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

2015-03-27T13:06:51+00:00
I have no enable Aero Peek option

If you don't see "Enable Aero Peek" in performance option, one of the possibilities might be your Theme service has been disabled. Try the following:
1. Go to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Administrative Tool\Services or simply type services.msc
2. Locate Themes. If the status is not "started", start it. If setup type is disabled, you have to double-click it and change the startup type to "automatic" first.
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Anonymous

2014-01-22T12:33:03+00:00

Does not work.

The ONLY answer is to create a batch file with these lines in it:

net stop uxsms

net start uxsms

Put it on your desktop and run it every time this happens. It is a fix, not a prevention.

The solution recommended here does not change the behavior but it does change the error message. Now, Windows claims that excessive memory use has required the color scheme to be changed -- slightly more informative, but would it Kill you to identify the program that went over the limit?

My guess is that it is part of BOINC that I run when my computer is not in use. That's because this ALWAYS happens on waking the computer. But that in turn indicates that Windows is running close to the resource limit pretty much of the time which seems like bad design.
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Anonymous

2011-12-09T23:24:28+00:00

The simple fact is that there's no solution to this issue, and i'm talking mainly the "detected that your computer is running slow" its a problem with windows 7 and can only be fixed by microsoft. And we can pretty much forget about it for windows 7 and only hope that its fixed in windows 8.

Microsoft in general will have its main focus on computer morons that can send and receive mail and thats about it (for home users), it will not and probably newer give users a choice in this type of matter, microsoft has determined that your computer is running slow and then its slow no matter how much better you know.

So please Microsoft acknowledge the fact that most computer users (well a lot) know a thing or two about computers and we can tell by our selfs if its running slow or not, this is by far the most annoying issue i have and i need aero functional for several programs in 7 monitor system.

Just to add as an example as well, FSX forces Aero off and that is in fact what make it run slower or have no visible effect. Quite silly, Might have been true in Vista but seeing as the user is a moron its forced. In fact try putting a window mode FSX over your non aero taskbar and watch the performance go down the drain, with aero on its not an issue at all. So there another issue solved if you had bad performance in FSX window mode and couldnt understand why.
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