To be precise: Windows Aero is not available in Windows Vista Home Basic and Windows 7 Starter and only partially enabled in Windows 7 Home Basic.

But there is another problem that users can encounter when trying to get Windows Aero to work. Microsoft has build in a hardware check that performs a check of the operating system before enabling Aero. It will block Aero from being executed iIf the operating system fails that check. This can usually be attributed to not meeting one or multiple of the minimum hardware requirements to run Aero.

Aero Enabler has been created by the developer to enable Windows Aero in Windows Vista and Windows 7. It’s primary purpose is to enable Aero in Windows Vista Home Basic and Windows 7 Home Basic. It will only be enabled if the computer system passes the hardware check to ensure that the system will run stable even with Aero enabled.

The minimum requirements to run Windows Aero are:

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 GB of system memory
• DirectX 9 compatible graphics processor with a Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) driver, Pixel shader 2.0 in hardware, and a minimum of 128 MB of Video RAM
• 40 GB hard drive with 15 GB free space

The software comes with a switch to disable the hardware check which only makes sense if the hardware check failed although the hardware should be capable of running Windows Aero. Enabling Aero on a computer system that does not meet the requirements could result in all kinds of problems including performance and stability issues.

Windows 7 Home Basic and Windows Vista Home Basic users who want to give Aero Enabler a try can download the software at the developer’s website.. (via Techie Buzz)

This Windows Aero Glass feature is now available in Windows XP thanks to Fast Aero. Fast Aero, a portable software, is a work in progress with the ultimate goal to provide the Aero Glass feature for all Windows XP users. The current version of Fast Aero provides the Glass effect on most – if not all – windows that are open in Windows XP. Please keep in mind that only new windows will display the Windows Aero Glass effect. Some can be minimized and maximized again while others need to be closed and reopened.

The default language of the software is Polish but it can easily be changed in the config.ini to English so that the language line looks like this: language=english. The only options provided by the interface are to enable or disable the blur effect. Version 1.3 which is supposed to come out in December will offer additional features like finetuning the blur intensity and refresh interval.

The Windows XP Aero Glass effect looks pretty solid in this version. Users who like to add some special bling to their operating system will surely love Fast Aero. Other users might feel that its resource usage does not justify the visual gain. It comes down to personal choice and preference in the end.

The program that offers a similar function for older Windows versions is called Madotate. It adds another icon to every window next to the icons on the top right corner. If the new icon is pressed the window will be changed from 2d into 3d. Every window has a short tab that displays the title of the window. Left-clicking a 3D window changes it again from 3d into 2D mode, you can move it around by keeping the left mouse button pressed. Right-clicking the window makes it possible to change the point of view for that window which means that you can give it more space or less space on your desktop.

The most important aspect of the application is that it uses only a few megabytes of system memory will the feature in Windows Vista requires a lot.