Ian (et al), I have also taken a lot of steps recently to restore old colours and behaviour to recent Microsoft product releases. I don't normally do that. We all expect complaints when new versions of products are released, but in my experience the noise quickly drops away and people just accept the changes and run with them. However, the amount of stubborn resistance recently has been quite startling. Why is this happening?
Microsoft is dragging us all along with it on some sort of global style change where there is less chrome, fewer borders, less saturated colour, fewer lines, etc. Now I can honestly understand this because the eye and brain work better with less clutter, but it all seems to have gone too far (remember the first preview of Visual Studio 2012 that looked like a charcoal etching?). Is there some department or research within Microsoft that is driving this trend? Do they explain their reasoning? Where did they recruit the drugged gibbons they put through the usability testing? And then there's Windows 8 ... Greg
