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Microsoft Internally Worked on a Mac OS X Aqua Inspired Windows XP Theme

Wasn't there a Windows mod that would 'Apple-ize' the Windows desktop? I think it was a hack, but I seem to remember an unofficial way to 'jazz up' the staid Windows button down look.

Sorry, didn't see that image. Yeah, it's weird. Someone dropped CBP gummies on Windows to make it look cool. I do remember seeing a few client systems with that theme. They would brag that it's 'just as good as a Mac'. Yeah, no. Just lipstick on a pig. Didn't that theme actually have a resource cost too, which at the time sounded ridiculous. A theme slowing down a computer? What? Who? (Only Microsoft could figure out a way?)
 
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AZREOSpecialist said:
Can nobody do anything without Apple doing it first? Jeez... the creative bankruptcy of other tech companies is palpable and the nerve with which they blatantly steal the IP of others is criminal.
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darngooddesign said:
I had widgets on my Mac Plus back in the late 80s.

I had widgets on my Newton back in the mid 90s.

I had widgets on my Amiga.

I had widgets on OS X, first with Konfabulator, and later baked-in with Dashboard.

Windows Mobile OS had widgets.

Palm OS had widgets.

Widgets have been part of Windows for a long time.

All before Android.
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But you didn´t have widgets on IOS, it took IOS how many years to get widgets?
 
AJ674 said:
But you didn´t have widgets on IOS, it took IOS how many years to get widgets?
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So what... no one is arguing that Android had widgets before iOS, that’s a stupidly easy thing to check, but Android just copied widget functionality from plenty of other companies so it’s not the proof of innovation you think it is.
 
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PinkyMacGodess said:
Wasn't there a Windows mod that would 'Apple-ize' the Windows desktop? I think it was a hack, but I seem to remember an unofficial way to 'jazz up' the staid Windows button down look.
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There were a number of resources to try and pull this off, from Icon packages and dock add-ons and Windows themes etc.

I do remember one project called Flyakite OS X that was a more all in one solution, but had mixed results in comparison to putting it altogether ones self with several applications.
 
CthuluLemon said:
I bet this was an early attempt at a superficial Mac-like experience, Luna being the final product and Aero being a successor. Microsoft spent much of 2000-2010 thinking it could hide Windows faults with pleasing skins and overlays. "If it looks like we put as much work into it as Apple's OS, maybe they'll think it's as good as Apple's OS!"
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It is indeed pure appearance. Windows always had (and still has today) a crappy screen render engine and no "skin-ware" available can compensate that. It could be the one reason why Microsoft eventually turned to the "flat look" for a while. Logical choice though: this way there's less to render. :cool:
 
I was the dev lead at Microsoft on the UI Theming feature in Windows XP. The Candy theme was a test that one of the devs threw together to try out some of the mechanisms we were writing to enable theming. I think the graphics may have even come from another 3rd party skinning solution at the time. I don't remember this ever being in builds.

FWIW, the other feature my team worked on for Windows XP was Fast User Switching. When Steve Jobs introduced that feature in MacOS X Panther, he did credit the fact that they were copying that feature from us :)

MacRumors said:


Microsoft tested a Windows XP theme that closely resembled Mac OS X's Aqua GUI, reports The Verge.

twarren_windowsxpsqualeak_xpaquadbuttons_1.jpg


A recent Windows XP source code leak has revealed various unreleased themes that Microsoft developed in 2000, at a time when Microsoft was in heated competition with Apple regarding desktop operating systems.

One of the themes, codenamed "Candy," mirrors the design of Apple's Aqua interface, which was first introduced at the Macworld Conference & Expo in 2000. Aqua was an iconic Apple design and gave a sense of depth through the use of shadow and translucency, metallic textures, and rounded liquid-like assets.

twarren_windowsxpsqualeak.0.jpg


The theme was described as a "Whistler skin with eye candy," with "Whistler" being the codename for Windows XP, and was marked as "for internal use only." Though the theme was never finished, fundamental aspects such as the Windows Start button and various UI elements were a close match for Aqua.

Most striking is the replication of Mac OS X's rounded water-like buttons. Windows developers reportedly used the theme as a placeholder to build the theme engine for Windows XP.

The theme was ultimately rejected in favor of the blue and green Luna theme for the final version of Windows XP released in 2001. The source code leak reveals another instance of the influence of the Mac on Windows behind the scenes.

Article Link: Microsoft Internally Worked on a Mac OS X Aqua Inspired Windows XP Theme
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confusedpurple said:
That theme did ship on some ORM copies. I bought an ex-display model HP PC from PC World (UK) not long after XP service pack 1 came out and it had this theme installed out of the box.

There was also Royale which was made available to download from the MS site around SP2 time.

All embeded copies of XP shipped with Watercolor out of the box too.
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We created those themes so we could test app compatibility while keeping the Luna theme secret until the day it was announced.
 
Must be a slow news day. Come on, if you want to dig into the distant past to find things to ding Microsoft for, you can find much better stuff than this. How about posting a video of Steve Ballmer doing the monkey dance? Or if you journalists want something that isn’t public knowledge, dig around and find out why the entire Microsoft Flight Simulator team was laid off. That’s a fun story.
 
After it is no longer supported, in about 4 years Apple should release the final version of macOS for x86 as a partially open source and free operating system to anyone who wants to install it on a PC. Even though it will be abandonware they will still make money from the service and streaming revenue. As it will be the final version with no meaningful upgrades it can potentially convert more users to the future Arm based Macs.
 
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XP was a huge leap forward for Windows. XP & 7 are still the best versions IMO.
 
CE3 said:
XP was a huge leap forward for Windows. XP & 7 are still the best versions IMO.
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It was beginning with XP that they stopped using DOS-based Windows and switched entirely to NT-based Windows (but with a compatibility layer so that DOS-based programs would still run.) NT was significantly more stable than Windows 1-ME.
 
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duffergeek said:
I was the dev lead at Microsoft on the UI Theming feature in Windows XP. The Candy theme was a test that one of the devs threw together to try out some of the mechanisms we were writing to enable theming. I think the graphics may have even come from another 3rd party skinning solution at the time. I don't remember this ever being in builds.
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Super cool, thanks for popping in and sharing!
 
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maflynn said:
I know seriously, it's not like Apple visited Xerox and copied the idea of the mouse, gui and what not. They would never do that

And then inventing the MP3 player :oops:
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Thanks for posting this. Some people have zero self awareness.
When the Apple car comes out some people will claim it was Karl Golden Delicious and not Karl Benz that had it first.
 
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maflynn said:
I know seriously, it's not like Apple visited Xerox and copied the idea of the mouse, gui and what not. They would never do that
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They paid Xerox for full access to Palo Alto. Also by the time of the visit the Macintosh group already hired engineers that the Palo Alto's research was based on.
 
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beanbaguk said:
I love the fact that nobody recognises or has even researched the fact that Jobs stole much of the UI and interface from Xerox.

Oooops.


Apple is no saint in all this....
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Except this has been debunked. Xerox got paid by Apple for this tech access as Xerox had no use for it. Palo Alto was a money pit for the company until they realized that they couldn't solely rely on photocopiers and it was too late.
 
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