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OS-tiered UI: Classic, Aero and Fluent with Mica and dark mode - #5

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FacuM wants to merge 14 commits into
wip/m3-acceptancefrom
feat/ui-modern-tiers
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FacuM wants to merge 14 commits into
wip/m3-acceptancefrom
feat/ui-modern-tiers

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@FacuM FacuM commented Oct 31, 2026 •

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Implements docs/design/06-ui-tiers.md as accepted in D47 (option B). Stacked on #4 (wip/m3-acceptance); retarget to main after #4 merges.

What changes

One binary per flavour picks the look at run time (ui_theme_model.c, pure and unit tested; ui_theme.c resolves every post-XP function by name, the dark-mode helpers by ordinal from build 17763 only):

  • Classic (XP, High Contrast, [ui] style = classic): today's window.
  • Aero (Vista/7): toolbar on an extended glass band with composited glow text, normal frame when composition is off.
  • Fluent (8–11): owner-drawn command bar with an accent "New" button and a "···" overflow instead of the menu bar (Alt/F10), list on a layer card, status strip; Mica band on 11 22H2+; full dark mode on 11 and on 10 from 1809 (allow-list plus [ui] dark_helpers and policy UiDarkHelpers as kill switch).
  • Windows 11 tray flyout (Acrylic, one check box per profile to mount/unmount, Open ShellDrive, Settings); right click keeps the menu.
  • Aero wizard (PSH_AEROWIZARD) on Vista+.
  • Trust prompts: main instruction, icon, command links with notes; still no default button (TM-R03).
  • Other messages through ui_win_task (task dialog with the error code in the details on Vista+, MessageBoxW on XP).
  • Secondary windows, editor and wizard themed via ui_theme_apply_dialog, refreshed live on theme changes.
  • Settings "Appearance" (Match Windows / Classic) and the dark-helpers switch; policies UiStyle and UiDarkHelpers in the ADMX templates. All new strings in en, es, fr, pt-BR, it, de.
  • 03 §7.1, §7.4 and §11 amended accordingly.
  • New project README.md with screenshots of each tier (docs/images/ui/).

Verification

  • tools/ci-local.ps1: all five presets pass (x64-modern, x64-xp, x86-ia32, x86-sse2, x64-analysis); dokany.mount skipped under WOW64 on x86 as usual.
  • New tests: theme selection and palette contrast, task-dialog mapping, settings keys and policy; smoke modes run per tier (--theme=<tier>[-dark|-light] with --test-window, --test-prompts, --test-editor, --test-windows, --test-wizard, --test-flyout).
  • Screenshots (--test-shot): Windows 11 host (Fluent dark and light, Classic), Windows 10 LTSC 2021 VM (light, dark, Classic) and Windows 7 SP1 x64 VM (automatic, forced Aero, Classic), all in the README. They found two bugs, fixed here: list group titles centered over their rows (now drawn in the header band from LVM_GETGROUPRECT) and the light selection highlight in the dark list on Windows 10 (now UI_TOK_SELECTION). XP and Win11 VMs are not installed in the lab.

Known gaps

  • Aero glass seen only as geometry on the 11 host; the Win7 VM has no composition (Windows 7 Basic), so glass needs Win7 on hardware or RDP 7.
  • Wizard97 header band stays white on dark; the flyout lists at most 12 profiles.

FacuM added 14 commits October 31, 2026 01:46
Survey of the current UI, run-time tiers (Classic on XP, Aero on Vista/7,
Fluent 2a-2c on 8-11 with dark client areas and Mica), the theme model and
its inputs, screens per tier, accessibility and localization impact, the
test and lab plan, spikes, a first vertical slice and options A-D for the
user to choose from. Linked from the design index and 03 section 7.
…, D47)

ui_theme_model.c (pure) selects Classic, Aero or Fluent a/b/c from the OS
version, DWM composition, High Contrast, visual styles, the remote session,
the app theme and the settings, and builds the token palette with WCAG
contrast checks. ui_theme.c gathers the inputs, resolves dwmapi and uxtheme
by name and the undocumented dark-mode helpers by ordinal (from build 17763
only, behind the allow-list and the kill switch), and applies the title bar,
backdrop and corner attributes. --theme=<tier>[-dark] forces a tier in the
test modes; --test-window reports the selection. No visible change yet.
….1, §6.3, §6.5)

Fluent tier: owner-drawn command bar with the accent New button and the
"..." overflow menu that replaces the menu bar (Alt and F10 open it), the
frame extended into the band with Mica on 22621+ (buffered paint and
composited text, surface-colored band otherwise), the list on a layer card
with a custom-drawn header, and a status strip that starts the agent.
Windows 11 left click on the tray icon opens a flyout with Acrylic, one
check box per profile that mounts or unmounts it, Open ShellDrive and
Settings; right click keeps the menu. The wizard uses PSH_AEROWIZARD on
Vista and later. New test modes: --test-shot=<bmp> and --test-flyout.
Classic and Aero windows are unchanged.
…§5.3)

Aero tier: the toolbar sits on an extended glass band with composited glow
text and drops back to the normal frame when composition is off. Fluent
list: no column lines through the empty area, readable dark group headers,
accent hover and pressed shades. Settings gains "Appearance" (Match
Windows / Classic) and the dark-mode helpers switch, stored as [ui] style
and [ui] dark_helpers, with the UiStyle and UiDarkHelpers policies in the
ADMX templates and every string in the six languages. The overflow button
is named "More options", the flyout rows use a placeholder message, and
--theme accepts a -light suffix for the test modes.
Trust prompts (host key, changed key, legacy algorithms, token-only WebDAV,
credentials) get a main instruction in the theme font, a warning or
question icon, and command links with notes on Vista and later; they keep
no default button. Non-trust messages go through ui_win_task: a task
dialog with the error code in the expandable details on Vista and later,
MessageBoxW on XP. The host key manager, Logs, Events, Settings, Service,
About, import, the profile editor and the wizard are themed through
ui_theme_apply_dialog (dark palette, dark lists and headers, themed sheet
frames and tabs) and refresh live; ui_theme_font provides the header and
section fonts. New notes and split confirmations are in the six languages.
The contrast model uses a linear-value table instead of pow, ui_win_error
searches without the CRT wcsstr (both dispatch to unreviewed SSE code in the
x86 CRT), the flyout and the screenshot mode use sd_tick_ms, and the flyout
positions the window it just created.
NMLVCUSTOMDRAW.nmcd.rc of an LVCDI_GROUP item spans the header and the rows of
the group, so the title was centered over the rows. Take the header rectangle
from LVM_GETGROUPRECT (LVGGR_HEADER).
…color

On Windows 10 the DarkMode_Explorer list paints the selected row with the
classic light highlight behind the text. The list custom draw now fills the
selected row with UI_TOK_SELECTION and draws it as not selected.
The README covers the features, the OS-tiered interface with screenshots from
Windows 11 (host), Windows 10 and Windows 7 (lab VMs), the CLI, the supported
systems, building and the documentation map. 06 10.2 records the lab
screenshot results; the design index marks 06 as accepted (D47).
FacuM added a commit that referenced this pull request Nov 1, 2026
OS-tiered UI: Classic, Aero and Fluent with Mica and dark mode
@FacuM

FacuM commented Nov 1, 2026

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Merged into main in e554c06 together with #2, #3 and #4 (local gate green on all five presets). GitHub could not retarget this PR from wip/m3-acceptance to main because main already contains every commit.

@FacuM FacuM closed this Nov 1, 2026
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