I recently got my first computer running Windows Vista Ultimate as its primary operating system. I was happy to finally get into Vista as the Windows XP experience is obviously lacking many of the excellent usability and user experience improvements now available in Vista Ultimate.
Using Vista I was immediately in love with features such as Search in the start button, nicer icons, and improved networking screens.
Aero
The one big thing I could not find though was something called Aero. Aero was supposed to be a major interface improvement with transparent windows, 3D alt-tab, glass-like features, and other UI improvements (see some screenshots below)
Finding Aero
Doing some digging in settings I figured out why I did not see Aero, it was turned off.
Turning On Aero
If you have the same problem here is how you solve it:
1. Go into Control Panel > Personalization
2. Next go into Window Color and Appearance
3. Then click on "Open classic appearance properties for more color options" link
4. In the Appearance Settings screen you should see a Color Schema selection. In the screenshot below you will see it set to "Windows Vista Basic" and that was my problem.
Switching this to "Windows Aero" and hitting OK solved my problem and enabled all the very nice User Experience features.
Note: From what I've heard limited hardware on a machine could make Aero unavailable. I don't have all the details but I am sure you can find them by doing some Internet Searches.
2 comments:
I liked Aero when it was called KDE and used in Linux.
Ubuntu Linux and Beryl are quite a nice combination.
http://beryl-project.org/features.php
I even think you showed me this once :)
The Vista version works really well and is seamless. People upgrading will really appreciate the extra graphical goodness.
Post a Comment