There are times when you want Aero turned off in Vista to improve system performance; times when speed matters and fancy visual effects don't. The problem with most tips on how to turn off Aero is that they turn it off for good. It is nice to have Aero on for everyday use as it does provide a nice look and feel on your Vista desktop.
If you want the best of both worlds, here's a tip that will allow you to turn Aero on and off at will so you can decide when you want performance and when you want fancy looking effects. A click of the mouse it all it takes to change.
Open the registry editor by running the regedit program.
Once it opens, go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT > Directory > Background > Shell on the left side.
Right-click on Shell and select New > Key from the menu. Give the new key a name like Turn Aero On. The name you use here will show up in your menu later.
Right-click on the new key you just created and select New > Key from the menu and give the key a name of command.
Once the command key is created, click on it then go over to the right side of the pane and double click on the (Default) text and change it to this: Rundll32 dwmApi #102
You'll then repeat this process to create a command for turning Aero off...
Right-click on Shell and select New > Key from the menu. Give the new key a name like Turn Aero Off. The name you use here will show up in your menu later.
Right-click on the new key you just created and select New > Key from the menu and give the key a name of command.
Once the command key is created, click on it then go over to the right side of the pane and double click on the (Default) text and change it to this: Rundll32 dwmApi #104
Once you are done, you can close the registry editor. Then you can right-click on your Desktop and there should be new commands called Turn Aero On and Turn Aero Off (or whatever you named the commands) in the context menu. Selecting the appropriate command then turns Aero on and off so that you can quickly optimize for speed or visual effects. You may need to reboot for the commands to show up.
Posted in: windows
