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Disable Aero on Windows Vista

The Windows Vista Aero glass interface will only work if you have a high-powered video card. For the select few of you that do, you can also disable it so you can act like you don't really care about cool stuff. (But you do)

You might also have some performance reasons for disabling it… to do so, just right-click on the desktop and choose Personalize. Click the "Window Color and Appearance" link:

Then in the next screen, click the link near the bottom for "Open classic appearance properties for more color options"

Now you should be able to disable Aero altogether by choosing Windows Vista Basic in this screen:

The Geek is the founder of How-To Geek and a geek enthusiast. When he's not coming up with great how-to articles, he's probably writing at his personal blog. This article was written on 01/7/07 and tagged with: Windows Vista, Windows Aero Glass

Comments (17)

  1. anonymous

    thanks

  2. Wascaras

    Will this improve gaming performance?

  3. The Geek

    It could help gaming performance, although I'm not sure how by how much.

  4. BrightBoy

    this will be put to use in my class.

  5. Aaron

    hi, iv right clicked clicked personalise and i have no Aero anyware? Please Help LOOKS AMAZING and i want it! haha cheers Aaron

  6. VeNoM

    Hi,after I doing that tips I Can't Find my Aero Anywhere

  7. rovex

    Aero is accelerated and on just about any proper DX9 level card (or higher) its faster and uses less CPU time than the old GDI type interface on XP. Disabling it doesnt improve performance at all, it anything it makes it worse. Gaming is unaffected by Aero.
    There really is NO reason to remove it other than the simple fact that you might think its unattractive, which few do.

  8. Ali

    Hi, I am using a Windows Vista Compaq Notebook and have somehow managed to anable a feature that means when I have multiple windows open and I hover over the window behind the one I am viewing my Notebook automatically brings the window behind to the front which is very irritating. Please help me fix it!

  9. sat

    Is their any registry edit to disable AERO in windows vista …… if it's there pls post here…thanx for this tip…

  10. ThomasG

    I was browsing your list, there is no explanation what Windows Vista Aero provides or eliminates
    when dis-abling it.
    I like to know what features you lose in dis-abling it?

  11. Jill Smith

    Will disabling it help my vista pc from crashing on every start up, am now just putting it to sleep to avoid the long wait for start up to go through and the crashing, its longer than dial up was. Have been told even after l have downloaded every vista update but it still does it to download from the manafactures site but haven't a clur which one l need.

  12. SSJTrunks

    yea i was reading about aero and it needs 1gb ram where xp could run off 512mb perfectly! So, i would only assume if ur a gamer that disabling aero effects and going to a xp style would improve games if not leave more room in your ram for higher end games without needing ram cleaners

  13. Dota aka

    If you run a game in Windowed mode, turning off aero WILL help.

  14. Khiem

    thank you for tweak!

  15. rovex lover

    rovex, is this your first PC? you think that a complex graphics routine that uses shaders and complex shadowing is going to run faster with it ON than off? truly sir, you have no idea what you are talking about, I recomend going out and selling your PC and buying a nice console where you're much less likely to get confused.

  16. fibbyts

    I dont know about Desktops but on Laptops that Share Memory from their Ram on Video Cards Aero does make a lot of difference.

    I dont know about you guys but since the moment i disable Aero from my laptops Vista my games run faster with MORE i repeat with MORE GRAPHICS enable… i even play Crysis now on Medium graphics faster than before… and the reason is because the main ram is shared for the 3d card to run better… by disabling Aero gives more free ram for the system to run better.

    Intel Core2Duo T7300 at 2Gh
    2Gb Ram , 250Gb Sata HDD , Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT 256mb + 734mb shared from ram
    Vista Premium

    (With Aero enabled i cannot play games with 4x Antialising enabled… disabling aero seems to fixed the problem) i hope that this will help …

  17. WinAeroEnabler

    You can rate your computer by going to the control panel, then system and then click rate this computer. My average rating is 3.0.


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