My Vista Aero Glass Turned Itself Off, How Do I Enable it Again?
A reader wrote in yesterday asking why she no longer had the “pretty” glass windows, and how to get them back. It occurred to me that there might be other people with the same issue, so I’m writing up the (fairly simple) instructions for others that might have the same question.
Why Does Aero Turn Off?
If your desktop has suddenly flashed and then reverted to Vista Basic, it’s probably because of one of these reasons:
- You are running an application that isn’t compatible with Aero, or the compatibility options are set to disable Aero for an application.
- You’ve opened too many programs and run your computer out of memory.
- You’ve changed the “Performance Options” to “Adjust for best performance” under the Advanced system properties, which disabled desktop composition.
- You’ve disabled the Desktop Window Manager service.
- Your video card can’t handle the resolution.
When Windows Vista detects that your computer is running too slowly for Aero, it will automatically disable it. Normally once you close out of some applications everything goes back to normal, but sometimes you get “stuck” with the Vista Basic theme, and have to go in and enable it again.
Re-Enable Aero Theme
Right-click on the desktop and choose Personalize, then click on the link for “Window Color and Appearance”
Make sure that Windows Aero is selected in the list, and then hit the Apply button.
This should re-enable Aero:
If that doesn’t enable Aero, type sysdm.cpl into the start menu search/run box, choose the Advanced tab and then the Settings button under Performance:
Make sure that at least “Enable desktop composition” and “Enable transparent glass” are selected (Or just choose Best Appearance), and then go back into the desktop properties and choose the Windows Aero theme again (although you really shouldn’t have to do this step)
If that still doesn’t work, close out of all your open applications, and verify that the Desktop Window Manager service is running in Services under Control Panel:
At this point, you should hopefully be able to re-enable Aero. If not, drop a post on our forum =)
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Nice article, I’ve had some friends ask me the same question.I’ve never had to use any of those other methods, just choose the theme again and it all works
Nice Article.
Btw, I see you have a nice mario wallpaper there.. mind if you share it to me?
Nice article. I found this out through minutes of research from your rather than the hour of Using Windows Help.
Like Eddy said, Can I have your wallaper?
That wallpaper is really popular!
http://www.desktopgaming.com
@the geek
every time i restart my computer, i have to go into the services to restart the Desktop Window Manager service… could you tell me why or how to fix it?
I have tried all of this, still cant get it working again. What happens to occur this. Plus i can’t find services in my control panel. This is becoming a horrible nuisance. I appreciate any help.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU this was a very very big help i was frustrated when i couldn’t get the areo theme back so now im gonna use ur site if i ever have a problem and recommend you to all my friends THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
I don’t know what’s going on. I know exactly what I need to do, but Windows Aero isn’t under the list of themes. It’s like it has been deleted from my computer. Is it possible that I have done that?
i still cant get aero on my computer is there a way to download it
my computer came with vista so I don’t know why it didnt come with it
I’d advise restoring your computer, that’s the only way it seemed possible to me after trying everything recommended. You’d have to back up all of your files, naturally.
I’d advise to follow the first tip here. Then, I’d suggest restarting the computer. After that, go to the start menu, and click Control Panel. Click on Appearance and Personalization (not any of the underlined links below it). Then, select customize colors, hit Enable Transparency, then choose the color of the browser padding. That should do it, worked for me!
An update to my last comment, if you are having trouble and none of the solutions above fix it, reinstall your video drivers. I fixed my problem by updating my Nvidia drivers… w00t
Ok… i ran into this problem because i ran two programs at once, they are both games and are called rohan and cabal. I ran both and my comp crashed and when i turned it back on it looks exactly like the basic coloring that usually occurs when i play a game. I have tried alot of things and everything you have listed but nothing seems to work. everything is very brightned and especialy for aim the boarder is all white when usually its supposed to be a greyish color. can you please list me more soulitions to fix this problem? The really funny thing is, everytime i restart my comp, it turns back to normal for a few seconds and then reverts to basic even though it claims to be in aero. Can you please help me out in any way?
there is no option of “Windows aero” in appearence settings what to do??
Hi, just Googled this page after several months of having no Aero at all, and previous to that Aero was intermittent, which has been frustrating seeing as my laptop is only a year old and pretty expensive. I’ve now tried the “adjust for best appearance” option you suggest above and it works perfectly! I’m very pleased as I’ve been getting quite annoyed with my laptop recently after trying lots of things! Cheers
If none of the above work for you, or you get to the last option and find that the DWM service is running, try clicking “Restart the Service.” This will reset DWM and should re-enable Aero.
You know what’s interesting… this just happened to me today, because a driver update happened and Windows detected new hardware.
