If your computer is not performing as fast as it should be, you can do some quick fixes to speed things up a bit. One of them is turning off the Windows Aero theme.

Introduced in Windows Vista, this new experience focused on providing an elegant user experience for the Windows environment. Most modern systems can run Aero, but older systems can struggle to keep up with the graphical demands of Aero, resulting in a slower computer.

The best thing to do in such scenarios is to turn off the Windows Aero Glass theme. Doing this is very simple, just right-click your Desktop then click Personalize

Turning off Aero

This will open the Personalize Control Panel item which includes a variety of tools and options for customizing your Windows user experience.

Windows 7 Personalize Settings

Windows 7 includes three types of themes: Aero Glass, Basic and High Contrast themes. Aero Glass is the premier theme that includes effects such as semi-transparency of window border along with the ability to utilize desktop effects such as Aero Peek, Snaps, Taskbar Thumbnail Previews and others such as Flip 3D. Aero Glass requires that you have a GPU (graphical processing unit otherwise known as your video card) powerful enough to compose the desktop. To run Aero Glass, you need a video card that supports DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver.

If you don’t meet the requirements to run Aero Glass, it doesn’t necessarily mean you cannot run Windows 7. Many older computers work just fine with the Windows Aero Basic theme which provides some of the features of Windows 7, but not the more visually stunning aspects such as the semi-transparency.

If your computer is capable of running Windows 7 Aero Glass, but performs slow, you can turn off some visual embellishments to improve the speed of the interface. To do this, click Start, type: Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows

Hit Enter on your keyboard

Adjust performance in Windows 7

Select the Visual Effects tab

Here you will see a number of options available for you to choose from. You have Windows choose the best experience or you adjust according your hardware capabilities. You can even select the Custom option and uncheck options that can give you more speed while still enjoying the benefits of the Aero Glass user experience.

Additional Resources

Making Windows 7 Your Own: Personalization and Themes

How to Turn off Windows Aero: To Speed Up Windows 7 is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

If you want to make Windows a bit more personal, you can customize and change wallpaper in Windows 7 themes in order to change how Windows 7 looks and give it a personal touch.

Themes are one of the great aesthetic features of Windows 7. Microsoft provides a website just for downloading new themes and wallpapers. I must admit, I am an avid collector, especially of the Best of Bing Theme Packs.

No matter how nice the themes look, some themes have a wallpaper or two you don’t find so attractive, here is how you can remove the wallpapers you don’t like from Windows 7 Slideshow themes.

Step 1. Right click the desktop, click Personalize

Step 2. Make sure your wallpaper theme has been selected then click the Desktop Background link a the bottom of the Personalization window.

This will display a gallery of all the wallpapers in that particular theme.

Step 3. Hover over the wallpaper you don’t want to appear in the Slideshow theme and uncheck the tick in the box that appears on the wallpaper. Repeat this step for other wallpapers.

From now on, you will see just the wallpapers you want in your favorite Wallpaper slideshow.

How to Customize Wallpaper Themes in Windows 7 is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

One of the great things about using Windows 7 is how easy it is to customize it to your liking. Microsoft has made making Windows your own a fun activity, whether it’s using the built in tools to customize the appearance of the desktop or even using third party tools to create a unique log in background.

Today we’ll show you how to create and share a Windows 7 wallpaper theme that you can use and share. This is a great way to customize your own Windows experience or to share a collection of pictures with a friend or family member.

For this article, I am going to be using a set of photos I took at home, feel to use yours if you wish. Our tools of choice today is Microsoft Paint and the Control Panel Screen Resolution item.

The first thing we need to find out is the maximum resolution supported by our Display Monitor. The purpose of this is to ensure the wallpaper does not look stretched or squeezed on screen. To find out your maximum Resolution supported, right click your desktop, click Screen Resolution.

This will open the Screen Resolution Control Panel Item.

