Enable both Aero and Glass in Vista Home Basic
I'm gonna give u some tips for people who are stuck up with Vista Home Basic
I really never wanted to have the Vista Home Basic. But when i got my Lappy i had no other option, but to stick on with this OEM version.
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28.10.2007 No Aero Glass for Illegitimate Copies of Vista
Microsoft is pulling out a new tool from its antipiracy toolbox. Aero, the new whiz-bang UI for Vista, will only be available to registered users of Windows. That's right, no matter how fast your CPU and graphics card are, if Microsoft determines you are running a pirated version of Vista then it's the toned-down interface for you.
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16.4.2006 Aero Glass is the final UI for Windows Vista
Back in 2001 Microsoft's early betas of Windows XP contained a user interface dubbed "Watercolor". But only months before the operating system shipped Microsoft completely replaced it with an entirely different look and feel called "Luna" which became known as "Windows XP Style".
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9.1.2006 Windows Vista Home Basic vs. Home Premium vs. Business vs. Ultimate
Microsoft applauded shipping in excess of 60 million Windows Vista licenses in the operating system's first six months of general availability. However, the Redmond company is right on track to correct this little slip up.
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20.8.2007 Enable Aero Glass in Windows Virtual PC
Windows Virtual PC along with XP Mode (RC) was released yesterday for Windows 7 Ultimate, Enterprise and Professional users.
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6.8.2009 Border Skin - Enable Aero Glass Transparency Effects in Windows XP
Ever wondered how could you get the famous Aero Glass experience on your Windows XP machine? komalo of deviantArt has released a skin for Windows XP users called Border Skin which will give you Aero Glass UX from Windows 7 and Vista right on your PC running Windows XP!
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30.7.2009 Vista Home Basic on 512MB? Hey, it works!
Everyone knows Windows Vista is a resource hog. Everyone says it doesn’t even get out of first gear without a gigabyte of RAM, and it takes 2 GB before it stops stuttering and stammering with each mouse click.
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12.5.2007 Vistalizator - Install Multiple Languages MUI on Vista Home, Basic & Starter Edition
Windows Vista Home, Basic and Starter editions are available at low prices compared to Windows Vista Ultimate edition however Vista Home, Basic & Starter editions have many restrictions like support for only one language, No Aero support, no remote desktop etc.
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4.8.2009 Windows 7 RTM Home Basic Screenshot Gallery
Microsoft first confirmed the Stock Keeping Unit strategy for Windows 7 at the start of February 2009, promising a simplified product line-up, as well as a marketing strategy focusing in particular on the Home Premium and Professional editions.
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22.8.2009 Maximum Hardware Specifications for Small Notebook PC (Netbook) on Windows 7 Starter (and Home Basic in China)
Microsoft has a list of Windows 7 minimum recommended system hardware specification requirement for desktop, notebook, netbook, nettop, laptop computer and tablet PC that intends to run any versions and editions of Windows 7.
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23.7.2009 How to Turn On and Enable Aero in Windows 7 (Enable Aero Peek)
Windows Aero features in Windows 7 has been greatly enhanced and improved with new features such as Aero Peek. Without Windows Aero Glass Transparency effect, the many premium user interface (UI) goodies and extravaganza visual experience such as windows with translucent glass design and new windows colors in Windows 7 won’t be enjoyed by the system users.
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12.1.2009 Vista Aero Battery Saver
I get a bit irked when I see stuff that can be solved but people just complain about it.
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8.5.2007 Apple’s “Leopard” has Glass UI
Think Secret today published some new screenshots (a report) of Apple's latest "Leopard" Build - Build 9A321.
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22.12.2006 Home Computer - Home Network - Home Server
In the 1960s & 70s the idea of a home computer was unheard of outside of science fiction circles. Before the late 1980s home networks were unheard of.
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2.12.2007 Windows Application Specific Glass Colorization?
Microsoft might be introducing application specific glass renderings. The color of the glass frame around a window can be changed in Vista, but the change is global to the system.
