Thank you Neil...every little bit helps.I skin Vista but I cant use it...just too much not under my control.

I'm liking Win7 a lot but if it isnt any easier to control I wont use it either...If my only choice is Aero and tons of white or classic...I'll choose classic...my eyes are more important than the gui.

No modern professional program interface uses white anymore...not adobe,not C4D,not Zbrush,not Maya...and they all tend to give you interface choices.

But not mighty MS...blind them with BS (and white!)MS.

At least let me choose...if some people think they need pure white,fine...but let me choose.

Pure white should be reserved for accent...movies,graphics...like when a light is shined directly at you or car headlights turn your way.

If the damn screen is already pure white you have no where left to go but down.

Read a book...is that paper pure white?...of course not.

I agree--too much white can be a strain on the eyes.

real helpful John...especially when you know how much this means to me...just because you dont care dont come frack with my post.

morons

sorry, juust coulnt help it...

Hands thread back over to the serious folks*

sorry I went off topic IR    I didn't mean to give the thread a bum steer....

Just a little 'light' humor buddy , I'd like it fixed as badly as u do U know that.

Reading all the 'edits' is 'entertaining'...

But the good oil is that Neil thinks things may improve with WB7 ....and he ought to know...

I have faith in Neil...

I have ultimate faith in... IR.

haha,at least ya'll were kind enough to edit...

I loaded a dark skin in 7 and the details pane had the window color text!Thats not exactly control but its way better than unchangeable black.The window background was still white and black but I bet thats just a beta thing for now.

I'm not complaining about 7 on 7 Neil...(I've knocked his progress on certain details enough in the past) it would be unfair to criticise the state of beta soft on beta OS...just making notes and comparing to  Vista.

I am trying to be helpful,I just get cranky sometimes...must be the eye strain,wink wink.

When I work in Win 7 I actually have windows open as small as practicle to avoid the white.This,with a monitor brightness of 50% and 4 bulbs burning in a small room...one shining on the wall behind the monitor to keep the monitor from being the dominant light source in my field of vision.

A graphic artist dosnt really have the luxury of turning the brightness down even further...ideally he needs full white and absolute black to see how his work really looks.I need the OS not to overpower what I'm trying to see.Its like trying to make out a face with a flashlight shined in your eyes.

This isnt the bad old days of crt's with washed out contrast...todays LCD's are very bright and high contrast...even the cheap ones like mine.

funnily enough....it was being particularly glare sensitive that started me on the road to customising....in 1995...

working in Word....on 180 page reports...reading off templates....with a white background on the puter...and bright fluoro lights above sending off a reflection from the white paper templates....I suffered headaches and eyestrain...when I figured out I could change classic around...had a lovely soft pale sage green background in Word....and was an instant improvement...then had to change everything else in it that I could as well...lol....and took the settings with me to apply wherever I went to work....

I also had maintenance change the fluoro lights wherever I went...from those bright 'cool white' ones...to the 'warm white', giving off a softer peachier glow....and inevitably...the whole office would see the dif and change....and people's headaches started disappearing...

with the huge accent these days on OH&S and having your computer environment as friendly as possible....it's strange this important point hasn't got through to them.....bright white...ain't friendly...anywhere on a puter screen...not even with the old crt's...

from 'hey,I can change the wallpaper' to 'hey,I can change windows colors' to 'hey,what have I done to myself!'