Windows Aero

[Asambhav]

Well, recently, I discovered that the reason my laptop was running like {censored} was because I had Windows Aero running.

My laptop randomly at times completely froze and never responded back, or it just locked up for awhile.

Aero really uses a lot of memory. I wish Microsoft would have figured a better method rather than it using all this memory.

 

With Aero on, Desktop Window Manager used 27K of my memory, but without it only 1.3K.

I only have 1GB of RAM so I'm guessing that's why it was doing what it did.

Just thought I should tell anyone who has Vista and it's running like {censored}.

Just change the appearance back to vista basic.

 

Anyone have any other things to comment about Aero?

[Overdriven]

Pretty, but ugly in many ways? The Aero experience is not that great >_>.

[robotskip]

Anyone have any other things to comment about Aero?

How about the fact that Aero uses the GPU? Oh, and some technical evidence would go a long way. Or maybe you could expand upon the 'random freezing' and how you deduced that it was Aero's fault.

 

Yes, there are a lot of comments people could have about Aero, and your comment but the truth is, it's probably not worth anyone's time. Why? Let's see, we have some random kid using swear words (Oh wait, he censored them, phew !), some convincing anecdotal evidence, lack of understanding of what he's talking about, etc.

[Guest h2a]

i think the general windows look and feel just kinda blows. aero looks better than the hideous Basic theme they put on there but i'm tired of blue and green being the featured colors of microsofts OS. as far as performance goes, i couldn't tell ya. i used it on my MacBook, which ran it like a charm until i realized that i never use Windows so i got rid of it.

[apowerr]

. aero looks better than the hideous Basic theme they put on there but i'm tired of blue and green being the featured colors of microsofts OS. as far as performance goes, i couldn't tell ya.

Basic is meant to be used on computers that cannot handle Aero. Blue and green being the featured colors? Windows 95-2000 had grey and blue. Windows XPs Luna had the the taskbar blue and green by default. And now Vista's Aero is sort of black/grey. Only XP used blue as a 'featured' color.

[erbic]

Aero looks nice, but it makes my computer(well, the GPU anyway) run hot and consequently cuts my MBP's battery life by a lot. I use Aero when it's plugged in, though.

[glassJAw]

Windows 2000 Default Theme > All other Windows Themes.

[Dr. Hurt]

Windows 2000 Default Theme > All other Windows Themes.

You've said it!!!

Long live windows 2000

[(MoC)]

Screw Aero! I wouldn't have even left 2k if it weren't for performance issues. Stuff ran smoother in XP!

Vista should be shot like the RG paperclip. XD

But 2k makes everything so smooth with drivers installed.

 

Vista = ME '07

 

But without ME, XP wouldn't have made it. They tried the UPnP and other stuffs that made it worst than NT 3.5! So people, UnPlugnPray!

[Riovi]

I had Vista on my laptop, with 1 GB ram and a 128 mb video card. And I didn't got Aero and the sound was all weird and slow. Actually, everything was slower than usual! XP works like a charm, Tiger too. But Vista was hell.

[CLiDE FTW!!1]

I like Aero. Had Apple kept in inconsistent look in Leopard as it was in Tiger, Vista would be the more visually appealing OS. But it's the little details in Mac that puts it on top.

[scj312]

If 27mb of RAM being used is an issue then I think you have more to worry about than disabling Aero.

[JSn1™]

I disabled Aero just to try, yes, the speed improved a lot. However I prefer a little bit slower system than to sacrifice Vista graphics.

[t6590]

I have run aero smoothly on a comparatively slow HP nc8000, which is aging by the way(1.6 Ghz Intel Core Solo, 512 MB RAM, and, yes 64 MB ATI Radeon. Now you must know that it does not even meet the minimum requirements for aero!

It also runs smoothly on Celeron D 3.2 Ghz, 1.5GB RAM, and an entry level nVIDIA GeForce FX 5500. The only trouble is that $@&^ dreamscene content, but even that does not hang the machine. Mostly, the GPU heats up.

[kriffer]

althought my computer runs fine with aero enabled, and definetly makes vista more appealing, i always have my vista ultimate computer switch to the classic view for better performance, gaming and such...

[robotskip]

Aero has no effect on gaming as it's kind of automatically turned off. I'm also doubting the rest of your comment.

