Disable Aero on Windows 7 or Vista
The Windows Aero Glass interface for Windows 7 or Vista requires a decent video card, you won’t be able to use it on an old clunker computer. For those worried about performance, sometimes squeezing every last drop requires disabling Aero.
Disabling Aero on Windows Vista
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:
Disabling Aero for Windows 7
First, you’ll want to right-click on the desktop and choose Personalize from the menu.
Then you can simply scroll the themes down until you see the Basic themes.
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thanks
Will this improve gaming performance?
It could help gaming performance, although I’m not sure how by how much.
this will be put to use in my class.
hi, iv right clicked clicked personalise and i have no Aero anyware? Please Help LOOKS AMAZING and i want it! haha cheers Aaron
Hi,after I doing that tips I Can’t Find my Aero Anywhere
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.
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!
Is their any registry edit to disable AERO in windows vista …… if it’s there pls post here…thanx for this tip…
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?
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.
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
If you run a game in Windowed mode, turning off aero WILL help.
thank you for tweak!
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.
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 …
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.
Thanks! I’m glad that I got that turned off. But now everything is light blue. >
well
CS Source and Half life 2 ran faster when i disabled this
I got to say it sirieusly works if you play World of warcraft in windowmode i got a compaq notebook , 945GM 256 mbshared (not altough greath) anyway it improves the gameplay . thx greetz jean paul
I disabled Aero because the ALT-TAB sucks !… It’s harder to read than the old with useless previews that don’t really show or say anything …. It had me relying on the TEXT display at the top. The small highlighting around the thumbnails sucked too
So, I had been having issues with my computer during gameplay, WoW and CoH primarily. I’ve got a slightly older machine; about a year and a half old now, but it was loaded with Vista when I bought it (pity me the fool, I should have back-ordered a notebook with XP.) I have a Toshiba Satellite, don’t ask me all the stats, I don’t know, but I have the Intel 945 Express Chipset, and I was having continual errors while playing full-screen games to the order of, “Toshiba Flash Cards (Not Responding.)” Anyway, I asked some friends and read this forum thread, and disabled Aero as well as my Superfetch RAM predicting program (useless!) and everything runs smoothly now. And since I’m not absurdly vain like those Mac users, I don’t mind a less-smooth and sparkly desktop and menus.
Thanks for the help!
Hi, when im using my computer in like 30 min and then it freeze. but i can still move the mouse around, but it got like 1 min delay for the movement. do you think it will help to do that for my case?
if this occured only lately i think you are infected with something … if this ws happening from the begining i should say you give it a go and see what happens… you will not lose anything by trying.. you can always restore it to your previous settings if you see that its not helpful at all
good luck my friend…
the socalled previews are to know whether there is anything there (ie; loaded webpage, etc)…not to really use them litterly.
In my case, I wouldnt even consider vista on anything but a high end pc..
I recently bought 3 new pc’s only one will be vista .
Hello i wil ask anything..
how did i have Windows Aero? I dont have ,
My computer have Windows Vista Ultimate but help me!
Anyone know how to enable windows vista?
This is for those who claim using the more graphically intense Aero will slow your PC down, IF you have a high end video card with at leat 256M of VRAM, when you run Aero it does not use CPU to draw your windows and desktop, instead it will use the GPU on your video card (if you have 8800 or better, you GPU is faster than your CPU) so you actually get MORE free CPU cycles than you would with Aero turned off. When you start a fullscreen DirectX application, windows unloads the desktop and frees up the GPU for your application. So if you want your PC to run FASTER with Vista, and you have a good video card, you want to leave Aero running… if you have an older video card, or just a lower end one, you want to turn it off… hope that helps a little… To Rovex Lover: this comment is actually more pointed at your need to insult people when you have no idea what your actually talking about. I have a G280 video card and I have 0% cpu usage sitting at desktop and about 2% when I’m using flip 3d with aero enabled, turn it off and I use about 10% just to open a window.
While it has never messed up my CPU, it has been eating up my RAM. I was getting up to 90% RAM usage using it. I terminated the biggest process, and that turned out to be Aero. It’s dropped to 60% now.
This might be because I’m using it on a laptop. Either way, I’m disabling it now.
my comp shows in the task manager that dissabling the aero ives it like 100mb free or more of ram. i have a compaq presario with intel pentium dual core processor and 3gb of ddr2 ram.my graphics card has 1300 or more mb of video memory. yeah it seems to run little better but i dont see what it did.can someone please tell me or show me what it did?
