{"id":443,"date":"2013-03-26T22:37:21","date_gmt":"2013-03-26T11:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.quppa.net\/?p=443"},"modified":"2013-03-26T22:37:21","modified_gmt":"2013-03-26T11:37:21","slug":"windows-blue-build-9364-observations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quppa.net\/blog\/2013\/03\/26\/windows-blue-build-9364-observations\/","title":{"rendered":"Windows \u2018Blue\u2019 Build 9364 Observations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update (2013-04-21):<\/strong> the thin borders are all gone in build 9374.<\/p>\n

It looks like Microsoft isn\u2019t changing tack with the next release of Windows \u2013 the recently leaked build 9364 of Windows \u2018Blue\u2019 contains a bunch of worthwhile changes to the Modern\/Metro\/Immersive environment, but the desktop seems to be basically untouched from Windows 8. If you hated Windows 8, you\u2019ll probably hate Windows \u2018Blue\u2019. If you\u2019re ambivalent, like me, about Windows 8, you\u2019ll probably feel the same way about Windows \u2018Blue\u2019. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve met anyone who loves Windows 8 outright, but that person will love Windows \u2018Blue\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

The only UI changes on the desktop that I\u2019ve spotted so far are related to window borders \u2013 the borders of the clock and action centre pop-up windows are now 1 pixel wide (and the windows are set 16 pixels from the edge of the screen\/taskbar). The volume control retains the Windows 7\/8 look (fat borders, 8 pixel margin). Continuing on the theme of window borders, certain windows have thin (~3 pixel) borders, as shown below. I\u2019m not sure what window styles cause this effect, but the same thing happened in pre-release Windows 8.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On the Modern-Desktop integration front, bringing up the \u2018Share Charm\u2019 now has options for sharing a screenshot of the desktop (though I can\u2019t get this to work) and for opening SkyDrive. That\u2019s about it.<\/p>\n

The method of selecting theme accent and background colours has changed significantly, and it seems like that post I wrote about the GetImmersiveColor* functions<\/a> will be obsolete soon. It\u2019s now possible to select basically any colour combination (see below), which makes it quite easy to get unreadable text. Too much choice can be a bad thing<\/a>, and I prefer the Windows 8 approach of a limited set of colour combinations that have been tested thoroughly to make sure all text is readable.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It will be interesting to see how quickly this version is pushed out the door. I\u2019m quite surprised to see the version number bumped up to 6.3 (Windows 8 is 6.2), which could indicate that this will be a bigger release than many had assumed. It would be nice if the desktop got a bit more attention, but I\u2019m not holding out hope. In this early build of Windows \u2018Blue\u2019, none of my pet issues are solved (ClearType missing from text drawn on opaque surfaces for no reason, unnecessary Modern UI encroaching on the desktop for network settings and \u2018open with\u2019 dialogs, etc., no Windows Update notifications on the desktop, Modern UI scrollbars in desktop IE, and so on and so forth).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update (2013-04-21): the thin borders are all gone in build 9374. It looks like Microsoft isn\u2019t changing tack with the next release of Windows \u2013 the recently leaked build 9364 of Windows \u2018Blue\u2019 contains a bunch of worthwhile changes to the Modern\/Metro\/Immersive environment, but the desktop seems to be basically untouched from Windows 8. If … Continue reading “Windows \u2018Blue\u2019 Build 9364 Observations”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,9],"tags":[171,174,176],"class_list":["post-443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-programming","category-windows","tag-windows-2","tag-windows-8","tag-windows-blue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quppa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quppa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quppa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quppa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quppa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.quppa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quppa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quppa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quppa.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}