135 - Windows7 Netbook Visual Styles

135 - A Newbie (Noob) tries Visual Styles on a Windows 7 Starter netbook
==== written Oct.15.2011 by JCPMA©
On a Windows 7 Starter netbook, some of the desktop themes are Windows Classic (no frills), and a more fashionable Windows 7 Visual Styles.  With this flavor of Windows, you cannot add a customized wallpaper.  There probably are un-official and non-sanctioned ways to do this through using software or other hacks.  (You could probably find several methods on the internet if you searched.)
The familiar Windows Classic theme has the monotone blue wallpaper and simple but hardy appearing icons.  If you adjust your netbook to favor "Performance", than this theme is the one Windows will choose for you.  The looks are plain but this will speed up your computer.

The Visual Styles desktop theme has a blue brightness-gradient wallpaper with a small amount of a Sunburst and image of a plant sprig on the lower left side.  The taskbar buttons have rounded corners and the concept of graded color/brightness continues with the buttons as well as the taskbar.  (I believe Microsoft has inactivated the transparency features in Windows 7 Starter because otherwise it  would require more computing power.  Netbooks have weaker processing chips compared to Laptops or Desktop PCs.)

To try either theme go into the Performance section setting by doing this:
go into ControlPanel > System and Security > System > on the left side click on "Advanced System Settings" > under the "Advanced Tab" one-third of the way down is the "Performance" section. > hit the "Settings" button there and this will take you to the "Visual Effects" tab. 
To activate the Classic theme, uncheck the box "Use visual styles on windows and buttons".
Conversely, to activate the Visual Styles theme, check the box "Use visual styles on windows and buttons".

As shown in the picture, the problem with the Visual Styles theme is the wallpaper.  The brightness/brightness-gradient cannot be changed or reduced.  The wallpaper, as mentioned above, cannot be altered.  This theme causes some of your icons/folders labels to be difficult to read.  It seems like Microsoft put alot of effort into making a "pretty" desktop and realized after the fact that a brightness graded background makes icon labels harder to read.  That is where this next checkbox comes in.  Checking the box "Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop" will provide the much needed contrast.  (Doing so, I speculate, will also require a small increase in computing power consumption.)  I discovered, by trial-and-error, this same checkbox will have no effect on the Windows Classic theme.  It only provides drop shadows in the Visual Styles theme. 

Is the Visual Styles theme worth having?  Probably not for a netbook.  I like the rounded buttons, but the color-graded wallpaper is irritating.  That sunburst effect is irritating.  Also, I want to divert all the computing power available toward computer work and toward getting on the internet to communicate with my friends.  Fancy looks?  Save that for a powerful Desktop PC.  (I am starting to sound like Andy Rooney.)

==
On a previous post, I wrote about changing the background color of the netbook's desktop.