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In February, we first reported on the efforts of a programmer known as "bigmuscle" who announced on the MSFN message boards that he had developed the first version of a program he called Aero Glass for Win8. As the name implies, the program is designed to put back the aero glass transparent look to the desktop of Windows 8. Microsoft chose to remove the popular desktop option after first introducing it in Windows Vista and including it in Windows 7.
It"s been several months since "bigmuscle" released his first version of the program but a few days ago, he launched the 1.0 version of Aero Glass for Win8. The program works by integrating with the Desktop Window Manager in Windows 8. The site states:
All rendering is done via native Direct3D device. Any colorization settings adjusted in Windows Control Panels are respected. Use color intensity slider to adjust the amount of the transparency. No custom skinning engine used.
Aero Glass for Win8 is supposed to work while using as little system resources as possible. It can also let users change their window borders without changing their Windows theme, including using effects such as "window shadow, caption glow effect, rounded borders or simply change the appearance of caption buttons."
While Aero Glass for Win8 is free to download, the program does ask for a donation every time it is used. Sending a donation cuts out the request screen and also lets users gain access to upcoming beta versions of the software. At the moment, the program does not support the preview version of Windows 8.1 but there is a beta version that is being tested by invited users only.
Thanks to Neowin forum member Arceles for the tip!
Source: Aero Glass for Win8 | Image via Arceles