Aero will not function without restart since 7 reinstall

Sorry that my first post is an SOS but this issue is a bother. The problem is that since I re-installed Windows 7 on top of my previous 7 installation that wouldn't boot due to moving it to a my custom build, I had noticed that even after calculating the Experience Index, which I scored a 4.6, Aero themes would not function unless I restarted. The sounds and backgrounds would change, but the taskbar and window borders would remain basic. I ran the troubleshooter and while it's diagnosing, Aero briefly comes on and then disables itself again. The issue found is the same thing every time I run the troubleshooter, "The Desktop Window Manager is disabled". It says it enabled the DWM, but Aero themes still don't work and sometimes every one of them says it can't be applied after running the troubleshooter. Before running it however, I checked Services and DWM is both started and set to auto start. I have made screenshots of my findings as well if that clarifies anything. Aero is just a luxury item but any help to fix this is greatly appreciated. If you need any additional info I can provide it. (Side note: I had a Dell machine that I installed 7 onto and upon first boot, Aero was already enabled w/o a WEI score calculated yet. Is this normal? Never experienced Aero problems on it) I apologize for the length of this post. Thank you in advance.

Specs:

AMD FX-6300 Six Core 3.5GHz CPU
ASROCK 980DE3/U3S3 Mainboard
G.Skill Ripjaws (2x4GB) RAM
WD Red 1TB HDD
NVIDIA GeForce GT 610 2GB GPU

I checked and my graphics driver is up to date.

Reinstalling it did not phase the problem. :/

So I went in and uninstalled KB2670838, and I restarted as instructed. (I had IE 11, but uninstalling that made IE went back to 8) Well I shut down and manually turned it back on to be more approximate, if it makes any difference. This is because if I choose restart, Aero will work. But if I choose shutdown and then I turn it on manually, Aero will not work and the taskbar/borders will still be Basic styled. Did this to see if I could apply a different Aero theme, and no, the borders are unchanged. The theme I use is Aero. In any case, uninstalling that hasn't solved it either. :/

Any other ideas? If nothing I could do a repair install, but I'd prefer not to.

Aero has been acting up since reinstall, so not really, no... Dx