Windows 7 automatically switching to basic (non-aero) theme. I need a way to disable that behaviour.

Anonymous

This is very similar to what is described here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939423

As well as here: http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistaperformance/thread/c7b869e1-5138-48a3-b09d-419f76e2f728

However, this is for Windows 7, not Vista.

Scenario:

On a 3 screen (1920x1080 each) setup ran on an ATI HD4890 (1gb RAM, running 2 screens) + HD 3450 (256mb RAM, running 1 screen), whenever anything graphic intensive is put onto the screen hosted by the HD3450, Windows will complain "The color scheme has been changed to Windows Basic - The current color scheme has exceeded its allowed memory so the color scheme has been automatically changed to improve performance. Click to see more information." and change my theme to Windows Basic.

However, it is to be noted that the 3450 is not being stressed at all (all the load is being put onto the 4890 according to GPU-Z).

It should not be a problem with system RAM (6gb, on Win7 x64) nor processing power (i7 920).

Is there a way to disable Windows automatically "improving performance" by switching my theme?

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Anonymous

Run menu > sysdm.cpl > Advanced Tab > performance > select adjust for best performance > make sure you do not allow Windows to choose for you because your computer does not know whats best --- Make sure Enable Aero Peek is checked

---- OR ---

Right click my computer > properties > Advanced System settings > performance > select adjust for best performance > make sure you do not allow Windows to choose for you because your computer does not know whats best --- Make sure Enable Aero Peek is checked

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Anonymous

Hi whsper,

Welcome to Microsoft Answers Community Forums.

The aero theme is basically enabled depending on video card.

Windows Display Driver Modelis the graphic driver architecture for video card drivers running Microsoft Windows versions beginning with Windows Vista.

WDDM driver model version 1.0 is that it does not support multiple drivers in a multi-adapter, multi-monitor setup, the latest version is 2.0 is introduced.

Windows will disable the Desktop Window Manager (DWM) that controls the transparent glass effect or other effects of the Aero theme. The DWM manages the desktop and the primary display settings in Windows.

I would suggest you to check with your manufacturer for latest drivers to support your hardware configuration.

Hope this information helped you.

Regards

Yaaser - Microsoft Support Engineer

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138 additional answers

Anonymous

2011-04-19T16:34:51+00:00

SOLVED!!!

I had this same problem, 3 monitors Windows 7x64. Finally found it was a bad video driver that was installed with a "smart USB monitor" Doublesight DS-70U. Not only was the driver causing the problem, it would not uninstall. I had to download a program from them to uninstall the driver. After that problem gone.
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Anonymous

2011-04-12T16:21:00+00:00

After dealing with this issue for over a year now on multiple workstations, i can confidently say that there is no solution to this issue other than to get rid of the second video card. I've tried every registry hack and trick i could find, but it just comes down to a problem with windows itself. There are certainly triggers to the behavior, like launching ie9, firefox 4, full screen flash or silverlight video on the secondary displays running on the secondary card. But the only way to get rid of it, is to close the app/video or move it to a display running on the primary card. once you do that, you can stop/start the usxms service and get aero back...at least until you trigger it again. It makes my 3k workstation feel like a $500 retail pos, there is just no good reason why this should be an issue.

MS, is there a real fix to this? What is the real problem? I've had dual ATI and NVidia adapters with the same result, so don't tell me this is a driver issue.
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Anonymous

2011-04-03T05:30:51+00:00

Thanks; this was helpful! Got tired of restarting :)
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