The Aero effects (also called Aero Glass) were one of the nicest innovations of Windows 7 initially introduced in Windows Vista, also maintained in Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. Among these Aero effects there are not only 3D effects on windows, but also, transparency effects useful to manage the desktop almost as you would on a touchscreen, quickly with the click of a mouse.
Windows Aero effects include:
- Aero Snap to maximize, iconise and support windows by dragging them to the corner of the screen;
- Aero Peek is the transparency effect of windows on the desktop
- Aero Shake allows you to minimize open windows by shaking the mouse on which you want to concentrate, making them remain only one active and hide the others.
These Aero effects are so appreciated by some and so opposed by other users who prefer a more spartan and less heavy interface.
The problem of Aero is in fact evident on less powerful computers, because it consumes more memory and slows down the operations of other programs .
In Windows 10, however, there are also the transparency effects of the menus, those that concern the taskbar, the Start menu and also applications such as the calculator.
In this article we see both how to disable Aero effects on Windows 7 and 8.1 and how to disable transparency effects in Windows 10 .
To disable the Aero effects on Windows 7, Windows 10 and 8.1 you can go to Control Panel> System, then press the link at the top left on Advanced system settings and press on Performance .
From here, put the option for better performance and all transparency effects and Windows animations will be removed.
To obtain the same result, in Windows 7 and 8, you can click on the desktop with the right mouse button, go to the personalization menu and, in the Appearance tab, choose a different theme, one of the basic and non-Windows ones Aero.
In another article, the guide and programs to change Windows background and customize the desktop.
To disable the transparency effects of menus in Windows 10, go to Settings, then open the Personalization section, go to Colors, scroll down and turn off the transparency effects switch.
As for Aero Peek, on Windows 7, 8 and Windows 10, this is one of the most beautiful special effects to see, with variable transparency effects on non-active windows that, instead of being iconized at the bottom, become almost invisible on the screen. To see the empty desktop just click on the taskbar and all the windows disappear remaining transparent with a fading effect.
To disable Aero Peek on the desktop just go to the properties of the taskbar, by right clicking on the desktop bar.
In Windows 7 and 8.1 the option is found from Control Panel> System> Advanced tab> Performance Settings .
In Windows 10, however, you have to go to Settings> Personalization> Taskbar .
With the Aero Glass program you can easily change the color and transparency of windows even in Windows 10.
The fade time of Aero Peek can be managed, on Windows 7, through a parameter of registry keys that allows you to delay or accelerate the disappearance and appearance of windows.
You have to go to the registry keys ( Start - Run - regedit ), go to the key and on the right side, find the entry DesktopLivePreviewHoverTime (if it were not there you must create it with a decimal DWord value) and decide the time considered that by default it is set to 500 or half a second.
Setting 0 Aero Peek becomes instantaneous.
To see the changes, you will have to restart your computer but always be careful when changing the registry keys.
On 64-bit Windows 7 there is a second value to be changed, the ExtendedUIHoverTime key, to be changed to 10000.
Aero Shake can also be disabled with the gpedit.msc command (Start -> Run and write the command), which however exists only in the Professional versions.
gpedit.msc opens an administration interface to navigate to the following path: User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Desktop .
Alternatively, from the registry keys.
Then open regedit from the Start menu and go to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced key .
On the right side, press the right mouse button, add the DWord32 key with the name DisallowShaking and value 1 to disable.
Aero Snap can be deactivated in the following Control Panel menu All the elements of the Control Panel> Accessibility Center> Facilitates the use of the mouse .
The option is what is called " Avoid automatic arrangement of windows ".
All these options, for those who do not want to touch the registry, you can modify additional options to manage the graphics and animations of Aero Peek with the Winaero Tweaker program, one of the generic Windows 7 and Windows 10 Tweak programs that works also to change everything in Windows 10.
