Way back in April, my Windows 8 Secrets coauthor, Rafael Rivera, and I revealed that Windows 8 would include a new Aero auto-colorization feature in the Windows Explorer Personalization control panel. This feature automatically configures the color of Aero glass elements--like Windows Explorer windows and the taskbar--based on the desktop wallpaper.
In the Windows 8 Developer Preview build, which is the so-called M3 (or "Milestone 3") release, that feature looks and works just like it did back in the M1 and M2 builds Rafael and I examined several months ago. So no huge surprises here, though of course this functionality will still be new to many people. And when you consider other changes to Explorer--the new ribbon-based UI, the new Task Manager, the new file copy experience, and so on--it's pretty clear that Microsoft is still investing in the Windows desktop even though it's highly likely that this user experience is slated for extermination in Windows 9 or 10.
Here's what it looks like.