Click in the Resolution list box and take note of the maximum resolution supported by your display. You might need to write this down.

Next we will proceed to resize the image using Microsoft Paint. Browse to where the image is located, or you can open it from within Microsoft Paint. Just to be safe, create a backup copy of the image just in case you make a mistake when editing it.

Microsoft Paint

Once you are in Paint, all you have to do is click the Resize button (located under Home (tab) > Image (group) or press CTRL + W on your keyboard.

This will present the Resize and Skew window on screen. We will be using the Resize tools.

• Select Pixels radio box
• Uncheck Maintain aspect ration
• Enter the desired resolutions in the Horizontal and Vertical boxes. This is the resolution we had written down earlier from the Screen Resolution Control Panel item.

So for example, my screen resolution is 1680 by 1050, so I would enter 1680 in to the Horizontal box and 1050 in the Vertical box. Once this is done, click OK.

Resized image

Apply the same steps for additional images you would like to have added to your Wallpaper Theme. Remember to save the changes.

Once the images have been properly resized, it’s time to create the wallpaper theme. Right click your desktop, then click Personalize

This will open the Personalize Control Panel item.

At the bottom of the window, click the Desktop Background link:

Click the Browse button and point to where you have the image or images stored. In my case, I had all my images I wanted for my wallpaper theme stored in a folder called Cloud – copy for easy access.

Once you have selected the location where the images are stored, click OK. The images will now be populated with the option to pick and choose which images you would like to be a part of the wallpaper theme and slide show.

You can set specific settings such as how long a picture should be displayed on screen, in addition to shuffling them around. You can also click in the Picture position list box and set a desired appearance on screen.

Once you are satisfied and made your adjustments, click the Save changes button.

Our Wallpaper theme will now appear in the Gallery of themes.

Now, you don’t want to lose the theme, and you might want to share it with family and friends. Here is how you do it. Right click the Unsaved Theme as it is called,  click ‘Save theme for sharing’

Give the File a name, this will save it as a Theme Pack you can easily email or share on your blog.

Other tips:

Before saving, you can change the Glass Color, add a Unique Sound and even a Screen saver, then save it to provide a truly unique experience that defines you.

How to Create and Share a Windows 7 Wallpaper Theme Pack is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

Windows 7 is a pretty flexible operating system and I am not just talking about the 6 editions of the operating system that are available with various features and capabilities, but the ability to scale and perform on a variety of hardware configurations. One of the major improvements to the Windows Desktop is the Windows Aero Glass user experience which introduces elegant desktop effects and visual cues that making using Windows more productive and fun. Of course, not all computers are able to take advantage of Aero Glass even though some might be able to run it, it can actually have an adverse effect on your system performance.

The best recommendation in such scenarios is to disable the Windows Aero Glass theme. Doing this is very simple, just right click your Desktop then click Personalize

This will open the Personalize Control Panel item which includes a variety of tools and options for customizing your Windows user experience.

Windows 7 includes three types of themes: Aero Glass, Basic and High Contrast themes. Aero Glass is the premier theme that includes effects such as semi-transparency of window border along with the ability to utilize desktop effects such as Aero Peek, Snaps, Taskbar Thumbnail Previews and others such as Flip 3D. Aero Glass requires that you have a GPU (graphical processing unit otherwise known as your video card) powerful enough to compose the desktop. To run Aero Glass, you need a video card that supports DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver.

If you don’t meet the requirements to run Aero Glass, it doesn’t necessarily mean you cannot run Windows 7. Many older computers work just fine with the Windows Aero Basic theme which provides some of the features of Windows 7, but not the more visually stunning aspects such as the semi-transparency.

If your computer is capable of running Windows 7 Aero Glass, but performs slow, you can turn off some visual embellishments to improve the speed of the interface. To do this, click Start, type: Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows

Hit Enter on your keyboard

Select the Visual Effects tab

Here you will see a number of options available for you to choose from. You have Windows choose the best experience or you adjust according your hardware capabilities. You can even select the Custom option and uncheck options that can give you more speed while still enjoying the benefits of the Aero Glass user experience.