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6.9.2008 From Windows Aero to the Windows Vista Sound Schemes
One aspect made clear by Microsoft from the get go is that, with Windows Vista, it had worked to achieve a complete user experience by bridging the graphical user interface with the sound schemes of the operating system.
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16.6.2008 Microsoft releases free ebook: Introducing Microsoft Visual Basic 2005
Get a focused, first look at the features and capabilities in Microsoft Visual Basic 2005, Visual Studio 2005, and the .NET Framework 2.0. If you currently work with Visual Basic 6, these authors fully understand the adoption and code migration issues you'll encounter.
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12.4.2006 Nick White on Aero and battery life
Nick White, Vista's Product Manager, has responded to an article entitled “Vista, Aero, battery life . . . and Doom” by Dwight Silverman, the tech reviewer at the Houston Chronicle, regarding the impact that the Aero theme has on battery life and performance.
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15.5.2007 Hack to Force Enable Aero in Windows 7
Windows 7 has a nice little Windows Aero troubleshooting tool to find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects, and then enable and turn on Aero support (and also Aero Peek) in Windows 7.
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12.1.2009 Microsoft Claims Vista's Aero Interface Doesn't Slow PCs
Running Windows Vista's new Aero graphical interface doesn't impact PC performance, a study sponsored by Microsoft claims.
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2.1.2007 Windows Aero Is Old News – Introducing LucidTouch User Interface
If you think that Microsoft's journey into the development of natural user interfaces has stopped with the availability of Surface, then think again. The Redmond company is hard at work in a collaboration with Mitsubishi Research to produce LucidTouch.
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24.8.2007 Windows 7 Aero Snap Development Started in Early 2007
Back on February 13, 2007, just a few weeks after Windows Vista hit the shelves, Kevin Kutz, director, Windows Client, revealed that Microsoft had started working on the next iteration of the Windows client.
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18.3.2009 Life after Aero, Microsoft Cooking Improved User Interface for Windows 7
It might not sound like all that much, but it is a definite confirmation that there is life after Windows Aero. And as far as the scarce details on Windows 7 go, any palpable piece of information goes a long way.
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24.5.2008 The Secret Windows 7 Pre-Beta Build 6801 Aero Shake
Despite the fact that Windows 7 pre-beta build 6801 was showcased and subsequently released at the Professional Developers Conference at the end of the past month in Los Angeles, Microsoft still has some aces up its sleeve when it comes down to the next iteration of the Windows client.
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3.11.2008 Disable Aero Snap Auto Maximize and Arrange Window in Windows 7
Windows 7 includes a new feature called Aero Snap that intends to improve open windows management on the desktop. Aero Snap allows user to drag a window to the top of the screen to maximize the window automatically, or to the left or right side of the screen to resize the window to fill and take up half of the screen estate on the moved side automatically.
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19.5.2009 VMWare Private Beta Build 185517 Has Support for Windows Aero
For those of you running Windows Vista or 7 in a virtualization client, I’m sure you miss having the nice, satisfying Windows Aero eye candy, especially with the Aero Basic skin looking the way that it does now.
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1.9.2009 New Vista Home Page Launches
Microsoft has launched the new vista home page.
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29.1.2007 Microsoft: virtualization not mature enough for home Vista users
In general, nobody reads end-user license agreements (EULAs). They are long, boring, and full of legalese that few people care to take the time to understand. Occasionally, however, unusual wordings in EULAs are used to question a company's policies and intentions, especially when that company is Microsoft.
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25.11.2006 Microsoft Announces the Availability of Vista SP1, XP SP3 and Windows Home Server
Microsoft is currently hard at work cooking the first service pack for Windows Vista and the third and final service pack for Windows XP. On top of these two refreshes for its last releases of the Windows client, Microsoft has also debuted in the area of home servers in July 2007, with the RTM of Windows Home Server.
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9.10.2007 Windows XP Home No Longer Qualifies for Windows Vista Upgrades
Windows XP Home Edition no longer qualifies for Windows Vista Business Upgrade or Upgrade + SA through Volume Licensing.
