Aero theme changes to Basic

[SE7EN47]

Hello everyone, I have this strange problem I've never seemed to have before.

As the title says, my theme (which I have as Windows Aero) randomly and unexpectedly changes to Windows Basic giving me that pop-up message in the corner telling me it's been changed. I have my own personal theme saved (just Aero with a background and personal window color settings, nothing downloaded or installed, only factory options). Now my personalization window doesnt let me change back to Aero or to any theme besides basic or high contrast, it just keeps the window color byt changes the background; simply nothing works in trying to change it back. I've tried every option there is and it looks like some of the settings are disabled and will not show up.

I've attached a screencap of what the windows look like when opened. On the left is the personalization window and on the right is what opens when I click Window Color.

I have quite a bit of computer expertise so I know this isn't me making a foolish error or not knowing where to click. This has only happened once before in my year of using 7 (which was 2 days ago). Fixing it required a restart but I'm definitely not inclined to keep restarting if this is going to keep happening.

Any ideas on what's causing the problem and how to fix this?

 

[MK2]

Hi,

Sometimes it's because a program cannot run in aero and Windows will change back to basic.
You can rerun the Windows Experience Index to see if something is changed.

MK2

 

[SE7EN47]

Hey,

I know that it changes when you run certain full screen programs or others and am aware of this behavior, but that's the thing, this problem just seems to happen randomly and when I am doing miscellaneous things like messaging a buddy on Skype, like I was doing when this happened.

 

[MK2]

Did you check your Windows Experience Index?

 

[edee]

Graphics :
How about your Graphics card ? Just looking at your specs and honestly I have not had good luck with Nvidia cards .

Ram:
On my son's computer which is running Windows 7 on 1.25 gigs of ram , when he runs low on ram aero will convert to basic automatically but once he gets out of some programs he will go directly back to aero.

 

[omair1995]

Anyone found a solution? i have the same problem.

 

[mitchell64]

Hello Omair, Windows will change it to basic if your hardware capabilities become marginal

If you want to chance it & possibly overload your Hardware (which may result in damage) you could set your visual effects to a custom setting rather than allowing Windows to choose what is best.

View attachment 100937

The choice is yours (i wouldn't)

 

[omair1995]

I have a 5.9 experience index....

 

[mitchell64]

You should not be having any problems with an index score like that, try running the aero diag tool in Control Panel /Action Center / Troubleshooting ;

View attachment 101107

If it doesn't find anything wrong we would need a whole lot more info as you are not the original poster in this thread and really have not given us any info to work with such as what circumstances is Aero reverting back to basic etc. etc.

It would also greatly assist members who are trying to help you if you could fill out your system specs, i have posted a link on how to do this;

http://www.sevenforums.com/256049-post4.html

Also this is helpful reading;

http://www.sevenforums.com/447052-post5.html

 

[omair1995]

Updated. and i fond a workaround by simply doing the following steps....
--------------------------------------------------------------
1/ Ensure that you have the following registry value set to :

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM\Composition set to 1 (32-bit DWORD)

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM\CompositionPolicy set to 2 (32-bit DWORD)

2/ Restart DWM by opening a command prompt with administrative privileges :

- Type 'net stop uxsms'
- Then 'net start uxsms'

You should have Glass now
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[mitchell64]

Updated. and i fond a workaround by simply doing the following steps....
--------------------------------------------------------------
1/ Ensure that you have the following registry value set to :

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM\Composition set to 1 (32-bit DWORD)

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM\CompositionPolicy set to 2 (32-bit DWORD)

2/ Restart DWM by opening a command prompt with administrative
privileges :

- Type 'net stop uxsms'
- Then 'net start uxsms'

You should have Glass now
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Glad you got it sorted & thank you for posting your work around it is appreciated as others can use it for future reference

Mitch