Windows Aero

Windows Aero adalah antaramuka pengguna grafik dan tema utama dalam kebanyakan edisi Windows Vista, sistem pengendalian dikeluarkan oleh Microsoft pada November 2006. Ia akan juga didapati di Windows Server 2008, yang dijangkakan untuk dikeluar pada awal 2008. Namanya adalah akronim untuk Authentic, Energetic, Reflective and Open. Bertujuan menjadi pengantaramukaan pengguna yang amat bersih, paling berkuasa, paling cekap, dan paling menyenangkan daripada tema yang digunakan sebelumnya (Luna), ia memasukan kelutsinaran, ibu jari kuku langsung, ikon langsung, animasi dan halwa mata. Aero juga melingkungi set reka bentuk garis panduan pengantaramukaan pengguna untuk Microsoft Windows.

Sejarah 

Seperti Windows XP, ikon asas Aero's yang direkakan oleh The Iconfactory.

Hingga keluaran Windows Vista Beta 1 pada Julai 2005, little or nothing had been shown of Aero in public/leaked builds. Previous user interfaces were Plex, which was featured in Longhorn builds 3683-4029; Slate, which was featured in build 4051 and was available until build 4093; and Jade (build 4074, 4083 and 4093, actually an early preview of Aero). Microsoft started using Aero in public builds in build 5048. The first build with full-featured Aero was build 5219. Build 5270 (released in December 2005) contained an implementation of Aero which was virtually complete, according to sources at Microsoft, though a number of stylistic changes were introduced between then and the operating system's release.

Asasnya, Aero was to have three levels available, one code-named "To Go", which had the Desktop Window Manager (DWM) composition engine (previously known as DCE) disabled. The next was to be AeroExpress, lacking many features of the highest level code-named Aero Glass. However, in December 2005, Microsoft announced that there would only be two levels available, "Windows Vista Aero" and "Windows Vista Basic", with the previous "Express" level integrated into the new "Windows Vista Aero" level. A control panel was added to enable the user to fine tune this functionality, such as being able to turn off the "glass" translucency effect. These levels are provided so that the Aero interface (to some extent) can be used with a relatively low-end graphics card.

Initially, a variation of Aero, codenamed "Aero Diamond", was slated to be the user interface for the Windows Vista Media Center experience. Although there has been no official mention of Diamond for a number of years, it may refer to the expectation that the interface will be written in pure XAML (as was Aero initially) but this has not been confirmed.

Pengantaramukaan pengguna 

Untuk kali pertama sejak keluaran Windows 95, Microsoft telah sama sekali menyemakkan garis panduan pengantaramukaan pengguna, disediakan estetik, kawalan sama seperti butang dan butang radio, dialog tugasan, pintar-pintar, dialog sama, panel kawalan, ikon, font, pemberitahuan pengguna, dan nada suara teks digunakan.

Aero Wizards 

Wizard 97 has been the prevailing standard for wizard design, visual layout, and functionality used in Windows 98 through to Windows Server 2003, as well as most Microsoft products in that time frame. Aero Wizards are the replacement for Wizard 97, incorporating visual updates to match the aesthetics of the rest of Aero, as well as changing the interaction flow.

More specifically:
 To increase the efficiency of the wizard, The "Welcome" and "Completion" pages in Wizard 97 are no longer used. (A precursor to this change was implied in a number of wizards in products such as SQL Server 2005 where a check-box was added to welcome pages, allowing a user to disable the welcome page in future uses of the wizard).
 Aero Wizards can be resized, whereas the Wizard 97 guidelines defined exact sizes for wizard window and content sizes.
 The purpose of any given Aero Wizard page is more clearly stated at the top.
 A new kind of control called a "Command link" provides a single-click operation to choose from a short list of options.
 The "Back" button has moved to the top-left corner of the wizard window and matches the visual style of the back button in other Vista applications. This is done to give more focus to the commit choices. The "Next" button is only shown on pages where it is necessary.
 The notion of "Commit pages" is introduced, where it is made clear that the next step will be the actual process that the wizard is being used to enact. If no follow-up information needs to be communicated, these are the last pages in a wizard. Typically a commit page has a button at the bottom-right that is labelled with the action to be taken, such as "Create account".
 At the end of a wizard, a "Follow-up page" can be used to direct the user to related tasks that they may be interested in immediately after completing the wizard. For example, a follow-up for a CD burning wizard may present options like "Duplicate this disk" and "Make a disk label".

