Windows Vista biggest con: Windows Aero

[odd_function]

Yes, Windows Vista Aero, allows you too see through other windows only one small problem...it can cause video card problems...if you're playing a video game that requires alot of video card ram please consider disabling this.
Have you ever seen this message: "Display driver (your video card brand) stopped responding and has successfully recovered..." this is caused by the Aero Glass being enabled...

Right-click a blank area on the Vista Desktop
Click on Personalize.
Click on the link: Windows Color and Appearance
The crucial link that you need to click is down at the bottom:
Open classic appearance properties for more color options.

'Windows Aero' is the worst choice.
Note 1: If there is no 'Windows Aero' option, then it means that you system cannot run that Color scheme. (Could be Home Basic Edition?)
Note 2: Do make sure that there is a untick next to the 'Enable transparency'. A tick mean use the Aero Glass effect.

Enjoy a problem free Vista. :clap:

 

[Fernando]

Normally I get paid to promote Microsoft.

I never experienced any problem with Vista or Server 2008. I always wondered why. The only difference: I'm not using any kind of extra system optimizer, virus scanner or firewall solution.

 

[Webslinger]

Have you ever seen this message: "Display driver (your video card brand) stopped responding and has successfully recovered..." this is caused by the Aero Glass being enabled...

Actually, it's mostly caused by old crappy Nvidia drivers (if you work for Microsoft), by an old bug in Vista that's now been fixed with Microsoft updates (if you work for Nvidia), or a bad stick of ram. Trust me. I've had first hand experience with that issue. It drove me nuts for a good week.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...nding,+but+has+successfully+recovered&spell=1

 

[odd_function]

I hate Aero Glass

I never experienced any problem with Vista or Server 2008.

Well, the only way you see issues with Vista is if you push it too the limits like, playing video games the requires alot of video ram...and other activities...I highly recommend disabling Aero Glass for several reasons: It makes gaming horrible, Video players may act up and there is no real reason to have it on IMHO.

Normally I get paid to promote Microsoft.

Micro$oft would be a great company if it wasn't for the built in online activation scheme then put in there new operating systems.

Normally I get paid...

Not to offend you but, your not the guy they are reffering to in the ABBA song are you? Great song BTW...

 

[Webslinger]

It makes gaming horrible

Makes no difference at all on my system:

Intel quad core at 3.6 Ghz (and I'm now fiddling at bringing it to 3.8-4Ghz)
8 gigs of DDR2-1066
Radeon 4870
Raid 0 config

And I doubt Aero is going to make a difference when I swap the 4870 out for a 4870x2 in August.

 

[odd_function]

Actually, it's mostly caused by old crappy Nvidia drivers.

That's odd this error pop-ups on my brand new HP Vista Machine.

...or a bad stick of ram.

A brand new PC w/bad ram interesting.

I've had first hand experience with that issue. It drove me nuts for a good week.

Who told you to try Vista?

...by an old bug in Vista that's now been fixed with Microsoft updates...

All you have to do to remove this annoying pop-up warning is to completely disable
the Vista Theme to Windows Vista Basic and disable Aero Glass...pop-up gone.

 

[odd_function]

Not on my intel quad core 3.6 ghz based system (which I am now considering pushing to 4 Ghz) with 8 gigs of ram and a Radeon 4870, it doesn't. Makes no difference at all. Nor does it make any difference with a 4870x2.

Only one problem: not everyone can afford these particular configurations.
In most cases, most games will disable the Vista Aero and covert it to Vista Basic as long as your running the game. :agree:

 

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

I don't know if it is still the case but previously if I used the Classic theme in Vista and then used PowerDVD8 the text was screwed up or missing in PowerDVD's UI.

I've run into no issues with Aero and gaming.

Q6600 @ 2.4 GHz
8 GB RAM
ATI Radeon 4870

 

[Fernando]

Actually, it's mostly caused by old crappy Nvidia drivers (if you work for Microsoft), by an old bug in Vista that's now been fixed with Microsoft updates (if you work for Nvidia), or a bad stick of ram. Trust me.

It's an nVidia bug. Those Microsoft labelled drivers are completely developed by nVidia. Microsoft only forces them to remove all their "user-friendly Dialogs/GUIs".

 

[Webslinger]

That's odd this error pop-ups on my brand new HP Vista Machine.

Not odd at all. Very common

A brand new PC w/bad ram interesting.

Very common

Who told you to try Vista?

If you want DirectX 10 support, there's no other choice (well, not really).

All you have to do to remove this annoying pop-up warning is to completely disable
the Vista Theme to Windows Vista Basic and disable Aero Glass...pop-up gone.

All I had to do was RMA a bad brand new stick of RAM (this issue actually occurred on my g/f's system).
Take one stick out. Problem go away? Then bad stick of ram.
No change? ReInstall the stick you removed. Take the other stick out. Problem go away?

And all other people had to do (with Nvidia cards) was wait for a Vista update.

If you have to disable Aero to make that message go away, you have bigger issues on your hands that will only crop up later under different circumstances.

 

[odd_function]

Makes no difference at all on my system:

Intel quad core at 3.6 Ghz (and I'm now fiddling at bringing it to 3.8-4Ghz)
8 gigs of DDR2-1066
Radeon 4870
Raid 0 config

You seem to have a serious power house machine :rock: To bad one of my XP machines only sees 3 Gigs of ram installed even though I have installed 4 Gigs.

 

[Webslinger]

It's an nVidia bug.

