A similar feature was patented during Windows Vista development. Aero Peek is also available through the 'Show desktop' button at the right end of the taskbar, which makes all open windows transparent for a quick view of the desktop.

Aero Peek: Hovering over a taskbar thumbnail shows a preview of the entire window.

Windows Aero is revised in Windows 7, with many UI changes, such as a more touch friendly interface, and many new visual effects and features including pointing device gestures:įlip 3D showing the current tabs by pressing on the combination of ⊞ Win+ Tab ↹ key.

Task Dialogs may have expandable sections, hyperlinks, checkboxes, progress bars and graphical elements. Task Dialogs are more complex than traditional message boxes that only bear a message and a set of command buttons.

Task Dialogs: Dialog boxes meant to help communicate with the user and receive simple user input.

DWM in Windows Vista required compatible hardware.

Desktop Window Manager (DWM) – Due to the significant impact of the new changes on hardware and performance, Desktop Window Manager was introduced to achieve hardware acceleration, transferring the duty of UI rendering from CPU to graphic subsystem.

Taskbar live thumbnails – Hovering over the taskbar button of a window displays a preview of that window in the taskbar.

Windows Flip 3D: Windows Flip 3D ( Windows key+Tab) renders live images of open windows, allowing one to switch between them while displaying them in a three-dimensional view.

Windows Flip improvements: Windows Flip ( Alt+Tab) in Windows Vista now shows a live preview of each open window instead of the application icons.

Aero Glass theme: The main component of Aero, it is the successor of Windows XP's 'Luna' and changes the look and feel of graphical control elements, including but not limited to buttons, checkboxes, radio buttons, menus, progress bars and default Windows icons.

Windows Aero incorporated the following features in Windows Vista. Build 5270 (released in December 2005) contained an implementation of the Aero theme 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. The first build with full-featured Aero was build 5219. Microsoft started using the Aero theme in public builds in build 5048. Previous user interfaces were Plex, which was featured in Longhorn builds 3683–4042 Slate, which was first featured in the Lab06 compile of build 4042 and was used until the development reset, and Jade (builds 4074 to 4094). Until the release of Windows Vista Beta 1 in July 2005, little had been shown of Aero in public or leaked builds. The Aero interface was unveiled for Windows Vista as a complete redesign of the Windows interface, replacing Windows XP's ' Luna' theme.

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