Aero theme disappeared!

seekermeister · 20 Jan 2010

Gumgo said:

The ENVY 15 doesn't have a CD drive >.<
I'm going to buy an external one soon though, but I'd like to find a fix for this anyway.

You don't need a CD drive to do a System Restore. Just type it into the Start Menu's search window and open the wizard and follow it's cues. The second window displays the restore points that are available, so that you can tell if there is one that would be convenient.

Gumgo · 20 Jan 2010

I'm probably going to end up formatting the disk and reinstalling Windows 7 from scratch... but I'd still like to find a fix for this, because it is quite irritating.

Frostmourne · 20 Jan 2010

Your processes are full of crapware - have you cleaned out the rubbish HP put on it, and from your msconfig tab? You can use Autoruns too for the startup entries.

Lebon14 · 21 Jan 2010

hmm...
I don't know if this helps but, go in the Start Menu then search Aero.

The 3rd entry should be "Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects". Click on that entry. Click next. Windows will now search for Aero problems. If it finds some, the window will show the problems. Accept the changes. Report back if it's working or not. :P

(more in depth article here : How to Turn On and Enable Aero in Windows 7 (Enable Aero Peek) My Digital Life )

Gumgo · 21 Jan 2010

Unfortunately, that did not work, it reports "issue not present" for everything.

Zidane24 · 21 Jan 2010

Try a sfc /scannow from an elevated command prompt and post back your results

Gumgo · 21 Jan 2010

I ran sfc /scannow and it returned that it found corrupt files and that they would be repaired when I reboot. It output CBS.log but I seem to be denied access to it (I am the administrator though...).

I'm gonna do a reboot in a sec.

EDIT:
Nope, I rebooted but nothing is different. Should I post the log file? It's around 4 MB...

Any ideas on how to track what is causing Desktop Composition to become disabled immediately, or never become enabled? As in, I check the "Enable Desktop Composition" box and click Okay, and then view the settings again and it is immediately disabled.

MacGyvr · 21 Jan 2010

Gumgo said:

Hello,
I just recently got a new HP ENVY 15 running Windows 7. Up until yesterday everything was running fine. I believe I compiled a LaTeX document, and a package was missing, so I launched the package manager, and suddenly a message appeared that said that the aero color scheme had been disabled. Since then, I have been unable to reenable the aero glass effect or any of the other fancy features. I doubt LaTeX is what caused the problem, but that's the last thing I was doing at the time.

Since then, I've tried EVERYTHING to try to fix this, and nothing has worked! I've restarted my computer several times. I've closed all programs and disabled all unnecessary processes and tried to reenable aero and that didn't work.

I believe the issue is that for some reason Desktop Composition is disabled, so the Desktop Window Manager isn't working. I tried editing the Composition and CompositionPolicy in the registry - they immediately switch back! I tried doing net stop uxsms followed by net start uxsms, and that didn't work either. I tried updating my drivers but they are already up to date. I tried rerunning the Windows Experience Index which did not do anything.

The event viewer shows some suspicious messages. At about the time where the issue started, an event is listed:

A request to disable the Desktop Window Manager was made by process (Skype)

However, I've tried ending Skype with no results, and also, I had been using Skype for the last few days with no problems. Following that message are numerous of these:

The Desktop Window Manager has exited with code (0x40010004)
The Desktop Window Manager was unable to start because the desktop composition setting is disabled
The Desktop Window Manager has exited with code (0xc00002fe)
The Desktop Window Manager was unable to start because the desktop composition setting is disabled
The Desktop Window Manager has exited with code (0x80070224)

etc.

I've also tried going to control panel > system and security > find and fix problems > appearance and personalization > display aero desktop effects, and running the troubleshooter, but it said that the problem couldn't be detected.

Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong? I've tried every suggestion I can find on the web and nothing has worked.

Why not use System Restore to go back before the problem happened?

Gumgo · 21 Jan 2010

Well, I did a system restore, which "worked" I suppose... still don't love the idea of this being the only solution, but whatever... I'm probably going to reinstall windows without all the HP stuff pretty soon anyway, once I get a CD drive.

Gumgo · 21 Jan 2010

Never mind. System restore worked for a little bit, but only restored the transparency effects and such, and flip 3d, not the actual look of the windows.

And just now I tried switching back to basic and then back to aero, and the same problem occurred. So it seems that it ins't a program causing this, but rather there's a bug which prevents ever returning to aero!