Yes, that's what Micrsoft claimed, anyway.

Regardless, Windows updates resolved that issue for most people. Nvidia reps swore up and down to me that it was a Vista bug. Not that I believed them . . .

If people still received that error message after Windows updates, the cause was mostly due to flaky ram.

 

[Webslinger]

You seem to have a serious power house machine :rock: To bad one of my XP machines only sees 3 Gigs of ram installed even though I have installed 4 Gigs.

Yes, that's normal. There are limitations with respect to the amount of memory win32 can address.

I'm using 8 gigs under Vista 64 bit edition.

 

[odd_function]

If you have to disable Aero to make that message go away, you have bigger issues on your hards...

Well, all I know is after completly disabling the Windows Aero and converting to Windows Vista Basic...never heard from that pop-up ever again

If you want DirectX 10 supprt, there's no other choice (well, not really).

So, basically you decided to dump XP and upgrade to Vista for DirectX 10 support...that was very smart.

And I doubt Aero is going to make a difference when I swap the 4870 out for a 4870x2 in August.

All I know is, ALOT of people are dumping Vista...everyone is dying to get there hands on an XP Install disc (which are hard to find...thank you Micro$oft )...everyone I know wants XP on there machines....I wonder why

 

[Webslinger]

Well, all I know is after completly disabling the Windows Aero and converting to Windows Vista Basic...never heard from that pop-up ever again

Yes, because you're using less resources--and not a 3D graphics mode. GPU temps increase when using Aero for a reason.

That's a workaround and not an actual fix. Disabling Aero worked for me as well, until I realized that I shouldn't be getting that error message regardless.

So, basically you decided to dump XP and upgrade to Vista for DirectX 10 support...that was very smart.

I have Vista 64 bit installed on a Raid 0 config (raid 0 is a little risky; but it's nice and quick for gaming). I have XP installed on another hard drive in the same computer. I use the bios boot menu to boot into whichever OS I want to. I didn't dump anything. I also built my girlfriend's system in the exact same manner.

And since I'm a gamer, yes that was very smart.

All I know is, ALOT of people are dumping Vista

I never said I like Vista. In fact, I'm not a fan of Vista at all. But DirectX 10 supported games do tend to look nicer under Vista.

 

[odd_function]

Yes, that's normal. There are limitations with respect to the amount of memory win32 can address.

I'm using 8 gigs under Vista 64 bit edition.

I believe you're running Vista Ultimate 64 bit edition...If I'm not mistaken it will support a maximum of 128GB of ram, (too bad there are no RAM sticks that go that high) too bad a motherboard is not designed to support such memory capacity overload. (at least not yet).

 

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

The error message noted above by odd_function happened to me at one point with my NVIDIA 8800 GT card. In the end the problem was an IRQ issue. I went through trying to figure out if it was a driver problem, bad RAM, a motherboard issue, etc. When I moved my IDE DVD drives off the motherboard controller IDE and used an addon SATA/eSATA/IDE controller the problem vanished. That was a nightmare to track down.

Anyway, if people want access to DirectX 10 or beyond then they need Vista. I don't even know if the DirectX 10 for XP work is still being done. DirectX 11 has now been officially announced.

The Inquirer quoted Microsoft CTO Chris Satchell here: http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/23/microsoft-announces-dx11

Satchell readily admitted that Microsoft had deliberately created a discontinuity between DX10 and DX9, but emphasized that "DX11 is totally compatible with DX10.”

We all knew they did what they did between DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 but this is the first time I've heard anyone from Microsoft in any real position of power actually admit it.

I still believe that building your own system is the best way to go but it can be insanely frustrating at times with all the issues that can pop up. Given time you might be able to fix some of the problems but you can't fix them all. Try getting IDE ODDs to work using the mobo controller on an MSI X48c Platinum motherboard while having the SATA HDDs running in RAID. Good luck.

Anyway, some of the problems may be the OS, some may be the drivers, some is also going to be the hardware, itself.

In the end, I believe that any system that can run Vista reasonably well should also handle the Aero interface. I'm not a huge fan of it but it doesn't seem to have any negative impacts on performance on my system. I'd prefer the Classic theme but as I stated I had issues running Classic.

 

[odd_function]

I have Vista 64 bit installed on a Raid 0 config. I have XP installed on another hard drive in the same computer.

Superb idea :clap: Two operating systems on the same machine...how come I never thought of that

 

[Webslinger]

The error message noted above by odd_function happened to me at one point with my NVIDIA 8800 GT card. In the end the problem was an IRQ issue. I went through trying to figure out if it was a driver problem, bad RAM, a motherboard issue, etc. When I moved my IDE DVD drives off the motherboard controller IDE and used an addon SATA/eSATA/IDE controller the problem vanished. That was a nightmare to track down.

Yeah, I remember working with you through that. Enabling raid with some Intel X38 and X48 based motherboard chipsets causes a lot of IRQ headaches, especially with onboard IDE controllers enabled.

Again, while disabling Aero may help, the real cause lies elsewhere.

We all knew they did what they did between DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 but this is the first time I've heard anyone from Microsoft in any real position of power actually admit it.

My cynicism is pretty high with respect to Microsoft. I'm sure I'll be buying their next OS just for DirectX 11. :bang:

 

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

The last time I tried PowerDVD8 also wouldn't work correctly under the Classic theme in Vista. The UI for PowerDVD8 was totally screwed up. Worked fine under Aero though. Go figure.