Replying to the question above. Yes, it DOES Improve gaming performance. It also seems to have made my computer run much quicker.:]
ya it will help your gaming performance to disable it. i’ve done benchmarks on some newer pc games with it on and with it off. Games like FEAR, Kane & Lynch, and some newer games like fallout3 and farcry2. I found i got about an extra 32-64mb cleared on my graphics card ram and about 100-175mb off actual ram when its disabled and getting alittle better fps by 5 or so. some think it doesnt matter to diable it but it does! even with my en8800gt the dam aero eats alot up! needed room for the higher end games we all are playing nowadays!!
This is for those that say that it uses less memory with it turned off, yes it does, and when you launch a game, IT TURNS OFF! lol you can’t alt tab out and check mem usage, because you just loaded your desktop again. I run benchmarks FOR A LIVING! I have a G280 in the gaming rig, and when I run Aero it uses up as much Vram as it can to speed up the desktop, and when I go into a fullscreen directx game, it unloads Aero from memory and gives it back to the game. This is why there is a pause going to desktop when you have aero on and come out of a game.
Turning off Aero gave a HUGE performance boost for me playing WoW in windowed mode. The FPS only went up by 5-10, but the actual performance increase was much more than that.
When i try playing games it says windows aero is not working, i changed to windows classic to stop it interfering but now it come sup even when aero is turned off… any ideas?
The guy that came up with disabling Aero, bru, I’m gonna buy you a beer!!!!!!!!!!!
Disabling Aero improved my gaming performance dramatically on my laptop. If a gamer runs in windowed mode, then the aero scheme is still running in the background hogging precious resources. Thanks for the guide!
If you suffer from migraines from visual triggers (lights, flashes etc.) you should definitely disable Aero. It includes the zooming visual effects. Your brain starts reading the words before the window has finished moving which is a serious migraine trigger for many people.
bla!! never got the hype over it.. how to get rid of it completely? it never interested me. i have all my visuuals adn themes turned off anyway. dont even pay attention to that stuff ..*shurgs*
I turned aero off and went to vista basic theme and noticed a huge speed improvement on my laptop
LOL, people getting 3.0 on there average computer score in windows. THATS WHY, disabling aero on that will help. But with me, my average is 5.9, and i have dual gtx 280 and a quad core and 6gb of DDR3 ram so it really wont do anything for me.
Aero is such a hog on lower end gfx cards, but shouldn’t pose a problem if the video card is GTX275-ish / ATI HD4870×2-ish. I have HD 4350 in my system, which is woefully inadequate to suffice a full-fledged Aero theme with flip3D, let alone running Quake Wars in windowed mode. I personally feel that I don’t miss Aero when I’m using Windows Classic in Vista; it’s stylish enough for me. I toggle off Aero when I intend to run games or other gfx intensive apps.
ive never been a dedicated follower of fashion- yeah it looks slick, for a minute, and then i get sick of trying to figure out what im trying to see behind the window im in. There are significant improvements to be gained in ANY AGE COMPUTER by disabling aero. I work with computers 12 hours a day, and the only thing i see aero being any good for is your optometrist will think its wonderful in about 3 years of higher than normal useage.
ms should spend more time wiser on less frills and more performance, each one of those areo themes carries its own sounds, its own graphics, not to mention all the stuff it takes to run it. frankly id rather have the crap off my hard drive- just that much less crap to index and run thats unneccesary.
truth be known, about 60% of what comes in windows is unneccesary- if i want something, ill choose my own app.
@ Like ubr, whats the matter with you?
WARNING: IF you select High Contrast Black (in Vista), it also changes your print settings. There is still no fix for this. Try printing some simple text in wordpad. It is a nightmare. Win95, Win 98 and XP do not have this conflict.
for the people that think turnin off aero don’t do anything your a retard ha,
also no one really cares about your pc specs like really?
And windows rating sucks dick u can have a quad core 1tb HDD with highest transer rate and a quad core video card. With 1 gig of ram and get a ratin of 3.0 cause it just goes off the lowest rating doesn’t average out.
Running games with Aero on in the background actually slows down the performance. If you run fullscreen games you can actually see Windows switching off Aero before going full screen. You can try alt-tab’ing and see it get turned back on
For people that for example play WoW in a Window you can see for yourself that it slows performance. in the WoW directory, right mouse click on wow.exe, turn off desktop composition in compatibility and try wow in windowed mode. See the performance, now turn it back on and run it in a window. Notice the performance decrease?
Running a Windowed game with Aero on slows down perfomance. Full-screen games should/will auto turn off Aero theme when going full screen and turning it back on when exiting it.
I only disabled it because it’s really annoying.