Windows Aero

Aero is a transparent Windows visual style used from Longhorn M6 to Windows 7 (window transparency was removed in 8). The first build to have working Aero is Windows Longhorn build 4039, and the last build to use Aero (with window transparency) is Windows 8 build 8056. In Windows Longhorn, Aero effects relied on the Desktop Composition Engine (or Desktop Window Manager in newer builds), which only worked in a few builds such as 4039, 4066, and 4074. In Windows Vista and 7, it relies on a driver with WDDM (Windows Display Driver Module) to render window transparency, otherwise the Windows Basic theme would run. From Windows 8 build 7927 and later, the Aero effects are now software rendered.

Enabling Aero in Windows Vista pre-Beta 2 builds
This is a guide to enable Windows Aero (i.e. Desktop Window Manager) in Windows Vista build 5212-5284 in VMware Workstation and Player.

Video Drivers
First, the SVGA driver pack must be used and installed via Device Manager. Any SVGA driver from VMware version 6.0-7.1 will work, however VMware 6.0 compatibility must be used on build 5231 due to the BSOD bug.

Enabling Aero

 * 1) After you installed the drivers, open . If you're running build 5048 to 5231.2, browse to   (if the DWM key does not exist, create it). If you're running build 5259 to 5284, then browse to   instead (create the DWM key if it's not there).
 * 2) Create a DWORD key named  and set its value to 0. Log off and back on and Aero should automatically be enabled.

Optional Keys
You can also use these DWORDs in the DWM key you created to get various effects.
 * Blur - set it to 0 to disable blur, else set it to 1.
 * BlurSigma (build 5212-5270 only) - set it to a decimal value between 1 and 30, depending on the value it will control the blur intensity. If set to a value out of the 1-30 range, it will disable transparency and make borders black.
 * Animations- if set at 1, the Aero animation effects will be enabled. It can be disabled by setting the key to 0.
 * AnimationsShiftKey - set it to 1 to be able to press Shift key during animations to slow them down.
 * RenderClientAreaOnly - setting it to 1 will cause the window borders and title bars to disappear, use with caution!

Bugs and quirks

 * Since these builds uses LDDM instead of the WDDM used in newer builds, Vista drivers will not work. Windows XP drivers are required to enable Aero in these builds.
 * Aero is not known to work on 5112 outside of real hardware.
 * When Aero is enabled on build 5212, the borders becomes transparent, but the taskbar doesn't.
 * Before build 5259, there is a bug that causes Aero animations to lag. It is possible to workaround this by ending and restarting the  process.
 * Flip3D is activated via the Windows Key + Spacebar in build 5212 and build 5219, rather than Windows Key + Tab in later builds.