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17.10.2007Excerpts: Latest filings in 'Vista Capable' lawsuit
The lawsuit over Microsoft's "Windows Vista Capable" marketing program has reached a key juncture. Lawyers for the plaintiffs have formally
requested class-action status for the case, seeking to open it up to many more people, and Microsoft last week filed its official opposition to that
request. The filings contain some interesting tidbits on both sides.
First, a quick summary: The case revolves around the
marketing of Windows XP PCs as "Windows Vista Capable" last holiday season even in cases when they would only have the horsepower to run Windows
Vista Home Basic. The plaintiffs, two PC buyers, say that was deceptive, because Home Basic doesn't offer many of Windows Vista's signature
features, such as the Aero Glass interface. They say it's not a "real" Windows Vista version. Microsoft says Home Basic is a real Windows Vista
version, and it says it went to great lengths to make consumers aware of the differences among the different versions.
winbeta.org -
26.11.2007Consumer Versions of Vista Available Early
mwave.com lists several
editions of Windows Vista as
in stock and ready to
ship
Although the official launch
of Windows Vista won't take
place until January 30, that
hasn't stopped some online
retailers from making the
operating system available
early. mwave.com is listing
three Vista SKUs on its
website that are in stock and
ready to ship.
The OEM versions
of Vista listed on
mwave.com's website are
significantly cheaper than the
retail pricing for Vista
listed below:
* Windows Vista Home Basic,
$199/$99.95
* Windows
Vista Home Premium,
$239/$159
* Windows
Vista Business,
$299/$199
* Windows
Vista Ultimate,
$399/$259
The editions available
include Vista 32-bit Home
Basic OEM (Microsoft Part
Number: 66G-00576) for $89.90,
Vista 32-bit Home Basic OEM
3-pack (Microsoft Part Number:
66G-00613) for $268.90 and
Vista 32-bit Business OEM
(Microsoft Part Number:
66J-02289) for $139.90. As of
today, there were no listings
for Vista Home Premium or
Vista Ultimate on the
site.
jcxp.net -
22.01.2007Microsoft was advised not to brand Home Basic as Vista
A key area of controversy in an ongoing lawsuit is whether Microsoft misled consumers by allowing computer makers to label PCs as "Vista Capable"
when they could only run the most basic version of the Vista operating system, known as Vista Home Basic. Turns out Microsoft was advised to not put
the Vista name on Home Basic computers at all.
winbeta.org -
22.01.2009Aero Glass is the final UI for
Vista
Back in 2001, Microsoft's
early betas of Windows XP
contained a user interface
dubbed "Watercolor". But
only months before the
operating system shipped,
Microsoft completely replaced
it with an entirely different
look and feel called "Luna"
which became known as
"Windows XP Style".
That move has created
speculation that current
Windows Vista look and feel,
called Aero glass, would be
replaced by a different look
and feel later in the beta
process.
However, this week
"PowerUser.TV" has released
a podcast which contains an
interview with Microsoft
developers who have confirmed
that there will be no major
change to the look and feel of
Windows Vista from what is
being shown in build
5270.
In other
words, Aero-Glass it is. Yes,
Disappointing news we
know.
jcxp.net -
11.01.2006How To: Get Windows 7 Aero in a Virtual Machine
This week, Microsoft made the XP Mode RC available to Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate users. Most Virtual Machine emulating software
has not offered support for Aero previously, including Microsoft's own Virtual PC 2007. Now, thanks to the powerful set of "Integration
Components" in Windows 7 Virtual PC and the enhanced, updated version of Remote Desktop in 7, we can now have the full Aero Glass experience in
Windows 7 Virtual Machines, provided the host can handle Aero, and has it enabled. Here's how to get it: This assumes you already have Windows
7 installed on your PC in Virtual PC. Step 1: Enable Aero on your host machine.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
07.08.2009Aero as resource hog? Not exactly¦
Ed Bott: In the midst of an
otherwise interesting account of one IT professionals experiences with Windows Vista, Andrew Garcia of eWeek lets fly with this
bit of misinformed commentary:
Aero Glass is an uninteresting resource pig, completely unworthy of all the resources it consumes.
