Turning Off Aero

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 2, 2015)

1

The Aero interface features in Windows 7 are nice to look at, but they can have an affect on your system performance—particularly if you are low on available memory. If you don't like the "eye candy" that Aero implements, you can turn it off if you want. Simply follow these steps:

  1. Click the Start button, right-click on Computer, then choose Properties. Windows displays the System portion of the Control Panel.
  2. At the left side of the screen, click Performance Information and Tools.
  3. Click Adjust Visual Effects. Windows displays the Visual Effects tab of the Performance Options dialog box. (See Figure 1.)
  4. Figure 1. The Visual Effects tab of the Performance Options dialog box.

Note that the dialog box includes a long list of visual effects you can turn on or off. While you can take the time to do this, if you want, the easiest way is to simply click the Adjust for Best Performance radio button at the top of the dialog box. This turns off most of the visual effects and, thereby, most of the Aero features. The result is that your system runs faster.

When you are done making adjustments, click the OK button to dismiss the dialog box. You can also close any other dialog boxes open on your system.

 This tip (12563) applies to Windows 7.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Getting Rid of the Paste Options Box

Paste something in a Word document, and you may notice a dynamic little set of options appear right next to what you ...

Discover More

Determining If a Value is Out of Limits

Need to figure out if a value is outside of some arbitrary limit related to a different value? There are a number of ways ...

Discover More

Sorting ZIP Codes

Sorting ZIP Codes can be painless, provided all the codes are formatted the same. Here's how to do the sorting if you ...

Discover More
More WindowsTips

Changing Screen Resolution

Screen resolution is a key attribute of your monitor. You usually have choices for resolution, which provides you with a ...

Discover More

Downloads and Storage Sense

Storage Sense can free up limited storage space on your computer automatically. Make sure you don't have it delete files ...

Discover More

Quickly Deactivate Apps that Impact Startup

Windows will load apps at startup, which can impact performance. Quickly deactivate startup items that can affect the ...

Discover More
Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 9 - 8?

2015-11-02 06:13:15

Jim Brizendine

I have a few large spread sheets with complex Macros. Can this be done from VBA? Kind of like turning off screen updating?


Newest Tips