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:
- Make sure that Windows Experience Index has been calculated and computed.
- Click on Start menu.
- Type the following text into the Start Search box:
Aero
- 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.
- 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.
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.
Related Articles
- Aero Shake and Aero Peek Features in Windows 7
- Hack to Force Enable Aero in Windows 7
- Get and Enable Windows Vista Aero Glass Transparency Effect and Desktop Windows Manager (DWM)
- Hack to Enable Windows Aero in Vista Home Basic Edition
- How to Enable Aero Glass in Windows 7 Virtual Machines on Windows Virtual PC
- Shortcuts to Enable and Disable Vista Aero Theme
- Easy Way to Determine if A Vista System Supports Windows Aero Glass Effects
- Force Enable Windows Aero Glass or WDM on Unsupported and WDDM-Incomptible Graphics Card
- Enable or Disable Aero Border Frame in Windows Live MSN Messenger (with Auto Switcher)
- Disable or Turn Off (Or Enable and Turn On) Windows Vista Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) Protected Mode
Entries (RSS)
November 11th, 2009 09:55
Works like a charm. I updated my ATI drivers an after that, Aero do not work. I used your solution and was fixed.
November 7th, 2009 03:00
Please help i cannot run the fixer…
November 3rd, 2009 17:27
Thanks for the tips. Thanks mark. Your quick tip worked for me.
October 25th, 2009 04:23
Thank You Very Much !!!!!
October 24th, 2009 01:09
@ Christene
You can still run windows 7, it just won’t have the super fancy GUI such as transparent menus, and stuff like that. There is no real NEED for Aero other than the fact that it looks fairly nice. You can get a decent video card for about $100 or so that will enable you to run Aero.
HTH
Rhinofart
October 19th, 2009 23:52
I have XP, so I can’t do the “windows experience index.” I ran the windows 7 upgrade advisor and found out my graphics controller sucks to bad to run aero. I have been trying to find info on the ‘net if I could run windows 7 without aero. If not, what is the cheapest video card I could buy that would run it? I have Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV
October 16th, 2009 17:25
Thanks, just had this happen on a new laptop im loading Windows 7 onto, this fixed it right away
October 1st, 2009 04:57
Hi thanks alot i followed it up to the update subscore part then it started working
wohoo
September 15th, 2009 13:28
Thank You!! – It worked just fine!!!.
August 28th, 2009 08:19
Thanks!! that worked for me.
August 27th, 2009 17:49
Thanks – this was just what I was looking for!
August 25th, 2009 09:22
THANKS YOU VERY MUCH.
August 11th, 2009 01:21
[...] How to Turn On and Enable Aero in Windows 7 [...]
July 19th, 2009 02:43
[...] the things mentioned in these articles: How to Turn On and Enable Aero in Windows 7 (Enable Aero Peek) My Digital Life Hack to Force Enable Aero in Windows 7 My Digital [...]
June 22nd, 2009 14:11
Great tip, just refereshing the Index as you have said worked for me.
Thanks a lot!!
June 3rd, 2009 09:51
good tips
January 28th, 2009 04:54
[...] fix turned out to be rather simple, once you know where to look. Here is one of the blogs that helped. It turns out I didn’t even need most of the information there; all I really [...]
January 17th, 2009 04:25
This way worked perfect.
Thanks.
(I don’t think there is an easier way)
January 15th, 2009 04:31
Wow. I had Vista running Aero, so I knew that this laptop should still work with it. Just calculating my Windows Experience Index turned it on when I finally noticed that it was messing.
January 13th, 2009 18:40
[...] everything fails, try the hack to force enable Windows Aero in Windows 7. source: mydigitallife.info Tags: 7, os, Vista, [...]
January 13th, 2009 17:21
[...] troubleshooting tool to find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects, and then enable and turn on Aero support (and also Aero Peek) in Windows 7. If the tool does not work to enable Aero feature in Windows 7, the trick to force enable Aero in [...]
January 13th, 2009 08:10
Easier solution, you could just go to personalization and chose windows 7 default theme and Aero would start working.