Resources

Making Windows 7 Your Own: Personalization and Themes

How to fix Slow Windows speed (Turn off Aero) is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

There is more to owning a PC than just having one, whether its a laptop or desktop. With the many generic brands out there to choose from, its not unlikely for you to know someone who has an exact configuration and model as you do. Many PC OEM’s have tried to differentiate their models with different finishes and form factors that make them stand out. Its one of the key aspects of WINTEL machines, there is definitely choice to be found and opportunities to customize. Consumers also have the choice of carrying their computer to an after market customization expert and have them do a custom paint job to add a bit more personality/style to a computer that defines them. Some high-end boutique vendors such as Falcon Northwest bundle that option as a part of their computer models.

What is a Theme?

A theme in Windows combines photos, sounds, color along with wallpaper background, sound scheme, screen saver and special icons/mouse pointer.

The personalization story gets much deeper when we enter the world of software and Windows 7 makes the experience even more interesting. Windows has for a long time included theming capabilities, probably as far back as the first version. Microsoft’s first major overhaul of making Windows more customizable was with the release of Windows 95 in 1995 and the companion pack, Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95. This allowed customers to customize their PC experience with additional window themes, icons and sound schemes. Eventually, this was incorporated into Windows 98 and future releases. Windows XP released in 2001 introduced a bold experience called Luna, which featured thicker title bars with three optional colors called Blue, Olive and Silver. Some of the qualities of this theme include, large self explainable icons, rich in color and depth, bright vibrant wallpapers and overall richer palette of colors. Subsequent themes were released outside of Windows XP by Microsoft, such as a ZUNE theme, Royale introduced with the release Windows XP Tablet PC/Media Center 2005. Microsoft also released a companion update to Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP. Consumers described that release as offering little to be worth $39.

With Windows Vista, Microsoft took another bold step, redesigning the Windows user experience now called AERO. Windows Vista introduced real life effects such as translucent windows, life like icons and a cleaner design that made using Windows daily a pleasure. Microsoft added numerous effects and color schemes for changing the color depth of Glass along with high quality wallpaper backgrounds. Microsoft also used Windows Vista as an opportunity to update the Display Properties dialog creating a new Explorer shell called Personalization. In this new interface, in which elements were categorized into different sections explaining what each does, users clicked a different link which led to a shell or dialog for customizing the Windows interface, whether it was Window color, Desktop background, Glass color, Screen Saver, Sound scheme etc.

Windows 7 improves on this, by enhancing the layout for quicker access to elements, but also adding more options for theming the Windows interface and making Windows connect better with locals. Themes are now bundled packages that feature a collection of high resolution wallpapers and an assigned glass color. Of course, there are some additional changes for users upgrading from versions of Windows such as XP or as far back as Windows 2000 Professional. Lets discuss some more about the different aspects of the Windows 7 Personalization Explorer shell. To access it, right click your desktop, click Personalize.

Users should note, Windows 7 offers varied experiences depending on the capabilities of your hardware and the edition of Windows 7 you are using. Lets learn some more about these tier of capabilities:

Windows Aero Standard – Combines some of the capabilities of Windows Aero Glass with some features of Aero Basic. Users will notice that window borders are more glass like in appearance, but do not have the option for translucency. The Taskbar is similar Aero Basic, except for the option of Thumbnail previews is now available.

Windows Aero Glass РWhat some would call the cr̬me de la cr̬me, Aero Glass offers the ultimate user experience for Windows users. The Windows Aero Glass encompasses every aspect of the Windows desktop experience: Start menu, Desktop, Taskbar and Windows Explorer. The immediate differences users will note is the ability to have translucent glass windows and a Taskbar with powerful effects such as interactive thumbnail previews, ability to see running videos with the ability to hover them and see a full size preview. If you invoke the Alt+Tab command, you can also see a live preview of windows on the fly. Users can also customize the color of the windows with up 16 different colors to choose with the option of controlling the intensity of the window color itself.

