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Windows 7 Aero Themes Greyed Out?

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Are your Windows 7 Aero themes greyed out? So, you can’t run or activate any Aero themes? If that’s your problem, you can follow some short instructions to enable Aero themes again or if your graphic card driver does not support WDDM, you can download our registry hack.

Can you run Windows 7 Aero Themes?

Answer a few questions and we will quickly find out why the Aero Themes are greyed out in Vista or Windows 7:

Do you have a DirectX8 graphic card or lower?
Does your graphic card have less than 128MB RAM?
Does your PC have less than 1GB RAM?
Do you have a CPU with less than 1Ghz?
Do you use Windows 7 Home Basic?
Do you have a Intel 910 and 915 Express chipset?

If you answered one of the questions with yes, your PC does not fully support Windows 7 Aero Themes!

Requirements for Windows 7 Aero Themes:

The minimum system requirements are:
DirectX9 graphics card
PC with 1Ghz and 1GB RAM
Windows 7 Home Premium or better
WDDM driver

…get the latest graphic card drivers for your graphic card

Themes greyed out? Start troubleshooting!

So, most of the time when the Aero themes are greyed out, your hardware does not support WDDM.

But there can be other reasons. E.g. if the service Desktop Window Manager Session Manager is not running.

1. Open the control panel.
2. Click on “find and fix your problems” below “System and Security”:

3. Click on “Display Aero Desktop Effects”:

4. Follow the wizard.

Themes still greyed out? Force Enable Aero!

Some drivers simply don’t support WDDM(Windows Display Driver Model ), so you have to force enable Aero via a registry key.

Method 1:
Insert this into a notepad and save it as a .reg file and execute it:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM]

“UseMachineCheck”=dword:00000000
“Blur”=dword:00000000
“Animations”=dword:00000000

Method 2:
Download this registry tweak and double-click on it to add the keys to your registry:

Force Enable Aero Themes

Method 3:

Get more instructions how to enable Windows 7 Aero themes

Download Windows 7 Aero Themes

Worked? If you can enable Aero themes again, you might want to download some of our Aero themes for Windows 7:

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Written by: Oliver Krautscheid (Nick: oliversk)
Oliver is the founder and lead editor of this site. He is interested in finding new ways to break Windows, find common e.... Full Bio

Contact The Author: support@windows7themes.net

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8 Responses to Windows 7 Aero Themes Greyed Out?

George said:
March 10, 2010 at 7:03 am

which of this method can enable aero at intel 915?
sOliver said:
March 10, 2010 at 2:02 pm

All 3 methods work to enable it on Intel915. It’s a registry hack to force enable Aero. You will find more information here:
http://windows7themes.net/how-to-enable-windows-7-aero-theme.html#enableaerothemes

I hope you can make it work!
George said:
March 10, 2010 at 2:55 pm

no registy hack dont work for intel 915 i try after aero troubleshoot too but nothing
sOliver said:
March 10, 2010 at 3:17 pm

George I just checked and your chipset does not support Aero at all.
The registry hack will only work if you have hardware that actually supports WDDM.

The cheapest solution would be to get WindowBlinds instead of buying a new chipset.

Read this:
http://windows7themes.net/object-desktop-2010-review.html
http://windows7themes.net/windowblinds-for-windows-7.html
George said:
March 10, 2010 at 3:36 pm

ok thanks for the help
sOliver said:
March 10, 2010 at 4:34 pm

just for clarification, I found this on Intel.com where many people complain about Intel 910/915:

The issue is that Microsoft has written that forced check into Vista that won’t LET you run Aero Glass unless you meet the requirements they’ve written into the software. That means a certified WDDM driver. Which Intel can’t write for 915, because 915 doesn’t meet the WDDM spec.

Source: http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2007/05/07/update-on-the-915-graphics-wddm-vista-driver-issue/

So basically, to run Aero themes on a Intel 915 chipset you would have to hack Windows 7, disable the WDDM driver check. Would be a waste of time.

More from Intel:

The graphics architecture and design of the Intel 910 and 915 Express chipset families (with the Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 900 or Intel® GMA 900 graphics engine) was finalized prior to Microsoft releasing the WDDM specifications.
Tilak said:
October 4, 2010 at 5:36 pm

Can this trick will work on my Intel 845G 64MB Graphic Card
sOliver said:
October 4, 2010 at 6:28 pm

Tilak, I might be wrong but I believe all Intel chipsets other than Intel 915 should support Aero. Just give it a try and let us know your results.