Windows 8 to restrict desktop customisation?

One of the very few choices we have left in this world is the ability to put a picture of family, friends or favourite frags on our desktop backgrounds, but even that facsimile of free will is being withdrawn. According to an interview over at our sister site TechRadar , customisation of Windows 8's new Metro interface will be limited to decisions about the solid colour background.

Thanks to iOS, though, desktop customisation is going out of fashion fast and it's not surprising that Metro introduces more limits. Even Linux is becoming more proscriptive by the day. Still, there's hope yet. I don't think I'm not alone as being able to say that early Windows' backgrounds enhanced my vocabulary, as simple as they were. I'm not sure I knew what 'teal' was until offered it as a choice of shade, and if I remember rightly I could spot a houndstooth background pattern long before I understood its sartorial significance. I certainly owe 'cyan' to the keyboard of a ZX Spectrum.