Why would Microsoft remove the beautiful Aero Glass effect and replace it with flat colors and cheesy translucency?

I've been running Win8 (and now, unfortunately, Win8.1) at home for about 6 months now. I only just got my first taste of Win7, because we finally upgraded to it at work.

So, I'm seeing Aero for the first time.

Which led me to search for "Why the %#@* would Microsoft keep Aero out of Windows 8?" ... and I found this thread.

There's no good reason. Power savings, battery, performance, yada yada. Nonsense.

AT LEAST KEEP IT AS AN OPTION!

I have a desktop system worth about $10,000 (neither exaggeration nor typo). This is not bragging, it's pointing out that I should not have to use lame visuals just so people who run Win8 on their stupid tablets feel like they're not missing anything. I ran Crysis 3 with max settings with nary a slowdown, with a GPU to spare. I'm pretty sure my hardware can handle Aero.

I wouldn't mind if Aero was disabled by default. I wouldn't even mind if I had to search for how to enable it and then use some stupid registry hack. But to omit it completely? Stupid!

The same goes for the Start menu!

So why not give the user a choice...do they want the ugly confusing metro with all its hidden options or do they want the look of windows 7. If youre thinking well thatd just make the installation take more hdd space why not have the user decide at the installation stage and only install either metro or aero.

Everybody i know who has tried windows 8 hates it and has either paid somebody or asked me to put their copy of windows 7 on it for them. Which is also a pain to do due to some of the newer machines havin gpt partitions.

1 os for desktop and 1 os for tablets...or at least metro for tablets aero for desktop.

Plus there are some programs that are a pain to get working on windows 8. Ive heard visual studio wprks fine for c++ etc but that xna is hard to get working

During the installation of windows 8 through a boot disc the window is actually similar to the glass aero one in windows 7. Most likely Microsoft did not remove glass aero, it could be hidden in windows 8 which you can enable through a registry hack or something. Nobody really knows how to do it yet but I'm sure sometime we will find out.

Although beta versions of Windows 8 used an updated version of Aero Glass with a flatter, squared look, Aero Glass is no longer the default theme on Windows 8, as Microsoft developers felt that interface designs imitating natural materials were becoming dated. Instead, the desktop interface incorporates elements of the new Metro design, which uses a flatter look with fewer transparency effects, solid colored window borders (designed to attract more attention to the content of a window), and fewer rounded edges.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Aero

 

Aero Theme is Bad, Disable It

http://www.petri.co.il/vista_aero_performance_issues.htm

 

It was  resource intensive for the most part

 

 

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EXACTLY, Microsoft isn't supposed to get people to go in another direction and change their windows experience to what they think, they should help out the customers and make windows better for them, in fact most people still use windows 7, I doubt windows 8 will become more popular.

Functionality is a good point to make, but how many users are concerned with that?

I can honestly say, with few exceptions, 99% of users don't use and aren't aware of

most of the "Functionality" available in any version of Windows. Or any OS for that

matter.

   Let's take the average business user for example. The ones I've spoken with are

primarily concerned with two(2) things. Aesthetics and Usability. In other words,

how does it appeal visually and how fast can I get my job done. The Metro Start

screen as a replacement significantly limits desktop space. i.e. I can't see as

much as I used to (the average business desktop's screen is much smaller than the

average Home users). This means they have to scroll/search for their task many times

during the day. Let's say it adds 5 seconds to the startup time for their application(s)

and they do this five(5) times during the day. That's seems small, only 50 seconds

per day, right? Multiply that times the number of employees, say 25 (it's a small

company). Now we're at 1,250 seconds per day. Multiply that times work days in a

month and you get ~27,125 seconds or ~452 minutes (almost 8 hrs/month or 96 hours

per year). You can see how this additional cost can adversely affect any size business,

right? And of course, that scenario gets worse the more users you have.

  Now let's think of the average home user. All you have to do is walk around your

local electronics store and watch the perspective buyers react to the new interface.

It's not pretty. Think of this, I want to watch a video and that flat (insert color

of your choice here) border is visible. Talk about distracting, right? Since it

appears that a step backwards has been taken (aesthetically speaking) you also

get questions like, Can it still handle my pictures and videos like it used to?

You see, unfortunately aesthetics do matter to the masses.