After all complaining about Vista for months, it was kind of refreshing to read 40 Must have Windows programs for Vista over at TechRadar this morning.

Among the favorites listed are many programs you may not know about - like “Aerofoil” which turns off Vista graphics heavy “Aero” interface with just the click on one buttons. Also take a look at Windows Live Listas, CC Cleaner, and TweakVI. Everything else is great, but not really Vista specific. All in all though - there are some great pieces of software on this list, and many are free (and work on XP too)!

One of the things that has pissed me off about Windows Vista since the very beginning was the ‘tiered’ versions, Vista Business, Vista Home, Vista Premium, and Vista Ultimate. I believe that it was only Premium and Ultimate that came with the animated desktop backgrounds - something that I was kind of looking forward to. But I’ll be damned if I’ll pay $150 just to get it, and some backup and disk encryption.

So, you can imagine that I was pretty excited when I read this ZDNet article today announcing that StarDock is coming out with “DeskScapes 2.0: Animated Wallpapers” for Windows Vista (ALL versions). Not only that - the ’standard’ version will be free, and the ‘premium’ is only $19.95!! Awesome.

In that article they describe how it will work, and it says that you’ll have the ability to add your own animated video to your desktop background, and change it or loop it at certain times per day - like a ‘dream sequence’ almost. Oh - did I mention that they say it will require almost NO CPU power? Awesome!

So as I use Windows Vista more and more the GUI interface is what you notice right off the bat because it’s everywhere. The ‘look and feel’ of the windows, and (what used to be) windows explorer, the start menu, the tray, the clock, the navigation - in Windows Vista this new look is called “Aero”. I’ve used a Mac on OS X a little, and I’ve used Linux (Ubuntu) a lot - and all I can say is, it looks like Microsoft felt a little bit threatened. In my eyes - the updates they’ve made with aero aren’t even vaguely imaginative. In fact, they just seem to be blatant rip-offs of both modern Linux and Apple interfaces. I guess users that have only used Windows will actually think that Microsoft has done something great here, but those of us geeks who’ve used Linux or OS X know the real truth.

[photopress:clock.jpg,thumb,pp_image] Take a look at the new date and time interface. Does this new updated version look better? Sure it does. Does it look familiar? Ubuntu anyone?

[photopress:explorer_window.jpg,thumb,pp_image] Take a look at this screenshot of a filebrowser window. You will notice the nice polished look and feel, but what else do you notice? If the windows were full size, in some ways the left pane and right pane file browsing interface reminds of the very old File Manager interfaces back in Windows 3.11. But on closer inspection, more recently, it fully reminds me of the file browsing interface in Ubuntu Linux. It’s so similar it’s not even funny.

[photopress:explorer_window_switch.jpg,thumb,pp_image] In face - the only difference I could find was this little trick in the address bar. When you click on the folder names - you get this nice little browsing menu. It was confusing at first, but now it seems a neat little trick, but that’s about it.

[photopress:start_menu.jpg,thumb,pp_image] Here’s what the new start menu looks like in Windows Vista. It’s probably the most redesigned. It’s still similar to earlier start menus, but it’s a bit more consolidated. On the right side you’ll find familiar things. Common folders like documents, pictures, music, and control panel, etc.

[photopress:start_menu_side.jpg,thumb,pp_image] When your mouse goes over various selections on the right the pictures at the top of the start menu changes and you get a tooltip description of what it is. In Windows Vista you’ll find a lot of tooltips and popups to help you along.

[photopress:start_menu_programs.jpg,thumb,pp_image] On the left side is what used to be the “program files” section of the start menu. In previous versions of Windows if you installed a lot of programs this thing would eat every bit of desktop real estate you had in cascading style from left to right. In Windows Vista you’ll find that you get an expandable menu system right there in that little window. While less cluttered, sometimes it seems like a million clicks to get what you want. It might be a worthwhile annoyance since the most common items you use are always at the very top.

[photopress:window_preview.jpg,thumb,pp_image] Take a look at the taskbar window preview. This one I think actually is unique. When you mouseover minimized windows on the task bar you get a quick popup preview thumbnail. I guess that might save me a little time when I go from place to place.

[photopress:switch_windows.jpg,thumb,pp_image] There is a new icon on the taskbar now “switch between windows”. This is the one that brings up the famous window view you probably saw on tv or web sites before Vista came out - where the window panes seem to roll forward in a circle.

[photopress:virtual_windows.jpg,thumb,pp_image] This is what those “virtual windows” look like when you click that icon. You can scroll through them using your up and down arrow keys. When you find the one you want you can either hit the enter key or click on it with your mouse. This has to be the most rediculous and flagrant waste of time I’ve ever seen. It was clearly developed to be “cool” and has absolutely no (time-saving) value at all. Thank god alt-tab still works just fine (and is 100 times quicker).

[photopress:sidebar.jpg,thumb,pp_image] Last but not least in my Windows Vista interface mini-tour is the “Windows Sidebar”. While a valiant effort - this is quite possibly the biggest ripoff of all. Mainly because I was using a sidebar like this 3 revisions back in Ubuntu Linux. I also hear that Apple OS X has something like this (though I haven’t used it). But mainly - it seemed to be a 90% ripoff of Google Desktop.

I remember wen I first installed Google Desktop, and it was kinda cool to watch thumbnails of my photos in a constant slideshow. What did Windows Sidebar show me the first time I ran it? A thumbnail photo slideshow. I remember reading rss headlines in google desktop the first time after the install. What did Windows Sidebar do? Showed me RSS headlines.

[photopress:shows_gadgets.jpg,thumb,pp_image] When you click the “plus” sign to add more gadgets - this windows pops up. It shows you what gadgets you have installed, and allows you to add or remove from the library on your pc - or to get more online. Developers can create their own third party “gadets” for inclusion in the repository, and you can download them for free. Wow Microsoft, really good job at painstakingly copying google desktop to a “t”. Especially when you factor in that sidebar by default gives a little search box - and now the Windows search is “supposed” to work just as good as the google desktop search. We’ll do some testing and post more about that in some posts later on down the line.

So - to end this post, I will summarize what I think about the new Windows Vista GUI Interface, or “Aero”.

• The taskbar has been enhanced with a new clock and time. Pretty, but that’s about it
• The taskbar itself has a new popup preview which actually I like.
• There were 2 new right click properties I didn’t show “show windows stacked”, and “show windows side by side”. Even with multiple windows open, clicking either one of these options did nothing for me
• The start menu is less cluttered now that it’s better organized, but except for common elements it can be a pain to navigate to lower levels
• The rotating “switch between windows” function is simply a joke
• The file browser explorer improvements (while better) are a blatant ripoff of Mac and Linux current versions
• The Windows sidebar can be useful - but it’s practically a duplicate of google desktop

Last - to buy or upgrade to Windows Vista simply because of the new “aero” interface would be ludicrous. It has some nice-to-have features, but none worth the sheer software or hardware upgrade on it’s own.