Forty percent of my system memory is consumed out of the box right now, and Aero Glass is the largest consumer. For what exactly? A 3-D ALT-TAB screen
selection screen, translucent window edges and a handful of Sidebar widgets. This feature single-handedly hamstrings Vista installations with only 1GB
of RAM, making slower computers swap memory with just one or two applications open.
Its really hard to know where to begin pointing out
the errors in that one paragraph. But Ill try...
winbeta.org -
14.02.2008Patent reveals Aero Glass reflections was also to change according to time of day
Is there a possibility that
we may see this idea as a
future Ultimate Extra or as a
feature in Vista SP1? Only
time will tell...
Dont read this if you are
easily disappointed or are
already disappointed with
Windows Vista compared to
Longhorn, since it just adds
more fuel to the flame. A
patent application filed
yesterday (May 31) reveals a
little more about the other
ideas Microsoft had for Aero
Glass.
The key
characteristics of Aero Glass,
colorization and reflection,
are explained in two separate
patents,
"http://appft1.uspto.gov/neta
cgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect
2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetah
tml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f
=G&l=50&s1=%2220070124692%22.P
GNR.&OS=DN/20070124692&RS=DN/2
0070124692>Glass appearance
window fram colorization" and
"http://appft1.uspto.gov/neta
cgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect
2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetah
tml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f
=G&l=50&s1=%2220070124691%22.P
GNR.&OS=DN/20070124691&RS=DN/2
0070124691>Dynamic reflective
highlighting of a glass
appearance window frame." The
latter brings up an
interesting idea, it writes:
As described
above, a reflective highlight
of a glass appearance of an
application window frame may
be configured to change during
a move and/or resize operation
based on a set of rules that
describe a reflective
highlight images placement
relative to the current
position of the application
window within a desktop space.
Concurrently or alternatively,
a reflective highlight may be
configured to change in
response to a time of day
event.
If youre
not familiar with the
techno-babble-patent-language,
what it means is that the
reflection in Aero Glass (the
white stripes) was designed to
change based on the position
of the application window on
the desktop, on the time of
day, or both.
winbeta.org -
01.06.2007Microsoft shows off Vista Beta
2
The Inquirer very lucky today
as they had a few minutes with
the Vista Beta 2 machine at
Microsoft's booth. Of course,
they took a chance and played
with it for a while. It has
Explorer 7.0 of course and it
has the aero glass interface,
they state. It looks very much
like the Mac OS as all the
icons and desktop are
animated. It all looks cool
and nice; it will sure capture
your attention.
Some menus, especially the
one where you configure things
is significantly different but
we didn?t have much trouble to
find our way around. The
machine had ATI Radeon 9600 /
9700 graphic and it played
aero glass features just fine,
including media player
content.
jcxp.net -
11.01.2006E-mails: Microsoft execs raised 'Vista Capable' concerns
At a hearing in federal court in Seattle today, lawyers debated whether the lawsuit over Microsoft's "Windows Vista Capable" stickers should be
granted class-action status.
As in past legal cases against the company,
internal e-mails from Microsoft executives and employees were once again used as evidence to bolster the plaintiffs' case.
Quick
background, for those just tuning in: The suit, filed last year, alleges that some people bought "Vista Capable" machines thinking they would be
able to run all the Windows Vista features that Microsoft was promoting -- such as Aero Glass, Flip3D, and the Media Center interface -- even when
their machines were only capable of running the bare-bones Windows Vista Home Basic. Microsoft says that there was plenty of information available to
people to distinguish among the different Vista editions.
winbeta.org -
09.02.2008Look who's buying Vista Home Basic (hint: it's not home users)
Ed Bott: Who's buying new PCs with Windows Vista Home Basic? Judging by the name, you'd assume those OS editions would be loaded on underpowered
machines headed for tract homes in the burbs and studio apartments in the city. But you'd be wrong.
