Windows 7 - Can you have a nice theme without the Aero?

aiwnjoo · 10-12-2011

Hi,

Just an enquiry, I develop overlays that require Aero to be disabled and this means you only get a horrible basic looking theme.

I currently use Windows 7 Home Basic, which uses Aero Peek and the Home Basic theme, is there any way to have this same theme in the Home Premium or Ultimate versions without the Aero or enhanced visual options?

It seems XP is a better choice at the moment because if you refuse to use Aero on Windows 7 you get a crap experience in return.

Thanks,

Beta · 10-12-2011

I am not aware of one that looks good. Windows 8 will have a forced Aero that is not relient on your hardware. So there is hope.

karlsnooks · 10-12-2011

I have dozens of themes including of my own creation.

I never use Aero peak. Useless waste of resources in my opinion.

aiwnjoo · 10-12-2011

When I choose the Windows 7 Standard theme on Home Basic this includes Aero Peek but I cannot find a way to disable Aero effects on this O/S.

When I choose Windows 7 Basic it removes all the Aero stuff but it starts sliding windows open and closed and makes it look much more basic.

Why can't I have the nice theme without the Aero crap, is it that difficult?

Thanks,

severedsolo · 10-12-2011

Quote: Originally Posted by karlsnooks

I never use Aero peak. Useless waste of resources in my opinion.

It rather depends on your specs. On your machine, fair enough, you have an on-board graphics chip, so your CPU is doing the majority of the work, so yeah, it probably is.

However, as Aero is GPU powered, for me at least, when I'm in a position to be using Aero Peek, my graphics card isn't really doing anything, so it may as well get used for that. It's not like the resources are needed elsewhere.

As for how USEFUL Aero peek is... well I won't comment on that,I dont have any icons on my desktop, so... probably not very.

aiwnjoo · 10-12-2011

Thanks for the reply guys, I did not notice your posts when I replied.

Its actually quite annoying how dependent Windows 7 is on Aero regarding themes. Disabling Aero should basically just remove the Glass and Desktop Peak but no it screws everything up.

Im probably going to switch back to XP until 8 comes out, it plays hell on my overlays.

Any theme suggestions? The Home Basic default theme I think is fantastic if only I could remove the Aero side of things.

severedsolo · 10-12-2011

You just want the glass effect and Peek turned off?

Transparency - Enable or Disable
Aero Peek - Turn On or Off

Mark Phelps · 10-13-2011

Quote: Originally Posted by Beta

I am not aware of one that looks good. Windows 8 will have a forced Aero that is not relient on your hardware. So there is hope.

MAYBE ...

I have one of the infamous Intel 915GM chipset Tablet PCs -- which, as everyone knows by now, does NOT support Aero.

And, not surprisingly, it STILL does not do Aero in Windows 8 Developer Preview.

But what is new, is that, unlike with Vista and Windows 7, where the XPDM drivers for the Intel 915GM chipset could be installed and used, in Win8, they can not. I was informed that Windows 7 has REMOVED support for XPDM drivers entirely.

So, if you're hoping that you will get Aero in Win8 when you do not get Aero in Windows 7, you're hoping for something that is not likely to happen.

mc510 · 12-01-2011

I've got (I think) the same question as aiwnjoo. For yucks, I'm testing Windows 7 Ultra on a box with Nvidia MX440 graphics, which can't run Desktop Window Manager (aka Desktop Composition). Which is fine; I don't care about transparency, flip, peek, or any of that. But I would like a visual style that is less butt-ugly than the Starter Edition style. The Home Basic theme is nice enough, but I guess I can't have it? I was assuming that, just as in WinXP, I could use custom visual styles ... but it sounds like you can only use custom visual styles if you're running DWM/Aero? Or is it just the case that no-one has bothered to create visual styles that work without DWM/Aero?

Windows 7 - Can you have a nice theme without the Aero?

Can you have a nice theme without the Aero? problems?