How to Turn On and Enable Aero in Windows 7 (Enable Aero Peek)

Windows Aero features in Windows 7 has been greatly enhanced and improved with new features such as Aero Peek. Without Windows Aero Glass Transparency effect, the many premium user interface (UI) goodies and extravaganza visual experience such as windows with translucent glass design and new windows colors in Windows 7 won’t be enjoyed by the system users.

In most circumstance, if the PC’s display card satisfy the minimum requirement to run Windows Aero, which appears to be not much different to what’s required in Windows Vista – 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor, 1 GB (gigabyte) of RAM memory and a DirectX 9 compatible GPU with a minimum of 128 MB of Video RAM, installed with Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) driver – Windows 7 will automatically enable and turn on Aero upon installation.

However, 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.

Tip: Another way to know if your Windows 7 system supports Aero or not is to look at Windows Experience Index score. The score (both base score and subscore for graphics component) should be equal or higher than 3.0 for Aero to work. To view your Windows Experience Index, go to Control Panel -> System and Security -> System, then click on “Windows Experience Index”.

Whatever the cause, here is the easy way to fix all issues, bugs or problems related to Windows Aero, and then turn on and enable the Windows Aero feature in Windows 7, thanks to a new troubleshooting task tool added in Windows 7.

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

    Run Windows 7 Aero

    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.

    Fix and Troubleshoot Aero Transparency in Windows 7

  6. 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.

    Enable Aero in Windows 7

    Tip: 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.

Tip: To create a shortcut to ‘Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects’, right click on it on search results, and then click on Open file location. On the “All Tasks” window opened, right click on Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects again, and select Create Shortcut to place the shortcut on desktop.

If everything fails, try the hack to force enable Windows Aero in Windows 7.

41 Responses to “How to Turn On and Enable Aero in Windows 7 (Enable Aero Peek)”

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  1. Ed Urbaniak
    February 8th, 2010 01:11
    41

    Excellent article. Helped me fix my aero peek issue!

  2. YA WHO!!!!!!!!!!!!
    February 3rd, 2010 06:19
    40

    THANKS SO MUCH i was using a video recorder and my memory filled up…so it automiticly switched to windows 7 basic…but now u showd this it detedted the problem and it automaticly got fixed THANKS

  3. karan
    January 31st, 2010 01:22
    39

    thanksssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

  4. pezza
    January 26th, 2010 21:57
    38

    Hi,

    I just wanted to share that i had issues with the Aero suddenly stopping working.

    For me, i eventually noticed that the colour had been dropped on my display settings to 16 bit. After changing this back to maximum 32 bit, all started working again.

    Hope this helps others?

    Thanks

    Andrew

  5. Format laptop « Klikdids' Blog
    January 22nd, 2010 23:50
    37

    [...] problem with earo view and resolved. [...]

  6. Pavan
    January 20th, 2010 00:45
    36

    Hey.
    Omg thanks So much.
    This is the most helpful thing.
    Thanks Thanks Thanks.

  7. Danny
    January 14th, 2010 06:01
    35

    thanks alot!!!! i got so happy because of your help

  8. James Bond
    January 2nd, 2010 02:09
    34

    Thank you very much. It helped me a LOT. Thanks again. I appreciate these things. Aero Peek was starting to piss me off but I got it fixed thanks to you. Thanks again.

  9. Shaun
    December 29th, 2009 17:45
    33

    y my window 7 cant enable aero peek? got other way to enable it?

  10. storee
    December 23rd, 2009 06:18
    32

    thx a lot WORKED FINE in a few seconds

  11. Eve
    December 16th, 2009 18:46
    31

    After 2 weeks of following all sorts of troubleshotting, found that my problem was a conflict in the Sync manager with my Creative Zen, changed the settings there and is now ok, until I connect my Zen, so just do a restart when I’ve finished and tis ok again.

  12. Gallagher
    December 12th, 2009 15:09
    30

    Doing the graphics rating test worked! thanks!

  13. rifghy
    December 9th, 2009 19:42
    29

    makasih banyak nih atas solusi cerdasnya …ini sangat membntu saya ….

  14. N-Trix
    December 7th, 2009 03:51
    28

    i dont have msdt.exe so i cant troubleshoot

  15. thankVM!
    December 3rd, 2009 02:01
    27

    Thank you very much for this guide!
    after i changed my desktop resolution the color depth was changed to 16bit which is why aero disappeared, this i didn’t figure out but was told by the aero troubleshooter which i didn’t even know existed (:$).. so thank you once again :)

  16. ehab
    November 18th, 2009 02:17
    26

    thanks alot it worked and fixed my problem completely

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