I re-ran the performance score test in Vista, then rebooted and was able to re-enable Aero again.
just a note, on Windows Help & Support it says that your colours should be in 32-bit, not 16-bit, like mine were. just so you all know…
Agrre withc Cassie. Had the same problem and all that was neede was to change back to 32-bit colors on Display Settings in the Personalize box.
The color was changed to 16-bit after running a Terminal Server App mode session on a Server 2008. (remote desktop)
this usually works, but for some reason the aero option in the themes isn’t even there anymore!
i have a laptop and it had windows aero but then all of a sudden one day it went to vista basic and i went to change it back but aero was not in the list and i did what was suggetsed but still i couldnt get it workin can anyone help me
I was running 3ds Max, and the program crashed. As users may know, the theme while running is changed to basic. Now I can’t even get it back, the whole theme is somehow deleted. How do I download it or get it back? Thanks.
Try right clicking on the desktop, click personalize, click display settings, and make sure your color is at 32 bit, not 16. Then go to themes and check again. Aero should be there. I had the same problem as you did and finally fixed it this way.
Hey thanks, it worked!
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!! I was frustrated when I couldn’t get the Aero Theme back after some Registry changes and reboot. Now is everything alright again, because of your tips. The trick for me was re-enable the Desktop Window Manager service. TANX!!!!
THANK YOU!!!
Thanks a bunch! really appreciate it. Restarting the Desktop Window Manager fixed it for me.
The culrpit was after trying to run Tribes 2 in compatibility mode it changed to Vista basic. Thus I couldn’t switch it back to Aero Glass that I like so much :p
thankyou so much!!
My fix came by changing the video setting from 16 bit to 32 bit. Seems like the game I was playing changed and and didn’t change it back afterwards.
My comp is set to 32 bit, i have reset desktop window manager and gone through the steps at the top of the page. I had trouble going through the steps because aero isn’t in themes or appearance (nor is windows vista standard?) and ‘enable transparency’ isn’t an option in performance options. I have windows vista home premium and it just switched off aero randomly i can’t think of any changes i have made that may have triggered it. Does anyone have any idea how i can get it to work???
even after adjusting performance options to best appearnace enable desktop composition and transparent are not an option to check off.
i love you so much, the last one worked. i’ve had such a horrible week and that was the last straw, i was ready to die. thank you sooo much
I ran an optimization scan and then it switched it to windows classic and i go to select aero again and it says theme could not be loaded because theme service is not running.
And i don’t know where the DWM is, can’t find it in my control panel!!
Thanks soooooo much! This was so helpful! Yay! I have my aero back! yay yay yay!
yeah, just wanted to say thanks!
Here is a link to Microsoft for
“Windows Vista Rules for Enabling Windows Aero / With Guidelines for Troubleshooting”
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/.....rules.mspx
Thank you very much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I did all of the above and it still didn’t help, the Aero theme was still missing. Well, it turned out that somehow the “Themes” service was disabled. And without that service running you can’t have Aero.
To check this run msconfig and check that a service named “Themes” is enabled. If it’s not, then enable it and then you probably have to reboot. After that check if the Aero theme is available in the Control Panel: Window Color and Appearance as mentioned above.
I did everything that you said and I still have windows basic. Not only that but I no longer have windows aero as a choice when I go to color and appearance. Can you help me?
Same as LostAndConfused… Please Help!!
lol, Same problem as the other losts. I restarted manager, went to hi performance in which I didn’t even find the opacity settings in the toolbar, I found aero vista on the properties, clicked on it and it didn’t change a thing, I went back to properties and it had basic highlighted, as if it never changed, I’m on 32 bit…. aghh what’s going on?
Haha, nevermind, I restarted the manager, and forgot to check lol. Thanks a million.
i cant run directx9 but is there any other way to get aero to work?
don’t know if anyone will read down this far but… in my quest to totaly optimize my computer i dove into the window services to see what i could turn off evidently i turned off the themes service in vista and this was the reason why my aero theme wasnt showing up after i enabled it again vista started working phew most of you might not have this problem
when i go to system properties the “enable transparent glass” selection isn’t even there. can you tell me what happened please?
Thanks man, I forgot I disabled the some services to speed up Vista. Couldn’t find why Aero couldn’t be enabled anymore.
Thank you @Cassie
“just a note, on Windows Help & Support it says that your colours should be in 32-bit, not 16-bit, like mine were. just so you all know…”
I realized that one of my monitors was set to 16-bit which is why i wasn’t getting my Aero working again.
i have windows vista ultimate but wen i installed it i didnt get windows aero can u plz help me and people some of u hve system theme off to tun it back on go go to services and go to theme service and go automatic and start it
Thank you :]
np