Vista Screenshots at Various Quality Levels

Windows Vista, arriving in January, has plenty of headaches attached to it. But one of the most frustrating is the fact that, depending on the quality (or existence) of your graphics card, your user interface will look better or worse.

Thankfully, the good soul over at istartedsomething.com has posted high-res screen shots of Vista under its four most common operating modes: Aero (the fanciest of the bunch), Vista Standard (a decent version without the 3D or translucency effects), Vista Basic (the lowest-end Vista design), and Windows Classic (a mode which approximates the look of Windows 2000/98). For various tasks and applications you can see high-res shots of what Vista looks like under each of the four motifs.

And here's the good news: The Vista Standard and Basic screens don't look half bad. Even without Aero's fancy-pants see-through effects, the Vista UI comes across pretty well and doesn't really look stripped-down at all. That's a boon for users with older machines or those with low-end graphics cards or no graphics card at all.

But don't take my word for it. Zip over the above link and open a few of the images side by side so you can see for yourself.