Microsoft decided that The Aero interface would not be available for Windows Vista Home Basic users. I personally dislike the new trend to offer several versions of a program with different functionality naming them basic, premium and ultimate. It confuses consumers who have enough troubles to work with the operating system less alone deciding which of the many versions of Windows Vista would suit their needs.
It is apparently not a big problem to enable the Vista Aero interface in Windows Vista Home Basic even though it is officially not included in that version. All you need to do is to change the values of two registry keys and restart Windows Vista afterwards. Open the registry by pressing Windows + R, typing regedit and hitting enter afterwards.
Navigate to the key Hkey_Current_User \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ DWM \ and change the value of the entry Composition to 1 and the value of CompositionPolicy to 0.
Now you can select the Aero interface by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting Personalize from the menu. Switch to Colors and Appearance and click on Classic Appearance Properties.. and choose Windows Vista Aero from the menu.
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This might or might not be “too much information” for some people. Most people who have Vista Basic generally bought the cheap end machines that has it already installed. Enabling Aero would be devastating to their performance. One can imagine the poor tech support folks getting hammered with stupid questions from idiots who think they can get a Masserati performance out of a Yugo.
It can be useful, if a person has already good hardware, and is planning to buy vista but doesn’t have it yet, then this person can buy the basic edition, save money, ans still get the Aero interface
Dante yes this might be the case but you do not know until you did not try it. I also think that several users buy Vista Home Basic because it is the cheapest thinking it got all the relevant features of the other Vista editions.
The point is, that these people buy Vista Basic because it’s the cheapest choice. Since they can only afford the cheapest choice, do you think they can afford to buy an expensive video card, or a proper CPU? Like I said, take pity on the poor tech support folks. They’ll be swamped with retards yammering about how they were “cheated” with their purchase, and how it’s “unfair” and that “someone” should do something about it. And the next thing you’ll know, some idiot politician will start a stupid crusade on equal OS rights or some such rot.
Dante sure i do understand that. There will be calls like this if those users find out that certain features are missing.
Sorry to burst your bubble but this doesnt work!
it does not work :) that is really bad
bet i can’t open aero either !!
can you help me ?
kicc2520@hotmail.com
That mothod is really usefully?
who have tried?
can you tell me ?
tested and it doesnt work!!!
someone can provide a real way to solve it?
“…change the value of the entry Composition to 1 and the value of CompositionPolicy to 0…” , they ‘re default values on my computer, no “Windows Vista Aero” on the menu selection.
The trick does not seem to be working (anymore).
this didnt work for me, why not ?
I’ve tried some other methods as well, none seem to work.
hey whats up with this tweak I´ve tried it and it doesn´t work, if there´s a way to do it still please enlighten us because I really want to see what all the fuzz is about, and my vista basic really sucks graphically, or at least it doesn´t seem like anything new at all. By the way, I have basic and my laptop has 1 giga of ram and an ati radeon xpress 1250 with 256 mb .
this worked with the RCs and betas, but was taken out.
To enable Glass, change CompositionPolicy to 2
REMEMBER: Make a restore point and export a backup before messing with the registry.
Change Composition Policy to 2
open command prompt and write
net stop uxsms
press enter
then write
net start uxsms
aero effect will appear properly
I tried that and it won’t allow me to do net stop uxsms.
narp.. still nothing. i think it was taken out for good (or should i say bad? :P)
I’ve tried everything!!! But it still doesn’t work. Could someone tell me why!!!!!!?
Update the following registry keys:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software \Microsoft \Windows \DWM]
Composition = 1
CompositionPolicy = 2
Run command prompt with administrative rights and follow Pasha’s (post #21) steps. If you don’t know how to set the administrative rights, just restart your PC – that does the same thing.
Good luck.
I did the registry change and changed the “0″ to “2″ and I did the following steps for the command prompt with admin powers. I’m not sure if aero is enabled, how would I know?
In Control Panel > Personalization > Window Color and Appearance, when you are on Aero Standard you should now be able to see a color picker with sliders for choosing the colour of the Glass window decorations.
This hack doesn’t enable full Aero, it just gives the Aero Glass window composition.
Well I just tried it and worked well, is not the aero you would expect but looks a lot better than the standard home basic. Just follow the regedit steps (very easy) and restart, that´s it. thanks!
i purchased the dell inspiron 6400. it has 1 gb ram. core 2 deo the best need h/w also the intel 945 Graphic card with 256 mb memory supports aero. i tried all changes but this doesnt work. can any one have any new tips.
Niks
Works great here. Just bought Vista Home Basic recently. I have 1GB of ram and a 1.6 Ghz AMD 64-Bit processor…it’s not that I couldn’t afford Home Premium..it’s that I didn’t see the point. Here’s a screenshot of my “Aero” theme. (NOTE: MY MOUSE IS OVER THE ‘CLOSE’ BUTTON IN THE LEFT HAND CORNER TO SHOW THE GLOW.)
http://img463.imageshack.us/my.php?image=aerohomebasicxl9.jpg
This one works….
