The Aero Glass effect - what is it?

With the advent of the eighth version of Windows and above, many users are clearly bored by the graphical shell of the "seven", which, in comparison with the perfectly flat interface of the G-8, looked airy. This was provided by a special theme design with the effect of Aero Glass for Windows 7, installed by default. How to return it to newer systems will now be considered.

The Aero Glass effect: what is it?

So what do users like the interface of the "seven"? The assertion that it was a unique Aero Glass effect, which consisted in the fact that all the elements of the graphical shell were executed in a semi-transparent form (windows, icons, panels, menus, etc.) will be groundless. This also affected the barely noticeable shadows cast by them.

However, starting with Windows 8, the developers of this family of operating systems decided to abandon the Aero Glass effect. First of all, this was due to the desire to reduce the consumption of system and energy resources of the computer system. Indeed, although the seventh version in terms of performance and now pleases users with performance, nevertheless, a large enough amount of them is reserved for the GUI, so running resource-intensive applications sometimes becomes not only problematic, but even impossible.

Today, the system configuration has moved far ahead, so the use of the Aero Glass effect is not noticeable on the performance of computers, laptops and even mobile devices. What will it take to restore the transparency effect in versions of Windows 8 and higher?

Automatic installation of the official Aero Glass utility for Windows 8.1 (8 or 10)

As it is already clear, own means in systems 8 and above for application of such effect even under condition of presence of the corresponding theme are not present. Therefore, you will have to use a special utility called Aero Glass for Windows (sometimes the name contains Win8, Win8.1, Win10, indicating the build of the system).

You can download it on the Internet from the official website. At the same time, not only distributions are available for specific versions and assemblies of operating systems, but also variants for installation in OS with 32 and 64 bit architectures.

The installation process usually runs without problems and does not cause any special difficulties. But it is worth noting that during the installation it will be offered to install a special applet, concerning the personalization panel, and also to agree with the refusal to sign certain themes. In principle, the default installer settings can not be changed. At the end of the process, the system should be rebooted, after which the Aero Glass effect will take effect.

Manual installation through the system registry

The automatic installer has only one drawback. He sets absolutely everything, which is often not necessary for most users. In this situation, you can leave either individual elements or a test version.

This is done exclusively through the system registry. The editor is accessed through the regedit command, which you must enter in the "Run" menu, it is called by the combination of Win + R.

First, unpack the downloaded archive into the Aero Glass folder, which should be located directly in the system partition (usually a drive C). In the registry we use the HKLM branch and through the Software section we get to the Windows folder, which is located in the current version (CurrentVersion) directory. Here we are interested in three main keys:

• AppInit_DLLs - in the value field the full path to the DWMGlass.dll file must be specified, which must be in the above folder;
• LoadAppInit_DLLs - value (1);
• RequireSignedAppInit_DLLs - value (0).

After setting all these parameters, as in the previous case, the system is restarted.

What should I do if the installation does not start?

In some cases, the installer may not work for some reason. To solve this problem, you must initially use the installer exclusively on behalf of the administrator. Otherwise, it just might not start.

Another reason for the failure lies in the settings of the primary BIOS input / output system. In some versions, there is a safe boot point for Secure Boot. This feature is strongly recommended to be disabled, that is, set to Disabled. Next, just save the changes and exit the settings (F). After rebooting the system, the required utility should be installed without any problems.

Finally, pay attention to the bit depth of the program itself (the 64 bit version of the application is not installed in the 32-bit system architecture).

What if the inscription "hangs" on the screen all the time?

All! The utility is installed, and the user seems to have achieved the desired result. But that's bad luck - at the bottom of the screen the "effect" hangs constantly, which you can not get rid of. Its presence is explained quite simply: the utility itself is paid, and the user installs a test demo version. Let's see how to remove the inscription with the name in Aero Glass.

In the simplest case, many users offer to download not official, but already "cracked" utility, but this approach is contrary to international copyright laws. Others advise to correct the situation with a tiny application that removes the inscription. Its name is not given only because it again is a kind of "crack". In general, you can remove the inscription only by illegal methods, but it is best to initially purchase the official program.

Setup questions

As for the basic settings, if you install the official utility, you can manage everything. But when installing the "cracked" version without special fixes to it, you will not be able to change the settings. In addition, transparency is at a level that it is extremely inconvenient to work with the interface. We'll have to look for and download a few more small programs that fix this or that parameter, which is very inconvenient. In addition, it is not yet known how clean they will be. After all, they most often contain viruses and potential threats, so it's better not to take risks, but then the system can easily "fly off", and then the troubles with the restoration of its performance will be much more.

In some cases, you can install an additional application called Classic Shell version 4.1 or any other. It will allow in the same Windows 8.1 to change the "Start" menu, which is still displayed in the form of tiles, to the classic appearance, as in the "Seven". The use of this or any other similar utility many users call quite convenient, because some users, despite the daily work with the eighth version, to its appearance and could not get used to.

Conclusion

As you can see from all of the above, the installation and application of the Aero Glass effect should not cause difficulties. With the inscription, which is constantly displayed on the screen, things are much worse. It remains only to buy the application or at your own risk and use informal utilities that correct this situation, although when our person stopped it?