[Numberzz]

I don't know about you guys, but I like it. I just hate Vista. The sole reason that Leopard doesn't have eye candy is because they want all users to have an equal version of Leopard. A 3 year old Laptop and a new laptop should have the same amount of features. Which is how it is not with Vista.

[littledragon]

Aero does take quite a bit of GPU and memory but it unloads itself when those resources are required for other programs like games

[robotskip]

I don't know about you guys, but I like it. I just hate Vista. The sole reason that Leopard doesn't have eye candy is because they want all users to have an equal version of Leopard. A 3 year old Laptop and a new laptop should have the same amount of features. Which is how it is not with Vista.

Sorry, expecting a 3 year old computer to have the same features as a current OS is silly, at least how you're pushing it. Do you expect your 3 year old graphics card to play the latest games? I could post many more examples.

 

I know the point you're trying to make but you're going about it the wrong way.

[3phemeral]

Sorry, expecting a 3 year old computer to have the same features as a current OS is silly, at least how you're pushing it. Do you expect your 3 year old graphics card to play the latest games? I could post many more examples.

 

I know the point you're trying to make but you're going about it the wrong way.

Well then, you'd be going about it the wrong way too...

Running an OS is very different to playing games - we're all aware of this. He's talking about OS functionality, not performance, which you are talking of. He pointed out that functionality should be the same on 3 year old hardware, as is the case with Leopard. This is clearly not the case with Vi$ta.

[tripleboot]

Does your video card even support aero.

[vbetts]

He pointed out that functionality should be the same on 3 year old hardware, as is the case with Leopard. This is clearly not the case with Vi$ta.

 

Leopard won't run as fast on a core duo or G5 as it would a core 2 duo. There is no OS that will run the same on new hardware versus 3 year old hardware.

 

On Aero though, it works fine for me. Doesn't really have any effect on performance for me. Aero isn't something that a video card supports, it just runs off of your gpu. Now you can have a crappy gpu and a good cpu and memory, but aero will run slow.

[scj312]

Leopard won't run as fast on a core duo or G5 as it would a core 2 duo. There is no OS that will run the same on new hardware versus 3 year old hardware.

 

On Aero though, it works fine for me. Doesn't really have any effect on performance for me. Aero isn't something that a video card supports, it just runs off of your gpu. Now you can have a crappy gpu and a good cpu and memory, but aero will run slow.

Aero has much more transparency than Aqua, and also has blurring. Leo turns off blurring when you have 3-year old hardware.

 

The blurring effects require a newer GPU because of the performance hit that occurs. That's why Aero gets disabled on non-DX9/shader model 2 hardware.

[Wipeout]

Aero has much more transparency than Aqua, and also has blurring. Leo turns off blurring when you have 3-year old hardware.

 

The blurring effects require a newer GPU because of the performance hit that occurs. That's why Aero gets disabled on non-DX9/shader model 2 hardware.

 

Yeah, I noticed that with even my FX5200 (and Rage 128). I still find those little bars they throw in there to be kind of weird, plus the face you can't get rid of them.

[MiJKa]

Just to toss in my two cents, I had Vista installed for a while. On my 3+ year old Acer 1691WLMi. I had it installed when it had the original 512MB of ram and later on, after I'd finally upgraded it to 2GBs. The ram issue offered a great big hugemongous difference. But turning aero on or off, on my ati x600 mobility, didn't, really.

 

(Of course, there was SOME difference, but turning off, say, the tablet service, running in the bg, offered a MUCH more serious speed boost. If I werent' the kind of person who went around with a wacom in my laptop bag. But I am. So let's get back on topic.)

 

The point is, with a bit of tweaking, vista was bearable on the laptop BEFORE the ram upgrade. Afterwards, I could literally just install it and leave it alone. (Not that I do, I'm a hopeless tweaker, but I COULD.) It was totally cool on a 3+ yr. old laptop with a Centrino (NOT a CD or C2D), with a 64MB graphics card.

 

Now, yes, Vista, untouched is a memory hog. We all know this. EVERYTHING worked better, faster and smoother after I'd upped my ram. Point being, it didn't really work THAT much better without aero.

 

(For the record, I'm back on XP and ubuntu on the laptop. But only because 32bit Vista has lag issues with CS3. No OSX because of ethernet borkedness and graphics card at best semi-support. Mostly the ethernet, though.)