Based on my observations of
the PC market over the past year or two, I think consumers have rejected Home Basic in favor of Home Premium. But small, budget-conscious businesses
have embraced the low-end OS.
winbeta.org -
10.10.2008Vista Gets New Standard UI
Theme
While Microsoft has always
shown off Windows Vista with
its new Aero user interface
and "Glass" theme, not
all customers will have the
required hardware to power the
advanced graphics. In turn,
Microsoft has spruced up its
Standard theme, which had been
the subject of many
complaints...
betanews.com -
10.07.2006Allchin: We really botched "Vista Capable" scheme
Former Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin claimed the company "really botched" the Vista Capable sticker scheme, according to a leaked email read
out in court.
Microsoft is currently defending a lawsuit in the US, which claims the company knowingly misled consumers by
allowing PC makers to put "Vista Capable" stickers on machines that could only run Vista Home Basic.
The plaintiffs claim that
Vista Basic "isn't the real Vista" because it doesn't offer many of the operating system's advanced features, such as Aero Glass or Media Center.
An earlier filing to the court cited
PC Pro contributing
editor Jon Honeyball's interview with Acer Corporate Vice President, Jim Wong, in which he claimed "Premium is the real Vista".
Now the court has heard that several Microsoft employees also shared Wong's doubts. One employee's email stated that "even a piece of junk
will qualify" for the "Windows Vista Capable" sticker, according to court testimony reported in the
Seattle
Post-Intelligencer.
winbeta.org -
11.02.2008Is Microsoft 'capable' of stopping Vista Capable lawsuit?
Microsoft would dearly love the Vista Capable lawsuit to just go away, but once the wheels of justice start grinding, can any amount of grease stop
the squeaky wheel?
Microsofts Vista Capable class action lawsuit is in the news again, this time because Microsoft wants an
appeals court to reverse the decision to have granted the case official ˜class action status.
The whole situation bubbled up
because a number of consumers felt duped by the Vista Capable sticker that implied a computer with such a label would be able to run Vista, presumably
at least the ˜Home Premium version of Vista with the fancy Aero graphics, instead of the Vista Home Basic version which had no such capability.
winbeta.org -
11.03.2008Windows 7 Editions Revealed
Windows Blogger
Paul Thurrott has released a list of the various versions in which
Windows 7 will be shipped. There are quite a few versions, but contrary to the Vista confusion, there will only be two highly-marketed versions:
Windows 7 Home Premium, and Windows 7 Professional. That's right, we're back to the good ol' XP days!
One of the largest criticisms of
Windows Vista was the overwhelming amount of product editions to choose from. You either had to sacrifice some features or pay the
Ultimate
price (ha).
In total, six versions of 7 will be shipped. Most of them however, will be offered only for small niches or emerging
markets. Here's a short breakdown of the versions we can expect:
Windows 7 Starter - Expected to be installed on many
netbooks; it can only run 3 apps simultaneously, cannot create HomeGroups, and does not feature the Aero Glass UI. It does however, feature the
enhanced taskbar.
Windows 7 Home Premium - Will be broadly marketed in new computers, and as a retail product; features
the most widely-used features such as HomeGroups, Aero Glass, the new taskbar, and multi-touch.
Windows 7 Professional -
Will be broadly marketed in new computers, and as a retail product; this version builds on the Home Premium version by adding features such as
location-aware printing, advanced backups, and offline folders.
Windows 7 Enterprise - This version will only be
available as a VLK (Volume Licence); this buils upon the Professional version, adding sought-after features such as Direct Access, Branch Cache, and
BitLocker (and BitLocker To-Go).
Windows 7 Ultimate - This version will only be marketed at a very low scale, such as
during special promotions, or with very high-end computers; it features all the same features as the Enterprise version, but without the VLK
capability.
The 6th version is the "Home Basic" version, but it will only be offered to emerging markets; it will not be available
as a retail product and thus it will mostly be ignored by the general public. Unlike Vista, Windows 7's editions will all be true
supersets of each other. This means that Home Premium will include all of Home Basic's features, and Professional will include all of Home Premium's
features (so on, so forth). It is a clear and straightforward upgrade from edition to edition. No more confusing sets of overlapping features to
choose between.