1) But the Aero here is not transparent
2) I noticed that there is a difference in the window Colour if it is maximised……
Except for this, this Tweak is fine…
Hi ur all idiots this aero hack oesn’t work it just enables Windows Vista Standard lol ahhhh
No, Windows Vista Standard is enabled right out of the Vista Home Basic box in Personalize -> Window Color and Appearance. On a default install, it’s the topmost selection in the Color Scheme box, right above Basic. No hack required for that.
What this reg hack does is enable the Glass window composition and colour scheme picker under Vista Standard, something that isn’t there right out of the box.
Before you call people idiots, try to determine if you yourself actually know what you’re talking about.
Er, change that to “Right hand corner” sorry…it was about 3:00 AM my time…had my directions messed up :P
The border is supposed to darken. It does it on all Vista machines using Aero.
This isn’t Aero and it doesn’t enable anything that wouldn’t otherwise be available in Windows Vista Basic. If you log on the Guest account, this theme is enabled by default without doing all these things
Hallo Everybody!
i had the same problem too,tried all,there is a change in colors after enabling aero in vista basic,but the windows are not transparent.
Here i got one solution for all !!!
search the net or torrent and download a program called TrueTransparency !!!
it is great and has more sckins ,it really works !!!
The point is, that these people buy Vista Basic because it’s the cheapest choice. Since they can only afford the cheapest choice
hahahahaha it;s so funny to reading it,only a33hole like u give ££££££ to the almighty microsft, people who own the 8800 ultra don,t give a S,,t to buy , they just get it for free,hahahaha
two SLI 8800 ultra, and u,mhhh, maybe some geforce 2
I tried everything,but it have no change
OMFG every SINGLE one of you here are a bunch of numnuts! if you want the glass feature on basic just freaken download windows blinds! -.- it sickens me to see so MANY NUBZ!!!
The Glass window composition is NOT transparent and is NOT available in the Guest account by default or at all in Home Basic without either manually changing CompositionPolicy to 2 for the active user or using some scriptkiddie software to do that simple regedit for you.
If you try to do the edit and afterward don’t see the sliders for picking the Glass window composition color under Personaliuze -> Window Color and Appearance, or if it still looks exactly the same as the default solid blue theme in the Guest account, then you did something wrong. Start over or give it up, face your own incompetence and use the scriptkiddie software.
Mine changed to Vista standard automatically after upgrading my RAM above 1gb.
its not work!!!!!! only on betas and rc’s. gosh…are you noobz!!!!
hey you. this is just the default theme of vista basic. you all suck!! i want the fucking transparent theme!! fuckers!!
well tis does work but i my brand new acer aspire i just bought is slower than anything ive ever seen..
I can’t comment if this “hack” works because I don’t have VHB. Its a method of enableing a feature of Vista that should otherwise be disabled, if you don’t like it don’t use it, simple as.
On a side note those why do some people get so angry towards users who need a bit of help or looking for a solution to a problem. Time and time again users slander others they consider “noobz” (should be “|\|00|32″ anyway, now who is a |\|oo|3 dropi). Get a grip because no-one wants you so please leave our blogs, comment spaces and forums along.
I hope my message gets through because
this whole mess is exacly that– a fucking
mess (areo in vista basic is NOT POSSIBLE),
it’s this shit that clogs up the net with
computer fucking geeks and nerds whaterver,
bullshiting around and wasteing real peoples
time. Well I know its my fault for casually
surfing the web and seeing areo in BASIC and
actually thingking its possible.
Say what you want, you know I’m right.
–to moderator, please allow just this once.
Is the black vista theme availible to download to ordinary windows? if it is. can someone please send me a download-link to me.. been searching for a while now and cant find it.. Please: Mikk-kkie@hotmail.com
i think i have an idea but u need access to a vista premium or ultimate go into the folder c:/windows/resources/themes. and copy the themes folder to a flash drive or what ever and replace your folder of the same location
if any 1 has tried this yet let us know
This is hilarious. All of you people doing the namecalling and claiming it doesn’t work or only works on beta and RC versions, how would you know if it doesn’t work? Just because you didn’t do it correctly and it didn’t work for you doesn’t mean it doesn’t work for those who did follow the instructions:
Use regedit to modify:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM]
Composition = 1
CompositionPolicy = 2
Then, either use an administrative command prompt (right-click on Command Prompt and choose ‘Run as administrator’) to enter:
net stop uxsms
net start uxsms
or simply reboot.
After that, go to Personalize -> Window Color and Appearance and play with the sliders.
Aero won’t work in Home Basic?!
I bought a new laptop about 2 weeks ago because my old one suddenly died:(
My new laptop (Acer) has Vista Home Basic pre-enabled. And with Aero enabled on default!
So stop saying that it won’t work because it DOES WORK. Most of y’all wore just not lucky enough to have it pre-enabled.
what if i use my (dual boot )ubuntu to modify and/or get some files from a nother vista with aero and copy and/or replace the ones needed for aero?? would that work?