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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Answer accepted by question author

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

2011-02-19T16:15:58+00:00

^^^ Worked thank you! (Also enable visual styles if you want to keep the look)

I only had this problem while running Battlefield BC2... and it just started recently out of the blue for no reason.. didn't update any drivers, but there was a couple win7 updates.

Besides the Win7 x64 and the twin monitors.. that's all I have in common with everyone else. My rig is

Q9550 @ 3.4

EVGA 780i SLI FTW

GTX 275 1792Mb

8Gb DDR2 @ 1066

3 x 250Gb SATA II in RAID 0

What Trevor said seemed to fix it.. I haven't done extensive testing yet.. but I usually had this happen within the first 15 mins of game play.

Thanks Trevor
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Anonymous

2011-02-12T20:42:24+00:00

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?

Any time you can do away with dumbass microsoft themes you should consider yourself lucky. Why on earth would you want to slow your machine by running that silly ____?
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