In addition to these themes, Microsoft also provides different that are grouped as Basic and High Contrast themes.

Windows Aero Basic – For computers that cannot support the minimum graphics requirements of Windows Aero Glass. Aero Basic features the standard elements of the Windows 7 interface except for the translucent effects and animations. Instead, areas such as the Taskbar, window borders display a blue/grayish color scheme. Other unavailable features include the inability to choose a Window Color, see and interact with thumbnail previews, Alt-Tab Preview, Flip 3D and Aero Peek.

Windows Classic - First introduced with Windows 95, this experience was the flagship theme for Windows for many years and was replaced by Windows XP’s Luna in 2001 but is still included in Windows for persons who are not quite ready for the changes in Windows 7. Microsoft has made some changes to Windows Classic in Windows 7 where menus are concerned. The standard look and feel still exist, but Microsoft has decided to remove the Standard Classic Menu that was available as an option in both Windows XP and Vista. Personally, I agree with this, since the new Start menu offers so many benefits such as Instant Search, easier access to programs, better control (no cascading/off screen sub menus), ability to search HomeGroups, Public directories and detailed results when presented. The new Start menu also introduces support for features unique to Windows 7 such as Jump List providing access to task and recently accessed files associated with a program.

High Contrast themes - If you have difficulty reading or viewing your screen, Windows has for years included high-contrast color schemes that heightens the color contrast of some text and images on your computer, making those items more distinct and easier to identify.

System Requirements – To run Windows Aero Glass, you need appropriate hardware. The capabilities will vary depending on what you have installed, here is a list of suggested requirements from Microsoft:

• 1 GHz CPU (processor) 32 or 64 bit
• 1 GB of RAM
• 128 MB video card
• DirectX 9 compliant video card that supports Windows Display Driver Model 1.0 or later, Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware, and 32 bits per pixel. (To find out if your card is DirectX 9 compliant, open the Run command (Windows key + R), type dxdiag. Under System Information, DirectX Version: you should see the version of DirectX

For best results, you might also want to follow these graphics processor recommendations:

• 64 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor with a resolution that is less than 1,310,720 pixels (for example, a 17-inch flat panel LCD monitor that has a 1280 x 1024 resolution)
• 128 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor with a resolution from 1,310,720 to 2,304,000 pixels (for example, a 21.1-inch flat panel LCD monitor that has up to a 1600 x 1200 resolution).
• 256 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor with a resolution greater than 2,304,000 pixels (for example, a 30-inch wide-screen flat panel LCD monitor that has up to a 2560 x 1600 resolution)

How do I personalize Windows 7?

Aero Background - You can easily turn your desktop into a slideshow of your favorite photos.

From the Personalization window, click Desktop Background

Choose the images you want to cycle and display on your screen. You have the option of choosing how long a picture is displayed on your screen.

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Glass Color – You can make your windows look the way you like with your favorite color. Windows 7 Color and Appearance now includes a total of 16 different colors to choose from.

From the Personalization window, click Windows Color

Choose the color you want. You also have the option of controlling the intensity of the color by using the Color Intensity slider. The transparency effects can optionally be turned off.

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Windows 7 bundles a set of 6 pre-packed themes for you to get started with, these include the default branded Windows 7 themes: Architecture, Characters, Landscapes, Nature and Scenes. The Windows Team went the extra mile with Windows 7 where themes and local cultures are related. Windows 7 offers themes tailored to different regions and languages, with special wallpapers, sounds and Aero Glass colors to provide a more locally relevant experience.

The Sounds Area of Personalization includes a collection of 13 new sound schemes that are also related to the new Windows 7 bundled themes.

