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

2011-07-20T21:12:47+00:00

I have the same problem. I have two new model powerful 1gb video cards running 4 displays. There is no reason they should be having any issues. But I still have aero disabled when playing video on a display.
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Anonymous

2011-07-10T22:13:04+00:00

Hi Folks,

This seems to be an odd problem and many see it in different situations and think they have found solutions in different ways. Maybe they have for themselves.

I just want to describe what I think was a simple configuration change that gave me this problem and no way to fix it until I understood what "sirkirby" was saying on April 12 in this thread.

I moved from a dual display system, 2 1280.1024 displays, with a single ATI Radeon 4650 (515MB) card that worked just beautifully to a dual display system, 2 1920x1080 displays and 2 ATI Radeon 5450 (1GB) cards. Needed the two cards since the single one maxed out at 2540x1600. None if this is close to a gaming system or anything else with more than minimal 3D graphics.

Shouldn't have been any problem, all drivers newest and works with both types of cards, etc. But this problem immediately surfaced especially most everytime I simply started IE9.

Now, thanks to sirkirby, the problem has been totally gone for nearly a week. The solution is simple - don't use IE9 on the secondary display, Chrome seems just fine, but IE9 causes the messages and switches to non-Aero. Never happens when IE9 is on primary, always happens when IE9 is on secondary. So, I adjusted how I used the displays.

Clearly a serious but in the system, IMO, but no one at MS seems to want to own up to it. I can't claim it's not somewhat driver relateed since I'm only using ATI cards, but sirkirby sees the same on nVidia as well.

So, in my case, I'm now ok since IE9 appears to be the only trigger for me. Others probably have other triggers and/or no choice where IE9 (or anything else) runs. Bad situation that needs a fix.

If any of you get a situation like I had where I could reproduce the problem quickly, it was easy after reading sirkirby's post to test on the primary monitor where the problem doesn't occur for me at all.

Good luck to you all, and I hope MS sees this as a problem worth fixing.

-marsha
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Anonymous

2011-06-08T17:30:25+00:00

I'm having the same problem. I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate edition, AMD 64 3200 CPU, Gforce 7600 GS Video Card Its only started happening since I formatted my hdd and re-installed windows and this was no more than 2 weeks ago. On my previous installation before I formatted I never had a problem. Its just very annoying having to choose my theme after it resets itself. And just for the record before it changes a CMD box comes up with some txt in it and then the personalisation window comes up and then it changes to the basic theme. Help would be most appreciated!
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