Tuesday, June 15, 2010

How to Turn On and Enable Aero in Windows 7

In some scenarios, Windows Aero may not be turned on, or is having problem to enable. The scenarios include no supported video driver been found during installation, and after updating the VGA graphic display card driver, Windows 7 does not automatically enable Aero Glass effect. Or, Windows 7 is installed on a computer which barely meets the minimum requirement, and Windows 7 has a hard time deciding that it’s indeed able to run Windows 7 Aero without problem.

To display Aero effects such as transparency in Windows 7, follow these steps:

  1. Make sure that Windows Experience Index has been calculated and computed.
  2. Click on Start menu.
  3. Type the following text into the Start Search box:

    Aero

  4. Click on a search result listing under Control Panel group that named as the following:

    Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects

     

    Trick: If you don’t see “Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects” in the search results, click on Control Panel to see all Aero related items in Control Panel.

5. An “Aero – Troubleshoot computer problems” wizard dialog will appear. Click on Next button.

 

  • The troubleshooting wizard will try to detect any problem by running a series of checks against various components required to make Aero works and running, such as video memory, Desktop Windows Manager (DWM) service, color depth, theme, power settings and etc. At the end of the analysis, the wizard will attempt to fix the issues related to Aero service and restart the Aero feature.
  • If there is still items that are marked with red cross which indicates is the problems that prevent Aero from working properly, fix the issues and then rerun the “Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects” troubleshooting wizard again.