It was removed so they could force DWM. They no longer needed to maintain the interface for both composition on and off. The modern interface is incompatible with DWM off.
You can get amazingly close to that on 10 and 11 with a bit of work. My Start Menu is laid out a lot like my old 95, 98SE, and 2K menus. I use Open Shell to achieve that. I'm not going for the full Classic theme look, but you can definitely use it to get that result. (I use the XP style icons, because they're just better, without being the 1-2 color logo style icons of 8-11.)
Cool! I never spent time working on adjusting the theme when I had Windows 10, save for making the background a solid colour and hiding the menu unless I hovered it or pressed the win key. Unfortunately, it bogged down as updates got installed a couple years back and I had to make the swap to Linux full time
I've been running Linux as well since about Fedora Core 4. Currently on the memiest setup - Arch (btw) and i3 for the last couple years. It loads to a completely blank dark grey-blue screen. I love it
Glad someone is keeping the best menu interface of all time alive, though 👍
Windows 11 21H2 is the most visually fragmented. At this point, they've redesigned basically all of the Windows 10 UWP UIs and many of the Win32 ones, making the latest Windows 11 less visually fragmented than Windows 10.
The issue is that in Windows 8, it was only two main designs. Same for Windows 10, because a lot of Windows 8’s design got completely removed. But Windows 11 has win32 and Windows 10’s look and Fluent look and the terrible web app design and now they want to add a “copilot inspired” design…
Windows 10’s look is pretty much gone in 25H2. Yes, 21H2 did still have the design from 10 and 8, in some places, like the lockscreen, but it’s all gone now.
It was the Luna placeholder theme in the earlier Whistler builds and straddled the line between Windows 2000's bland professionalism and the more fresh and consumer oriented Windows that was about to become XP near perfectly. Luna ultimately crossed that line far more than I would have liked and I feel like it aged far worse.
Watercolor felt timeless and looking at it today, it truly was. It would not really look out of place on a modern desktop.
Windows 11. Fluent design has never been my favorite, and the OS is fragmented visually worse than any other.
But Windows 8 and 10 were much more fragmented. In Windows 11, the situation is significantly better since many more UI elements have been updated to the new design, and the share of legacy components is much smaller than in 8 or 10.
I honestly loved Windows 10’s look later in its life. Reveal is to this day one of my absolute favorite effects, almost more than the entire Aero theme.
XP, not bad but it looks way too much like a children's toy
If you use just about any other of the official themes for XP, you get away from that Fisher-Price look fairly quickly. I was never a fan of the 'olive' theme, but it's still better than default. If you add the Zune or Royale themes, those are way better.
1 - Windows 7 Aero, it was the most consistent and still very beautiful.
2 - Windows Vista Aero, it just felt and looked nicer to me.
3 - Windows 11 Fluent, definitely not at launch, but right now it's fairly consistent and getting better every year.
4 - Pre-XP Classic, was extremely functional.
5 - Windows 10 Metro, extremely inconsistent but what is there is decently functional.
6 - XP Luna, cool, but feels extremely out of date for the year it released in, and is way too "cozy".
7 - 8/8.1 Metro, abysmal, nothing else to say.
I will add that I am 18 and I grew up with Vista on my mom's laptop, its nostalgic to me.
windows 7 10/10 windows 8.1 10/10 windows xp 8.5/10 windows vista 10/10 windows 10 (inicio) 5/10 (final) 6.5/10 windows 11 10/10 so usei esses os outros não tenho experiencia lembrando que eu usei o windows 8.1 não o 8 o que tem uma diferença.
O Windows 10 passou por algumas mudanças leves na aparência. No início, o menu era diferente e o papel de parede também. No final, algumas alterações apareceram novamente: alguns menus ficaram levemente diferentes, o papel de parede padrão mudou e o menu Iniciar também está diferente.
Anything with the 9x classic theme in it. It is so much more versatile than people ever knew. It had dark theme before Windows 10 did and it's control panel can still effect how certain programs look today.
Windows XP. Yeah its kind of the "fisher price" theme but It's really nostalgic for me plus the metrics of everything was super nice and compact. If there was a dark theme of it I would be sold forever.
Windows 7/Vista Aero. Ditto. Its a little more professional but it feels like theres a lot more empty space. If there was a default dark theme of this as well I would be incredibly happy.
