Aero

エアロ / 2006–2012 / Style / Microsoft UI

The translucent glass UI of Vista and 7: frosted window frames, live thumbnails and GPU-composited depth making 'through glass' the OS's standard vocabulary.

Aero — AI-generated interpretation 1
AI-generated interpretation, not a reference work
Aero — PuTTY rendered with Aero compositing on Windows Vista 2009 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 · © Lanman132
PuTTY rendered with Aero compositing on Windows Vista 2009 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · © Lanman132
Aero — Windows 7 Aero glass dialog (Windows Remote Assistance), photographed 2021 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Graña 'n' Montero
Windows 7 Aero glass dialog (Windows Remote Assistance), photographed 2021 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Graña 'n' Montero

At a glance

Visual cues

  • Frosted frames
  • Reflections and highlights
  • Live thumbnails
  • GPU-composited depth

Best used for

  • Work screens stacking many windows where the layer beneath must stay visible
  • Control panels for photo or video apps floated above the content itself

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Dictionary entry

Type
Small light labels on the frame, dark enough to survive translucency
Composition
Glass only on the frame, content areas kept fully opaque
Material
Heavily blurred backdrop, a thin top highlight, a faint tint
Caution
Spreading translucency and gloss across the whole screen makes legibility shift with whatever moves behind the text, and hides what is clickable.
Further study
Windows Vista, 2006 / the Aero Glass guidelines / the return in glassmorphism

Related entries

Often confused with

More from Microsoft UI

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Cite this entry

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Link
https://indexstyle.org/styles/aero
Markdown
[Aero — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/aero)
HTML
<a href="https://indexstyle.org/styles/aero">Aero — IndexStyle</a>

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