According to Microsoft Areo represents, “new transparent and three-dimensional visualizations require[ing] a graphics card that supports a new graphic driver model called the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM). These effects are part of the Windows Vista Aero desktop experience and include glass effects, advanced window management features, and a more stable experience through desktop composition. This rich graphical functionality is built on the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) graphics subsystem, formerly called Avalon.”
The default Aero color scheme is clear glass. It is active by default if you have a supported video card. It allows you to see other items behind your window through a slightly blurred glass effect. You also have lots of options to tint the glass the way you like: Frost, Smoke, Seafoam, Heritage, Sky, Heart, and Candy color schemes (and you can also disable transparent glass, specify the intensity and custom-mix colors and specify color saturation if you wish).
Keeping in mind that if you have Vista Basic Aero is not an available feature, Aero availability is dependant upon the capabilities of your computer’s video card.
Specifically, what you need is a DirectX 9-class graphics processing unit that supports: a WDDM Driver, Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware, 32 bits per pixel and adequate graphics memory. What exactly is adequate graphics memory depends upon the resolution you are shooting for. The specs provide this:
Adequate graphics memory is defined as:
- 64 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at 1,310,720 or less
- 128 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions 2,304,000 pixels or less
- 256 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions higher than 2,304,000 pixels
- Graphics memory bandwidth, as assessed by Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor, of at least 1,600 MB per second
If your computer is not very old and it is not working for you, chances are you just need an updated driver so get the very latest driver installed. In some cases you may need to go for beta drivers when available. Here are some links to get you started…
Intel: http://www.intel.com/business/bss/products/client/vistasolutions/index.htm
ATI: http://www.ati.com/developer/windowsvista.html
NVIDIA: http://www.nvidia.com/page/technology_vista_home.html
S3: http://www.s3graphics.com/en/products/vista/index.jsp
Via: http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/vista/platform.jsp
What about VMWare? VMware emulates what’s close to an S3 Trio64, and it isn’t even DirectX8 compliant. Reportedly, Parallels and VMware are both working on DX and OpenGL acceleration by using your physical graphics processor instead of an emulated graphics processor.
Installation Tips
In some cases, it is best to remove a pervious version for a fresh install. Some vendors recommend disabling antivirus and DAP during installation (if present). If you download and install the latest driver and Vista still says it cannot find a compatible driver, point it to the driver manually:
1) Open device manager (the quickest way is to hit the start button, type “Device M” and hit enter-it shows up at the top of the list and like most commands, can be executed from here instead of typing the real path in the “Run” dialog.)
2) Right-click on your video card and select ‘Update Driver Software…’
3) Click the “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer” option button
4) Click the ‘Have Disk…’ button
5) Click ‘Browse…’ and go to the location where the drivers were extracted
6) Select inf file and click “Open” and Click “OK”
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