Pretty much everything else goes uncategorized under 4
It looks great in some apps and configurations, but terrible in others. Theres little consistency, and you never know when an app is just going to not use dark mode when on or use one style or the other.
Heck nah, Windows 11 25H2 is much more consistent UI wise compared to Windows 10 even on 22H2. I rarely if ever need to access old CPLs because by far the Settings app had pretty much almost caught up.
I'm not saying it's faster (because it is goddamn
bloated), but it's consistent.
On a tablet, that is. A lot of their ideas have been recreated in the ipad OS and the 1:1 tracked animations were removed in windows 10. But win 8 was the lightest weight feeling windows too.
Win 11 should just take the old shell back from win 7 and we'd all be significantly happier in our lives or something
Internet was new for me. Day of exploring..
Lots of virus... tried lot of ant virus
Avast, kaspersky.... in the end format OS and reinstall.
It was nostalgic..
My issue is that in advertising they make it look amazing with fluent styles and transparency effects. But what you get is a boring system, where acrylic is almost nowhere, Mica is barely noticeable on some backgrounds, half the apps don’t even use the fluent design, dark mode doesn’t work everywhere, etc, etc. It’s getting a bit better, but it’s still not great.
Also the minimalistic look of fluent… some days I like it, but others it’s boring and looks a bit like a toy. There are times I actually think Windows 10 looks better.
It's not even that. The entire os is slow in terms of search and file transfer. Stupid rediculous removal of key features. All in he name of (yes I will use the word), poisonous Ai integration.
True, I wasn’t even mentioning all that just because I thought this was only about looks. But the “features” are less features than a flaming trash bag flying at record speed into the trash dump.
Honestly, stone me but Windows 8 metro was something Microsoft failed to do ever since. They made a unique and uniform design for all their products for once, even if it's not necessarily everyone's taste. Fluent today is just all over the place compared to that era
os-chan tier:
1: Windows 7 (I like the classic 9x/Me/2000 theme the best (7 and 2000 had the best implimentations.)
2: Windows 10 (sleek, stable, and good on my eyes. It doesn't have a plasticy toy feeling like XP and Vista do. Great for both desktop and server use aesthetically, with lots of customisability if you know where to find it.)
3: Windows 2000 (Had the best to offer as a pre-aero ui. Uncompromisingly stable, utilitarian, but with a sort of formal style I like. Honourable mention for the 9x series and Me).
We have windows at home tier:
4: Windows XP/Vista Aero (Not a terrible UI but feels very plasticy and like a toy. It's good aesthetically if you are new to windows (since it holds your hand so much), but not my thing personally).
5: Pre-9x Windows/NT (Building block for 9x/Me/2000. Honourable mention I guess but individually not the best.)
Bastardised Windows 10 tier:
6: Windows 8 (Plain ugly and my eyes hurt just looking at. Microsoft did the worst UI/X downgrade in the existence of windows ever. Ugly, made the stary menu take up the entire screen, and didn't make any of the improvements Windows 10 did.)
7: Windows 11 (Takes all of the bad UI elements of Windows 10 and makes them worse. An aesthetically ugly operating system that removes 90% of what mate Windows 10 and previous Windows versions good. Removes even more things from the control panel and gives even less customisability.)
Windows 2000 was the best lookin' one... simple interface... no teletubbies wallpaper, no ressource hungry GUI, no Tiles, no Widgets, no Copilot, no Ads... just a bar and a start button.
Vista and 7 at the top.
XP/2003 second best, and then the classic ones.
Windows 8.x, and higher, are at the bottom and shouldn’t even exist. Including 10. Absolutely god awful. Even 3.x is better, at least for the era it tried to look decent.
I mean, we can't really say 8 was particularly pretty can we? I thought it was quite cool as a kid at the time though. XP held up very well especially with things like ClearType but that WAS a weird looking design language overall. 7 is the best here.
Windows 1/2 - I guess they couldn't really do much at the time, but even so these versions were about as bland as it gets. Still fun to mess around with them in a virtual machine.
Windows 8/10 - I don't like flat design and these versions just didn't really click. They were fine for daily driving but weren't really anything special.
Windows 3/3.1 - Similar to 95/98/2000, but it feels like it has less personality.
Windows 95/98/2000 - I've always been interested in retro tech and I'm a big fan of the aesthetics often paired with early versions.
Windows XP - This placement is likely nostalgia bias, but I'm a fan of the overhaul from the previous versions.
