Windows Vista Annoyance #6: Turning on Windows Aero
April 22, 2007
All the cool Vista features you’re seeing on advertisements, like Flip-and-Flip and thumbnails from the Windows bar and all that? They come on when Windows Aero is enabled. Most of the time, Windows Aero isn’t enabled by default on a new or upgraded computer.
(Yes, I sorta discussed this topic when I explained how to turn on Windows Flip-and-Flip. But I thought that actually turning on Windows Aero was important enough to have its own blog post.)
First of all, what version of Windows Vista do you have? To find out what Windows Vista version you have, click on the Windows logo at the lower left corner, right-click on “Computer,” and select Properties. Under “Windows Edition,” it’d tell you which Vista version you have and whether it’s the 32-bit or 64-bit version, along with a link to “Upgrade Vista.”
If you have Windows Vista Basic, you’re outta luck. Windows Aero is available only on Vista Home Premium and up. Microsoft isn’t being too forthright about this, eh?
If you’re lucky enough (or your pocketbook’s deep enough) to have Vista Home Premium or Ultimate or better, then here’s how you can turn Windows Aero on.
1) Click on the Windows logo at the lower left corner
2) Select Control Panel, and then select Personalization
3) Click on “Window Color and Appearance”
4) If you then see a row of 8 colors, you need to click on the last link, “Open classic appearance properties for more color options”
5) In the “Appearance Settings” window, under “Color Scheme,” select “Windows Aero”
6) Click on “OK”
7) Windows will then update the display properties of, well, everything.
And you’ve activated Windows Aero! Have fun.
May 29, 2007 at 1:48 pm
I would like to know how to change the theme back to aero from classic. My brother changed it so i can’t reverse it. I tried personalization and all of that stuff but i can’t figure out how to change it back. Could you help me? Please email me with a response
July 24, 2007 at 2:15 am
Well hey i have windows home premium and i cant find windows aero :/ theres windows vista basic but thats the closest i can get to
August 10, 2007 at 7:54 pm
same here, I have home premium, but no Aero :(
August 24, 2007 at 9:01 am
well i have premium, and I could not figure out why aero was showing up. I had it before. I have it on my laptop. I was switching monitors and in the proces I had it turned to 16 bit. lol I turned it back to 32 bit and vwa la. its now working.
October 25, 2007 at 7:52 pm
its either because ur graphics crad’s drivers arnt installed, or ur graphics card blows.
November 27, 2007 at 12:33 am
Hi! Nice site you got there!
January 7, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Oh!!! I just found something out! Okay my PC bumped down from Aero to basic sometimes when i used dual monitor. I read hat you have to be in 32 bit mode. My Laptop’s internal screen/monitor (is it just a screen when it’s internal and not a monirot, anyways the main one) was at 32 but, but the external display (my old[er] monitor plugged in) was at 16 bit by default! So I set that one to 32 bit and Aero is back! So if you do dual monitor then check that BOTH are in 32 bit, since the 2nd was at 16 both were bumped down and even though the main one was at 32 bit it wasnt on Aero. I guess to be safe Windows made the 2nd one 16 bit, therefore bumping me down! Now I figured out why Aero went away on Dual monitor sometimes!! I clicked the thing from the tray and read, it took me to display setting, checked both monitors, set the other one and now it’s back!!
July 6, 2009 at 11:33 am
I had the same exact problem thanks so much I couldn’t figure it out to save my life
June 19, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Thanks for this post. I added a second monitor to my Vista Home Premium PC and all of a sudden Aero went away. I was afraid that it was a Vista limitation, but clearly that isn’t the case.
As to Mike’s comment, it is very possible that my second monitor defaulted to 16-bit, but I checked after following the above steps. It was set to 32-bit; maybe switching the theme made the change for me?
Anyhow, thanks again.
August 1, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Okay, I don’t know exactly where I should be posting this, but I think here might not hurt as a start. I switched my view of the personalize – window color and appearance to the classic view, and I have no idea how to revert it back to the view with the eight colors. Can anyone tell me how I can get it back to that? It’d be much appreciated.
August 3, 2008 at 8:07 pm
hey i seen that you say color and appearence well i go to start,control panel,appearence and personalization,and from there on i cant seem to find the windows aero i have the see though thingy but i cant do that flippy thing please reply thanx
August 20, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Having same problem as Rob!! Any suggestions??
