Stardock has unveiled its first beta of WindowBlinds 5 and with it, glass effects for Windows XP users.
At Microsoft's recent Professional Developer's Conference, the new Windows Vista UI was officially unveiled. Code-named Aero, the new user experience boast a new "glass" user interface in which the title bars and borders are semi-transparent.
The effect on Windows Vista is possible thanks to Microsoft's new advanced 3D desktop compositer which allows the desktop to liverage the latest 3D hardware. It was believed by many (including many at Stardock) that such effects could not be done on Windows XP with any kind of adequate performance.
Stardock claims that beta 1 of WindowBlinds 5 achieves performance on the same level as the current beta of Windows Vista in terms of delivering glass effects. WindowBlinds 5 also is able to do deliver glass effects on relatively low-end hardware (though it still requires a video card with at least 32MB of video memory).
Stardock is careful to say that WindowBlinds 5 on Windows XP can only give a "slight taste" of the "cool" things that will be able to be done on Windows Vista.
News source:
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