Disable Aero (Permanently or Temporarily) in Windows 7

Also on a per-application basis

In Windows Vista and Windows 7, the older Luna interface was replaced with a new default theme/interface, called Aero. Aero uses a number of features, such as transluscent windows and title bars, live thumbnails, and other eye candy to create a more pleasing experience for users.

The problem with Aero (and other compositing window managers), is that it is fairly resource heavy. This means that computer users with lower powered graphics cards, or those wanting to squeeze every frame of performance out of their system (important when playing games, for example), may want to turn off Aero, temporarily if not permanently.

Fortunately, getting rid of many of the resource hogging features isn’t too hard. Below you’ll find two ways to get rid of Aero, one that turns it off entirely, and one that disables it on a per-application basis.

Turn Off Aero Completely

In order to use Windows 7 on a day-to-day basis without Aero at all, first open your Personalization control panel. To do this, right-click somewhere on the Desktop, then choose thePersonalizeoption, located at the bottom of the contextual menu.

Once the Personalization control panel loads, click the blueWindow Coloroption located at the bottom of the window.

Now simply make sure that theEnable Transparencycheckbox is not checked.

Once you’ve done this, click theSave Changesbutton to ensure your changes aren’t lost.

You should now have opaque windows, as well as window previews and a non-transparent task bar as well, as seen below. Compare to the first screenshot to see the changes.

Of course, you don’t necessarily want to turn off these features all the time. Sometimes, you just want them turned off when you need the extra power for something else, like gaming. In this case, we’ll show how to turn off the processor-intensive Aero effects only temporarily.

Turn Off Aero Temporarily

This is actually a bit quicker process, as we’re only adjusting the applications we want to run without Aero. Unless you make the changes shown below, your computer will run as normal. When you launch an application modified with this process, however, Aero will be turned off, until the program is quit.

The first step is to find the launcher for your program. Then right-click it and choose thePropertiesoption from the bottom of the menu.

When the Properties window loads, click to view theCompatibilitytab.

Now click theDisable Desktop Compositioncheckbox. This will turn off Aero, but again, only when this particular application is launched.

Finally, click theApplybutton to save the changes to your launcher.

Nothing will change when you do this, but when you next launch this application, Aero will be turned off temporarily, just how you wanted it.

Founder of Help Desk Geek and managing editor. He began blogging in 2007 and quit his job in 2010 to blog full-time. He has over 15 years of industry experience in IT and holds several technical certifications.Read Aseem’s Full Bio

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