It looks better than XP-a lot better. Transparency is good. The window-control buttons in the upper right look better and less intrusive (XP looks like Fisher-Price had a hand in the display design!). It's overall more subtle, more mature looking...gosh! It's looks a little like a Mac screen! (Not much, mind you, but a little...)
The control panel seems more organized, which is a good thing. I like the way things are categorized, though there are some redundant n’ silly options [in CP] which are typical for M$. With respect to the appearance, then I think its not very different from XP, I mean, one could use a skin to give such a look. On the other hand, I like the new icons for the virtual folders … looks professional. But I wonder how the screen would look when there are plenty of folders …
who cares how it looks like.. first thing i do is revert to classic mode no frills display anyway as it's just a resource hog.. just tell me it'll be more stable and faster.. much much faster and not run all those bloody services on it's own when i don't need them.. takes me like an hour or two configuring a new machine i use killing the damn services.. hacking registry and such..
oh and.. a registry editor that u could actually work with would be nice too..