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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.
**click to enlarge**
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.
**click to enlarge**
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.
**click to enlarge**
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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