Pemberitahuan 

Notifications allow an application or operating system component with an icon in the system tray to create a pop-up window with some information about an event or problem. These windows, first introduced in Windows 2000 and known colloquially as "balloons", are similar in appearance to the speech balloons that are commonly seen in comics. Balloons were often criticized in prior versions of Windows due to their intrusiveness, especially with regard to how they interacted with full-screen applications such as games. Notifications in Aero aim to be less intrusive by gradually fading in and out, and not appearing at all if a full-screen application or screensaver is being displayed – in these cases, notifications are queued until an appropriate time. Larger icons and multiple font sizes and colors are also introduced with Aero's notification windows.

Font 

Segoe UI taip muka is the new default font for Aero with languages that use Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic character sets. The default font size is also increased from 8pt to 9pt to improve readability.  In the Segoe UI typeface, the numeral zero ("0") is narrow, while capital letter "O" is wider, and numeral one ("1") has a top hook, while capital letter "I" has equal crown and base.

Nada suara 

The Vista User Experience Guidelines also address the issue of "tone" in the writing of text used with the Aero user interface. Prior design guidelines from Microsoft had not done much to address the issue of how user interface text is phrased, and as such, the way that information and requests are presented to the user had not been consistent between parts of the operating system.

Research done by Microsoft informed them that users were finding Windows difficult to use and understand. Users were dissatisfied or felt insulted because of the phrasing of some messages. In particular, computer terminology and jargon were overused and used inconsistently, creating a barrier to understanding for newer users, and messages were unclear or perceived as patronizing.

The guidelines for Vista and its applications suggest messages that present technically accurate advice concisely, objectively, and positively, and assume an intelligent user motivated to solve a particular problem. Specific advice includes the use of the second person and the active voice (e.g. "Print the photos on your camera") and avoidance of words like "please" and "sorry".

Keperluan 

Microsoft has listed the following requirements for what they call a Vista Premium Ready PC. A PC that meets or exceeds these requirements will be able to use the new Aero technologies.
 a 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) Pemproses
 1 GB of system memory
 a DirectX 9 compatible graphics processor with a Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) driver and a minimum of 128 MB of Video RAM
 40 GB hard drive with 15 GB free space
 DVD-ROM Drive
 audio output and Internet access

The minimum requirements for graphics cards from the major vendors include the Radeon 9500 from ATI Technologies, the GeForce FX series from NVIDIA, and even the Intel GMA 950. Though the last driver from NVIDIA to support the GeForce FX series on Vista was 96.85  , Microsoft's WDDM drivers for NVIDIA graphics continue to support the GeForce FX series; NVIDIA's current WDDM drivers support the GeForce 6 and later series.  Though some of XGI Technology's Volari GPUs supported DirectX 9, no Microsoft WDDM drivers shipped with Vista and XGI has exited the graphics card business, so Volari cards apparently will not work with Windows Aero.

Note that though Microsoft has listed 128 MB of Video RAM as a requirement for "Premium Ready" PCs, it does not mean a 128 MB integrated graphics processor is required to run the Aero glass theme. A 64 MB integrated graphics processor, combined with at least 1 GB of system memory, will be able to run Aero at certain resolutions. However, a Vista-specific WDDM driver for any given graphics processor is also required to run the Aero glass theme; these drivers may or may not be available. Users who believe their hardware meets Aero's minimum graphics requirements are encouraged to check their graphics processor manufacturer's website for a Vista-specific driver if they are unable to run the theme.

Persamaan dengan Mac OS X 

Di antara lain-lain, penonton semula WinSuperSite Paul Thurrott mengemukakan banyak persamaan di antara Aero dan Aqua; dia mencadangkan bahawa penggunaan lut cahaya dalam pengantaramukaan yang akan membandingkan dengan pengantaramukaan Mac OS X yang sukar untuk mengelakkannya. Penulis ruang Mac sepanjang masa dan pengarang buku John Rizzo menulis dalam rencana eWeek, "Microsoft seems to have taken many cues from Mac OS X with the user interface and features, right down to some of the terminology. Even some of Vista's icons are amazingly similar to those in Tiger."

Rujukan

Lihat juga 

 Ciri-ciri baru kepada Windows Vista
 Pemajuan Windows Vista
 Desktop Window Manager

Pautan luar 
 Keenggulan Pengguna Windows Vista Aero
 64 MB RAM menyokongkan Aero dengan tidak melebihi jumlah piksel sebanyak 1,310,720 (1280 × 1024) tetapi tidak adalah Premium Ready

Pengantaramukaan pengguna grafikal
Windows Vista
Microsoft Windows