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

2012-07-05T19:48:16+00:00

That works for me too. Kind of amazing that Microsoft writes the OS but can't come up with a browser that works as well as their competition with disabling things in their own operating system...
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Anonymous

2012-06-26T23:01:39+00:00

I'm having this same problem as well, I'm running 2 Radeon 4850's with 1GB of ram each, using the most up to date drivers from AMD which support WDDM 2.0. I've got 6GB of ram and im running an i7 920. I've been watching the task manager and for some reason when this issue occurs, the ram usage on the DWM Spikes to 400Megs+ usage, while this still isn't a problem as it should have almost a full 4GB to play with. Whats more odd is running 2 copies of eve online and watching a move in itunes, there was no problem running all three with Aero still going. Soon as I quit Eve, the system immediately bumped back to Basic. We need a way to disable this auto switching, let DWM use as much ram as it wants, I have lots of it for a reason; or give us at least some option to control when this auto-downgrade occurs, which appears to be around 400Megs.

Thanks!

Also, I was just playing this problem only seems to occur when moving something with more system demand to the the 3rd monitor, which is running off the 2nd video card. Which should be under less stress as it's only powering one screen as apposed to 2.

i have the same issue with 4 monitors on dual cards..... latest drivers, etc. has to be something else....
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Anonymous

2012-06-26T22:59:26+00:00

To everyone having this issue - this is NOT a program specific issue, it will occur with anything that uses your graphics card for hardware acceleration on any monitor that is not connected to your primary graphics card. The workarounds people have posted have all been for specific applications and all involve disabling GPU acceleration. In general this leads to a loss of performance and is not ideal. The problem is with Windows and not with the specific program you are running. It also seems likely that this is not dependent on who made your graphics card.

The only workarounds for this problem are either to not use GPU accelerated applications on your secondary monitors or to connect them directly to your primary graphics card.

mine are sli'd. using 2 as 1. still an issue, even when i revert back to just 1, disabling sli.
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