I finally got Vista loaded on a dual boot a couple of days ago, I'd like to vent a little about what I have noticed on my initial foray into the OS and why I am disappointed so far.

Let me preface this by saying although I am sure there are many technological and security advances that this article pretty much applies to only the appearance of the OS and how it is different from XP as far as skinning it.

The first thing you notice obviously is the start menu. HUGE changes. I personally find having the all programs menu incorporated into the programs panel of the start menu very counter-intuitive. maybe I am not used to it yet but I feel I catch on quick.. and to me.. its fairly useless.. I don't remember the last time I actually had to search for a program and even after I get used to not seeing my nicely skinned All programs menu I feel that having a non-skinnable obtrusive search box "in ur face" is quite a culture shock.

2. No longer can we skin our loggof\turn off buttons, now were stuck with huge glassy rectangles that in a mediochre way assume, via translucency the color of the Logoff Panel.

3.After entering search mode in the search box we have black text that sits right on top of where the all programs background is...meaning that for those of us that used images for arrows.. now.. cannot. Now if we want it to look useable in search mode we must use a plain background. Yet another area snatched away from the skinner.

4. The Programs search area. Now.. when in search mode, the background of the search menu assumes the themes main buttonface color. This means that when designing a start menu you have to skin the Item mousover image not just to match the start menu background (both sides) but also to look correct when being used over the buttonface color that occupis the seach mode window.

5. Scrollbars. Vista inhibits the design of these. Unless you match the scrollbar background color when making your scrollbars then as soon as scrollbars are being used in the Start menu it wont match.  That color, again.. is the buttonface color. 

6.Tiling. The left side of the start menu now does not tile correctly inhibiting overall design of the start menu as if the aformentioned changes werent enough to already bugger it up.

7.Toolbar background color. Lots of areas in Vista now use the same text color as color of the text used on the toolbar background. Why is this bad? Most of the areas that inherit this text color are skinned almost white, natively in Vista. Meaning that If.. like in SG1.. You have a darker toolbar with light text.. that text is now unreadable where it is being used in certain areas of Vista.. meaning, to upgrade older skins I would have to re-design several areas of a theme to make it compatible.

8. IE7. Yea, I know, sooner or later I will have no choice.. However the loss of toolbar icons and being told what buttons you can have and where to put them is going to severely affect the overall outcome of a themes design.

Theres more..but Ill save that for a second article, and this is after looking at the OS for less than 90 mins.

I realize that change is inevitable and honestly in most cases I welcome it, usually..newer versions of most software is better but speaking strictly from a skinners perspective Microsoft has taken a HUGE step backwards in its interface design and how it interacts as a whole.

For now.. if I have to, or I am being paid to, I will skin Vista. I can and honestly it will be almost easier once I retain a firm grasp of what affects what in the Vista OS. Do I want to start skinning it ..no. The reason being it has taken away a lot of areas where a skinner can differentiate themselves, left less room for interpretation and overall just sort of dumbed it down.

I therefore have personally decided that any new themes that I make will be either XP or Vista.. as in XP, a lot more can be accomplished from a skinners point of view that cannot in Vista.

Im sure Vista will one day rule the world but I definately feel that for those who appreciate their skins as useable works of art rather than just a skin that works... that at least at this time XP is the better choice. As of right now you can do far less in Vista than you can in XP.

Feel free to tell me why I'm wrong, I hope some of you can (honestly the whole thing is depressing me)..as pertains to specific issues mentioned above and I'd like to hear what, If anything WB 6 and SKS will bring to the table to add some life to the skinning of Vista.

I'm all for something new but not if it limits my creativity.

Have a great Weekend !