Although the product line hasn't shrunk at all, the the bulk of consumer knowledge and interest will be with the two
most prominent versions. It should be a lot easier for people to decide between the versions now. It seems Microsoft has thought long and hard about
it, and come up with a decent plan.
Read a full description of all the versions at
Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows jcxp.net -
04.02.2009New Windows Vista Standard
Theme
Screenshots recently released
have confirmed speculation
that the Windows Vista "Scrap
Metal" theme would not in
fact be the final visual style
that users without Aero Glass
would see. The new visual
style seems to resemble the
Aero Glass style much more
closely.
jcxp.net -
07.07.2006Microsoft dismissed enthusiasts in Vista marketing
Spelling out which features of Windows Vista would work on a given PC might be useful to early adopters, but it would only "confuse the masses," a
high-level Microsoft Corp. manager argued more then a year before the operating system shipped, according to internal company e-mails. In a short
exchange in November 2005, Brad Goldberg, then the general manager of the Windows product management group, dismissed a colleague's suggestion
that Microsoft create documents listing what components and features of Vista would work on specific PCs slated to go on sale the following year.
"The average consumer would not know whether
he needs Aero-Glass or Windows Defender or not," Goldberg said in a Nov. 9, 2005, message.
"Retail sales person cannot explain what Aero Glass is or what it will do for them four six months prior to Vista."
The message
was just one of hundreds made public last week in a class-action lawsuit over the Windows "Vista Capable" marketing plan.
neowin.net - 03.03.2008
Wal-Mart: Microsoft should kill Vista Home Basic
Preston Gralla: You may think of Wal-Mart as a down-market PC seller, but as emails in the Vista "junk PC" case show, Wal-Mart was furious
at Microsoft's Vista Capable scheme, and thought that Vista Home Basic never should have been developed, much less released. They're not alone.
Other retailers, notably Office Depot, thought Vista Home Basic should have been killed. Here's all the dirt, including emails.
The recently unsealed Microsoft emails are part of the
lawsuit against Microsoft for a marketing scheme in which people
claim that Microsoft misled consumers into buying the Windows Vista Capable PCs, even though the PCs couldn't run the most important features of
Vista...
winbeta.org - 05.03.2008
Amazon Begins Selling Windows
Vista
Online retailer Amazon.com has
begun to accept pre-orders for
Windows Vista, which it says
"will be released on
January 30, 2007." The
company is charging $399 USD
for the Ultimate Edition of
Vista, $239 USD for Home
Premium and $199 USD for Home
Basic. Vista Business is
priced at $299 USD...
betanews.com - 29.08.2006
Windows Gets Back to Basic
Will retailers and OEMs put a little Vista coal in this year's holiday stocking? Windows Home Basic and integrated graphics SKUs could lead to
surprisesas in uh-ohs, not wowsfor some holiday shoppers.
Whether there is coal or not may depend on the elf. Some OEMs are offering surprisingly
good Vista SKUs and even no Windows Basic configurations.
That said, in a rush to drive down notebook prices even further, some
OEMs and retailers are pushing Basic SKUs for the holidays and continuing the trend of integrated graphics. While most retailers offer many more Home
Premium SKUs than Basic, the biggest advertised sales are for laptops with Windows Basic. Surprising: the operating system is finding place in
higher-priced SKUs, which is a holiday trend.
winbeta.org - 27.11.2007
Microsoft wants to freeze the Vista incapable lawsuit
EVER SLIPPERY, Microsoft asked that the "Vista Capable" lawsuit against it be stayed while it appeals the judge's approval of class action
standing for the case.
The lawsuit, filed almost a year ago, claims that Microsoft misled punters in late 2006 by letting PC makers stick
"Vista Capable" labels on lower power machines sold with Windows XP that were later found capable of running only the Home Basic version of Windows
Vista rather than the full version that includes most of Vista's new features including the Aero eye-candy graphical interface.
It
claims that PC buyers paid more for those machines than they would have parted with had they known that they wouldn't be able to support Windows
Vista when that was released a few months later in early 2007.
Read full story.....
neowin.net - 11.03.2008