September 3, 2008 at 5:47 am
I had the same problem with some of you. I had been running Aero. But the PC bumped down to classic for some reason (after installing a program i think). I tried finding out the colour scheme and everything but Aero was just not there.
Finally what I did was just changing my monitor bit rate from 32 to 16 and OK that. And then I changed it back to 32-bit and Aero came back to normal.
Hope that helps :)
September 7, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Okay, a lot of you guys have been asking how to change Aero back off, and even though I’m not the publisher of this post or anything, I’m going to set you guys straight.
To turn Vista Aero on, follow the steps he described.
To turn Vista Aero OFF, go to your desktop, right click to Personalize. Then click on Window Color and Experience, then Open Classic appearance properties, then select “Windows Vista Basic” or whatever.
Hope this helps and clears up the confusion!
September 7, 2008 at 11:13 pm
@Rob: You have to activate Aero to get to that. Once you do activate it, it will automatically jump to the one with the eight colors.
October 17, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Same problem as previous 6 posts. Color & Appearance only has 6 selections, none are aero.
November 1, 2008 at 12:19 pm
I have windows vista premium and I used to have window flip 3D and (im not sure what its called) when you scrol over the minimized things at the bottom of the screen and you have a small window showing u whats going on… but it updated and now its boring. How do i set it to default?
November 14, 2008 at 1:08 am
I am having the same problem as everyone else.
I have Windows Vista Home Premium.
I can open the Appearance Settings window BUT I do have an option to select Windows Aero and when I do (and hit apply and ok) it says it activates but if I close that window and reopen it, it is back to Windows Vista Basic.
I also do not have any “Open Classic appearance properties” selection in my Appearance Settings window.
Help! Cause Windows Vista Basic is ugly!
December 6, 2008 at 8:13 pm
EXACT same problem as anveryone else
once i get to step 4 on your instructions is where i go wrong…
PLEASE HELP ME
i’m freakin out :’(
December 18, 2008 at 2:38 pm
You have to have desktop composition enabled to have aero available in the appearance settings
on the start menu or desktop right click on ‘computer’
select properties and open advanced system settings.
under performance click the settings button
there should be a checkbox next to ‘enable desktop composition’… ensure that there is a checkbox next to it
if you don’t have the option to turn on desktop composition then you have another problem, either 16bit color, or not enough graphics memory
if you ran the system performance evaluation and windows determined that your computer could not handle aero due to video memory or something the option won’t be there
you can clear out the performance index score so it shows as untested, and this will bring back the option to enable desktop composition, but if you don’t have enough memory for it to work then it won’t work and your computer could freak out.
December 28, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Thanks for the insight
January 24, 2009 at 9:13 pm
When i tried to follow the instructions i wasnt able to find window and colour apperance and my aero suddenly turned into vista basic. i cant find a way to switch it back please HELP!
February 8, 2009 at 6:51 pm
nice2 see it
March 12, 2009 at 4:58 am
Thank you so much, windows just changed to windows basic and would go back, some how windows changed a few setting, like it was on 16bit so i had to change it back to 32bit etc, an you gave me the last piece of the jigsaw :)
Thanks again dude.
May 19, 2009 at 5:35 am
@Rob’s (Sep ‘03) instructions worked for me. I have Windows Vista Ultimate and added a second (dual) screen which turned off Aero. In the ‘Display settings’ I had both monitors on 32-bit and in ‘Appearance settings’ the Color scheme was set to Windows Aero – but Aero was still turned off. To get it working again I followed @Rob’s instructions and changed both monitors to 16-bit on the ‘Display settings’ and clicked ‘OK’. I then put both monitors back to 32-bit and clicked ‘OK’. If this does not get Aero working, in the ‘Appearance settings’ try switching the color scheme to ‘Windows Vista Basic’ and back to ‘Windows Aero’.
June 20, 2009 at 10:25 am
guys the problems remain..
i have home premium
i`ve read all the posts before me, and followed all the suggestions,
i did all the things in the right way
I mean, it`s simple..but why this on of a xxx it`s not working ???
i have it on 32 bit colors too
the pc it says its in areo mode but…how come i cant see the window with the colors??
i cant change the color
i want it back in pink damn areo!
i really could use a serious help here before i totally freak out.
June 20, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Nevermind..i finally got it!
we need to update java and restart the sistem..
i assure u it wil work…at least it worked out for me.
June 20, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Poison – thanks for figuring this out and sharing this with us!
July 8, 2009 at 11:26 am
tried the drop down from 32 to 16 and back again, low and behold! areo returneth! thanks folks