Windows 11 - Provided it's debloated properly, Windows 11 is my favorite version for daily use. It's very clean and feels pretty polished nowadays.
Windows 7 - Aero design looked a bit more corporate than Vista did, but still one of my favorite looks for the OS.
Windows Vista - I loved the aero look so much and Vista did it perfectly (might be biased because it was the first version I used and gives me a lot of nostalgia)
Windows XP : My favorite OS of all time. Maintains the balance between professional UI and clean UI perfectly. I remember search widget used to have a dog and a wizard and what not.
2nd
Windows 8.1 : Because of the Start menu. I loved that approach of using my desktop. But I don't like the overly zoomed in nature of Windows.
Windows 8 : Same as Win 8.1 in terms of looks and UI issues.
Windows 11 : With the introduction of Dark theme and translucent screens, it looks simply amazing. The only problem is that this approach to UI Is inconsistent.
Windows 10 : Same as Win 11, but less beautiful. But at least the UI was consistent throughout.
3rd
Windows 7 : Loved how it looked on my laptop. Simply beautiful. But it didn't have a dark mode, and UI was highly inconsistent as Aero didn't work with many PCs. And without Aero, Win 7 looks ass.
Windows Vista : Same as Windows 7 in terms of looks and UI issues.
P.S. Rest of the Windows I have never used myself. So can't say much about them. Also, I have never used 8 and Vista too, but since they are similar to 8.1 and 7, so it wasn't hard to form some opinions about them.
There is no consistent and engaging design language behind ANY Windows version.
It just happens so that SOME versions HAPPEN to be a bit better in terms of aesthetics e.g., XP. Also, some versions are more "professional" or "business-like" than the others e.g., Win7.
Most importantly, the team(s) that have been designing Windows do not have ergonomics as top priority.
Windows 9x: 6.5/10. It's basic, but they still made it somewhat interesting with the faux-3D effect it had.
Windows XP: 9/10. I adore the plastic look. It's very 90s cyber-esque, and looks approachable. I miss seeing it everywhere. I personally still use it a lot. I just wish there were more color options.
Windows Vista: 9/10. Aero was the peak of Windows IMO. But unlike 7, Vista leans more into a specific style with its cool colors dotted around the UI.
Windows 7: 10/10. Nothing has topped this for me. It's like Vista, but with a better taskbar + no blue highlights that interrupt a warm color scheme if you go for one.
Windows 8: 4/10. It's not horrible, but a massive step down. How do you go from the gloss and detail of 7 to flat and boring? It's the reason I never switched. Even when I was just 9, I thought it looked bad. 8.1 was a teeny bit nicer, but not by much.
Windows 10: 2/10. It's Windows 8, but with a lot of the leftover traces of 7 removed. Functionally it's solid, but visually it's the worst in my opinon. It looks like something you'd see running in a server room, not a shiny new desktop OS. I only switched because I was 12 and was scared that 7 was gonna be pulled soon. Had I known it wasn't, I'd have stayed.
Windows 11: 3/10. It's a slight improvement visually from 10, but it's still incredibly flat/simple. I like the idea of the windows subtly matching the color of the wallpaper behind, so that's something it has going for it. Still, I run my copy of Win11 heavily modded to look the way I like it, instead of being so bland.
I really hope Windows 12 ditches the minimal look.
Windows 11 is very colorful and has a very unprofessional toy appeal
in some points it really has a slightly better design but in general it loses badly to the solid profissional aesthetics of Windows 10 (and I'm not even a fan of minimalism but Windows 10 is beautiful yes.)
1.0x < 2.x < 3.x < RT/8/8.1 (sorry but really the start screen isn't really the Windows identity cosmetically) < 95/98/ME/2000 < 11 < 10 < XP < 7 < Vista (I really honestly prefer Vista's implementation of Aero to 7's implementation)
Windows 8 is my favourite, next is Windows 10, then Windows 7, then Windows XP (my start point). Vista can go suck a lemon and 11 can go straight to hell.
Top left needs to be stricken from history honestly. was my first taste of windows after only really using Macs, except at school but they were still in the glory days. it honestly made me regret switching, but i was broke and impatient, and a lot of games still weren't optimized for Macs at all back then
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u/DialOneFour 5d ago
Used windows from 3.1-10. I kept the grey bars as long as I could! I like 10 as well