I'm pretty sure most people who want Vista are more into the look and feel of the operating system more than anything else. The look of AERO Glass, the wallpapers, Sidebar and all the translucent effects are a sure winner especially when demoing at a nearest computer store.
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About a couple months ago, there were Vista theme packs like Vista Transformation Pack as well as the previous version of
WindowBlinds that changed the look of Windows XP to about 85-90% of how Vista actually looks. The biggest hurdle was actually duplicating the blurring affect that most people actually don't see, it's actually a very subtle effect, but dramtically makes the text more readable on a translucent background.
With
WindowBlinds 6 releasing within 48 days from today, XP users can finally embrace true Vista-like visuals, added they use the
Vista Transformation Pack 7 to convert all your icons and bootscreens and the
Vista RTM Sidebar. What used to be a clever trick using a toolbar to replace the visuals in Windows XP to emulate the Explorer window, seems not to be needed anymore, infact the blurring/transparency effect with the address bar and icons look identical to Vista. What's also a bonus is that they have found a way to implement blurring without highend DX10 Graphic Cards on Vista. Even a lower graphics card that normally would be allowed only the Standard theme is now allowed to run an AERO Glass exact-Look-a-Like theme using WB6. Even on Vista, Stardock claims that using their theme system instead would increase performance and with lower memory usage compared to the actual engine that Vista uses.
I can't wait. Now that I have plans to change to XP again, this should put the nail in the door.