Windows.
The mind of a man is always reflected whether he speaks or not. Windows 7 gives opportunity to personalize the computer the way a person wants. Windows 7 has increased opportunities for personalization. New themes, backgrounds, and sounds make it easy to customize Windows 7 to match your personality. To the extent that our preferences are influenced by our language and location, Windows 7 reflects this with the introduction of Local Packs. Local Packs provide customized Windows 7 visual themes for a specific region. These visual themes contain locally relevant wallpaper images, custom aero glass colors, and regional sound schemes. The best easy way is changing the wallpaper. All OS vendors provide an easy way to customize it. Windows 7use personal photos, stock photography or even rotate set of images. As a result the OS GUI designers have no way to predicting the wallpaper color or image palette.
Fancy background colors can be very distracting. A logical move for designer would be to isolate a user form potentially distracting desktop environment so that they can focus on task on hand. MS decides not to do that and introduce transparent windows instead. On top of that they blur content underneath the window (making it very clear how hard it is to use a computer if you can’t find your glasses). Similar experiment were carried by Apple a year ago. They tried to introduce a transparent tiny bar on top of the screen and had to leave making this feature optional due to user complains.
Evidently, the need for patches is a symbol of weak design structure and of logic flaws in the original design. Not only the GUI design. Any design in general (not to be confused with ”art”). Good design tends to achieve the maximum with the minimum. Each design is a structure or set of rules based on a certain logic - physical or abstract. For example we can look at a chair as a set of physical rules. If your design requires you to introduce a 5th leg and then in turn 2 small legs to support that 5th then you may want to start from the beginning and rethink the original concept. GUI design is no exception.
The Aero feature has been revised in a much better way in Windows 7. Several touch-friendly UI and many new visual effects and features has been introduced.
Let's have a review of it:-
* Aero Peek - hovering over a taskbar icon shows thumbnail of that program. Hovering over the thumbnail shows a preview of that program in full view. Aero Peek also refers to the "Show desktop" button to the far right of the new taskbar.
* Aero Shake -You may have opened several Windows but at a time you need single to work. You can use this feature to minimize all other windows by just dragging the single window back and forth. Shaking it again brings other windows back.
* Aero Snap - Clicking and dragging a window to the right or left side of the desktop causes the window to fill the respective half of the screen. Snapping a window to the top of the desktop maximizes it. Resizing a window to touch the top or bottom edge of the screen maximizes the window to full height, whilst retaining its width; these windows will then slide horizontally if moved by the title bar, or can be pulled off, which returns the window to its original height.
* Touch UI - Windows 7 is more touch-friendly. For example, the title bar buttons are now slightly bigger.
* Maximized windows remain glass instead of becoming opaque.
* When hovering over the taskbar button for a running program, the button glows the dominant RGB color of its icon. Also, a shiny effect follows the mouse as it is moved across the icon of active programs.
* When moving windows, the CPU and GPU load is minimized by limiting the frame rate that the Aero part is rendered so as to provide better performance to applications.
* Windows 7 shows more blending blur effect in Aero than on Windows Vista.
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