Windows 7 does not stop at what comes bundled on the installation disk, users can create their own Slide show themes and download additional ones from Microsoft’s Windows 7 website here Simply click a theme to Download and it will install your chosen theme. If you want to create your own theme and save it, learn more in the following Notebooks.com article here

You can download additional themes and backgrounds from the Windows 7 website

Themes are a great way to have fun with your PC and make it represent you and your experiences. Of course, you are not limited by what Microsoft provides, third party solutions are also available for you to customize the Windows interface to an even greater degree. StarDock Object Desktop which is partly responsible for the now defunct Windows Dreamscene once available to Windows Vista provides artistic themed interfaces for Windows, allowing you to change up your Windows experience as much as you like. You can learn more here So, don’t be afraid to have fun with Windows 7 and change it up the way you like, as Microsoft says After all, it’s yours.

Resources

Using the Windows 7 Desktop – Fun Time Savers

A Guided Tour of Windows 7 for new users

Making Windows 7 Your Own: Personalization and Themes is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

Windows Vista provides some fun animation and effects to the Windows Desktop, (Flip 3D and Alt-Tab-2D). Windows 7 adds further pizzazz with a set of entertaining visual cues that makes working with Windows a great time on the PC. Let’s check some of them out!

Click image to enlarge

Aero Peek Allows you to see behind windows revealing the desktop without the need to minimize windows by simply placing your mouse pointer in the right hand corner of the screen. The Alt-Tab  command supports full preview’s of windows when invoked.

Tip for this visual effect: (Windows Key + Space) or (Alt + Tab)

Click image to enlarge

Aero Snaps – For persons who often do data comparisons with content from two windows on screen, Windows 7 has made this a cinch by simply making it possible to drag the window to opposite sides of your screen; automatically each window will fill its half of the screen.

Tip for this visual effect: (Windows Key + arrow)

Click image to enlarge

Aero Shake - Grab a window title bar, shake it and all windows behind the active window will minimize to the Taskbar, shake it again and all windows will return to the screen.

Desktop Slideshow This is not really a time saver, but if you want to use up some idle time at work before the clock hit’s 5 P.M. here’s is a nice feature of the Windows Desktop you definitely will enjoy. In Windows 7, Microsoft provides in addition to window colour, the ability to choose pre-packaged themes that matches the bundled wallpapers. Glass colour options have increased from 8 in Vista to 16 now in 7. The Personalization explorer supports changing your desktop wallpaper automatically at timed intervals or you invoke it manually by right clicking the desktop and click the ‘Next Desktop Background Picture’ contextual menu option. You can selectively choose different wallpapers you would like to be added to the slideshow, you can even create your own themes and save them. The Personalization explorer itself is more centralized providing a one stop approach to customizing your Desktop Background, Sounds and Screen Saver while you are at it. Let me show you how to setup a Slideshow and Save a theme in Windows 7.

Right click Desktop > click Personalize

In the Personalization shell, click Desktop Background 

Hover over wallpaper and check the box that appears, do this for more than one wallpaper.

Then click in the ‘Change picture every:’ list box and select a timed interval > Save Changes.

You can also save custom backgrounds and Aero Glass colour by simply selecting the ‘Save theme’ in Personalization.

You can get more themes and backgrounds online if you are not satisfied with the pre-bundled collection at the Windows 7 Personalize your PC website.

Using the Windows 7 Desktop – Fun Time Savers is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

Here’s 100 free photos you can use as your desktop background. Most of the images are beuaiful macros of flowers and plants. The free wallpapers are couresty of Microsoft’s Mike Swanson.

Mike took these photos specifically to be used as wallpaper, taking icons and a desktop’s layout into consideraion. The photos are formated to fit common notebook displays perfectly.

Works for all operating systems, including Windows XP, Windows Vista and Mac OSX.

Click here for the full archive.

via LifeHacker

Free Desktop Wallpaper- Nature and Water is a post by Xavier Lanier from Notebooks.com.