I would like to share with you my views about the appearance of Windows 7 and suggest changes that can be made to satisfy the users of your products. Windows 7(as well as Vista) has got faded, faint, cloudy, blurred and pale/diluted colors/themes. No doubt, Windows XP is still the most popular operating system and people prefer it more over any other OS release from Microsoft because of its clear and strong, rounded and soft-like-a-blue and user-friendly appearance. (Illustration with photographs below, esp. Fig. 1). Windows7 has a lot of strengths: It facilitates the tasks of moving through disks and folders; all basic drivers are available. But the colors of its themes are not clear or bold enough to attract users. Because of its faint appearance, Windows 7 themes make it much more difficult to find an active window. This applies to the icons, the taskbar and open windows on the taskbar. It is difficult to differentiate (tell apart) the taskbar from the status bar or the desktop itself, and active from inactive window on the taskbar. They are pale as if inactive. The problem is that the difference between an active or selected item and an inactive, unselected item or the item just pointed at, is a slight color difference. So you can have for example pale blue and pale blue which is perhaps sometimes just a little bit paler for active icons. For instance on the start menu (left side) a program which is selected is shown by that the color becomes a bit pale instead of taking a different color. Pale pink or any other pale color is no better. With several open windows on the desktop, it’s sometimes very hard to pick out which is the border/title of the active window. The transparency is the worst offender; it can make the non active windows stand out more depending on the background. (See Fig. 4 & 5). For people who often need so many applications open, it is often extremely annoying not to be able to instantly tell which the active window / taskbar icon is. With windows XP we could tell without having to move eyes all the way across the screen. There is no 3D effect on the taskbar icons or any of the windows controls. Everything is like a flat surface, like the surface of water or the empty sky. The taskbar and many other commands are not 3D; they are simply like simple drawings. One can say that Windows 7 is a drawing or an outline while Windows XP is a photograph. Setup or install icons are very pale so it is difficult to tell them apart from other icons (which are also very pale). Icons for folders are not clear as they were in XP. It is as if they are hang loose in the sky (papers are about to be detached and fall down). Habitually, we don’t open folders in a vertical way because papers may fall down. We open them laid down. Even when you see the way Windows 7 loads (slowly) with the Microsoft logo displaying from faded scattered portions that finally unite, you wonder why this version prefers faded up appearance. Is evolution a movement towards faded appearance of old Operating Systems? Faded, diluted and very pale colors really tire users’ eyes. The Windows XP mode that you have to download is also not satisfactory because you run it as a separate program and you use it ‘in illusions (virtual)’; if other programs are open Windows 7 they go on working. It would be better if XP theme is incorporated in Windows 7so that it can be possible to personalize Windows 7 to make it look exactly like Windows XP as XP allows it for Windows classic/2000. In Windows 7 you cannot change the color of Caption buttons. No alternative theme in Windows 7 is near XP theme. SUGGESTIONS I don’t intend to return to or keep the past; I like innovations. What I wish is that Windows 7 should have Bold, clear, rounded and soft, and solid appearance to make it user friendly (easy to use). This should be the same for Microsoft Office taskbar and title bar. In my opinion, evolution should not lead to pale, faded and transparent but to clear-cut, easy to see and bold appearance. By default, themes should not be pale, diluted and transparent. It should be clear and bold. Personalization should not be an alternative to satisfy those who prefer paler, transparent and less luminosity. Has anybody complained about the former blue natured Luna theme of Windows XP? But I think there have been complaints about the appearance of Vista and 7. Is it possible to develop a Service Pack of Windows 7 which is 7 in functioning but as clear as XP in appearance? The list of menus should be available by default to be deactivated by those who don't want them. How can you develop a program with menu not available by default? If a device (e.g. phone, computer) has menus activated and arranged in a logical way, it becomes easy to use, and those who are familiar with cannot be annoyed by the presence of the menus but if menus are hidden those who are unfamiliar with it will get trouble to use it. In the Navigation Panel the Desktop should be activated by default. The icons for application program folders (the Start menu) should be different from those for documents. The Show Desktop button should not be located in the far bottom left corner. Contrary to the reason it was put there to avoid clicking Start button by mistake, it is often more embarrassing to have to move to the bottom left corner to find it and you can also click on Time setting by mistake. The Shutdown button shouldn't shutdown the system without asking "Are you sure you want to shutdown?"). It's too easy to accidentally shutdown instead of lock/suspend. Shutdown should show up as an option when I do a ctrl-alt-delete (it doesn't Finally, Windows default sounds should not be categorically change as its logo doesn’t. If they are changed, they should be modified just a little bit to make them more pleasurable. In my opinion, users need more optimization of functionality than changes of logo or sounds.

1 topic is enough: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproui/thread/0a9a997a-efdb-4ee0-bb2f-5f2096586288/"A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code" Want to install RSAT on Windows 7 Sp1? Check my HowTo: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=150221

On Tue, 29 Mar 2011 08:27:56 +0000, Phoenix Setafe wrote: Windows 7(as well as Vista) has got* faded, faint, cloudy, blurred* and* pale/diluted* colors/themes. No, they don't. If that's what you are seeing, undoubtedly it's an issue with either your monitor, video card, or driver for one of them. Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP

Hi, You already had a same thread in this forum, please focus on that thread. Please do not start two same topic in the future. Thanks for understanding.Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.