Article By:  Miguel

Review Date:  10/12/06

  The Aero style on Windows VISTA is one of the most appealing features that many tend to be lured into.  Windows Aero is a feature that basically provides you with additional visual enhancements that not can help you be more productive, but significantly enhances the appearance and functionality of VISTA.  However, many do not know that in order to take advantage of these features, your hardware may need to meet certain requirements.  Plenty has changed in each and every release of VISTA, and is the reason for this new Tech Tip at ExtremeMHz. 

Changes in Betas & RC releases

After extensive evaluation of each and every release, I can say that Microsoft has made many changes in regards to its features and how to enable them.  Those who have installed beta releases and even the RC1 release, have noticed that you can easily enable the Aero style via the Display Properties.  However, note that plenty has changed in the RC2, the final public release before the retail version hits the shelves. 

Many who have installed the RC2 release have found that they cannot enable Aero or take advantage of its Flip 3D feature.  The reason is simply due to the hardware itself!  Unlike all previous releases, RC2 as well as the retail version of VISTA, will require at least 1GB of memory in order to enable Aero without any hacks.  So yes, hardware requirements will indeed be a bit more demanding for the best experience.

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Aero is enabled in the Appearance Settings menu on RC2.  Access to this menu has change quite a bit, and it is not as easy to get to as previous builds.  You can gain access to it from your Display Settings.  The interesting part here is that those with 512MB of memory or less will only see the "Windows Vista Basic" option here.  Add 1GB of memory, and you'll see the Aero option.  You must enable Aero in order to enable Flip 3D.

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When accessing your Display Settings, you may or may not see the Transparency Options Menu as well.  Let me give you an example...

If you initially install VISTA RC2 with 512MB of memory, you will never see this window.  It will take you straight to the Appearance Settings, allowing only the Basic scheme.  If you install 1GB of memory, you'll have both options.  However, what's interesting is that if you boot once with 1GB, then shutdown and boot with 512MB of memory, both options will be available. 

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So this odd finding quickly led me to think that perhaps there is a registry setting that is responsible for this.  To my surprise, this was partially the case.  What does this mean?  Well, you can actually "hack" the registry to enable Aero and Flip 3D...

Open your registry and browse to the following:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM\Composition

Set this to 1.

The browse to

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM\CompositionPolicy

Set this to 2.

Unless you reboot, you'll have to take one more step and restart DWM by opening the command prompt and type the following:

'net stop uxsms'
'net start uxsms'

There you have it!  Easy but a real pain to figure out, considering I was coming from VISTA RC1.  This should help many having trouble enabling these features in what is the final release till it hits stores in January!  Enjoy!

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