Aside from the taskbar, the new theme uses fewer transparency effects than the previous Glass theme. This was done to reduce the amount of skeuomorphism in the UI. The Aero Glass theme is replaced by a new theme with a flatter visual appearance in line with the Metro design language.This can also be seen with IE9 on earlier builds of Windows 8, and all later IE versions after 8 on Windows Vista and 7. Internet Explorer no longer shares the same navigation buttons as File Explorer.Windows 2000, NT 4.0, Server 20 compatibility modes were removed.Windows Desktop Gadgets, first introduced in Windows Vista, are removed because of security vulnerabilities.Windows 8.1 restores this feature partially although unified search still does not search keywords or metadata like scoped search. The default category is Apps, but can be changed before or after performing a search. It can search ' Apps', ' Settings', ' Files' or within an app-specific index (such as, for example, e-mails from the Mail app) but not all at once. A category-specific search replaces the former. Windows 8.1 no longer automatically adds newly installed programs to Start screen.'Recent documents' menu is removed from Start screen.Replacement methods for invoking Start screen include a hotspot in the lower left corner of the screen, where the Start screen tile pops up, and a Start button among ' the charms'. Start button was removed from the taskbar (although it was re-added in Windows 8.1).

Windows default apps