I have a number of utilities that were written in ancient times and look very dated. So I recently intended to get them to use Windows themes and wanted to turn on some Aero Glass effects.
The fact is that I'm not quite sure what it is. IE7 and now Firefox 4 are putting the top of the window, including the toolbar, but that doesn't really apply to my case. I saw a lot of applications that simply increase the glass border around, but that just makes the unglazed content seem cramped. Which is often handled simply by adding acres of open space to the screen.
How can I incorporate Aero effects into my screen design? Or decide whether to use it at all? Any good design links that relate to this, or possibly nuggets of wisdom?
Update:
To clarify this, this is not our main application, but a series of utility screens that do this or that. Not too complicated, just one form with several controls and possibly lists. The strip of buttons below. As a rule, it seems now standard to use Aero over the menu and toolbar, but in applications without a toolbar, it seems that there is no standard use that I could find.
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