The problem lies with one of the 3 security updates for windows vista. Originally when I downloaded all of the updates I too was presented with a theme from the 90's and the vista theme was no where to be found. Having uninstalled the updates I then proceeded to install the updates one at a time. As yet I haven't completed all of the updates but I do know that it's one of the 3 security updates. Once I've determined which, I will be able to get further advice on this from microsoft. In the meantime I'm a bit peeved that this update has been put out there without microsoft thoroughly checking for and offering a solution for this problem. After all it's there OS!
Having installed my updates I can confirm that the update - 'Security Update for Windows Vista (KB2876331)' is responsible for removing the vista theme from the system!
Microsoft made the decision to make the Aero interface only available to select editions of the Windows Vista operating system and not all of them. Windows Vista Home Basic users for instance do not get the full Aero interface. I really do not like where Microsoft is heading with the fragmentation of the operating system. Most users do not really know what they are getting themselves into when they buy a PC or a different edition of Windows as the names Basic, Premium and Ultimate do not really reveal what features the operating systems make available and what not. While you can upgrade the system using Anytime Upgrade, it is not something that all users want to do as it means additional expenses.
It is apparently not a big problem to enable the Vista Aero interface in Windows Vista Home Basic even though it is officially not included in that version. All you need to do is to change the values of two registry keys and restart Windows Vista afterwards. Open the registry by pressing Windows + R, typing regedit and hitting enter afterwards. Navigate to the key HkeyCurrentUser Software Microsoft Windows DWM and change the value of the entry Composition to 1 and the value of CompositionPolicy to 0. Now you can select the Aero interface by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting Personalize from the menu. Switch to Colors and Appearance and click on Classic Appearance Properties. And choose Windows Vista Aero from the menu.
Update: Microsoft has continued the naming confusion with the release of Vista's successor, Windows 7. Windows 7 did ship with a professional edition that replaced Vista's business edition.
The breakdown in Home Basic and Home Premium has not been changed though, and Windows 7 Home Basic users face the same restrictions that Windows Vista owners faced when the operating system comes out. The point is, that these people buy Vista Basic because it’s the cheapest choice.
Since they can only afford the cheapest choice, do you think they can afford to buy an expensive video card, or a proper CPU? Like I said, take pity on the poor tech support folks. They’ll be swamped with retards yammering about how they were “cheated” with their purchase, and how it’s “unfair” and that “someone” should do something about it. And the next thing you’ll know, some idiot politician will start a stupid crusade on equal OS rights or some such rot.
No, Windows Vista Standard is enabled right out of the Vista Home Basic box in Personalize - Window Color and Appearance. On a default install, it’s the topmost selection in the Color Scheme box, right above Basic. No hack required for that. What this reg hack does is enable the Glass window composition and colour scheme picker under Vista Standard, something that isn’t there right out of the box.
Before you call people idiots, try to determine if you yourself actually know what you’re talking about. The Glass window composition is NOT transparent and is NOT available in the Guest account by default or at all in Home Basic without either manually changing CompositionPolicy to 2 for the active user or using some scriptkiddie software to do that simple regedit for you.
Windows Vista Basic Download
If you try to do the edit and afterward don’t see the sliders for picking the Glass window composition color under Personaliuze - Window Color and Appearance, or if it still looks exactly the same as the default solid blue theme in the Guest account, then you did something wrong. Start over or give it up, face your own incompetence and use the scriptkiddie software. I can’t comment if this “hack” works because I don’t have VHB. Its a method of enableing a feature of Vista that should otherwise be disabled, if you don’t like it don’t use it, simple as. On a side note those why do some people get so angry towards users who need a bit of help or looking for a solution to a problem. Time and time again users slander others they consider “noobz” (should be “ 00 32” anyway, now who is a oo 3 dropi). Get a grip because no-one wants you so please leave our blogs, comment spaces and forums along.
This is hilarious. All of you people doing the namecalling and claiming it doesn’t work or only works on beta and RC versions, how would you know if it doesn’t work?
Just because you didn’t do it correctly and it didn’t work for you doesn’t mean it doesn’t work for those who did follow the instructions: Use regedit to modify: HKEYCURRENTUSER Software Microsoft Windows DWM Composition = 1 CompositionPolicy = 2 Then, either use an administrative command prompt (right-click on Command Prompt and choose ‘Run as administrator’) to enter: net stop uxsms net start uxsms or simply reboot. After that, go to Personalize - Window Color and Appearance and play with the sliders. Hey people i know you people wont the aero effect very dearly i know you must have tried everything up there. I tried too, but they just don’t work or at least i and u could not get it to work. So here is the real deal. There are two ways u can get that aero:- 1.download true transparency from 2.download glass 2k from chime. To get glass2k got to google and search for glass2k and click the first link of chime.scroll down and download it from the link there.
“GLASS 2K ALSO WORKS FOR XP, And it works for real” trust me as you trust your bank. To be honest, i dont belive in Microsoft making a operating system with diffrent choises. Yes, their should be a choise for buisness, but serioulsy. All these big computer company giants, just use vista basic as an excuse to sell cheap pc’s. I have got vista basic, and i feel that what microsoft have done with basic, is basically stripped everything and left you with a sp4 of xp.
With a facelift. Thats all vista basic is. Oh and one more thing, i downloaded a program called “Vista Glazz” its not actually for vista basic, but it does work on vista basic, and what it does is make the windows go transparent when windows are maximized. And yes, its not a skin, its aero. Its pure aero, on vista basic. Try it out yourself, just install, then maximise a window.
And also, when i installed my vista basic, the instalation was aero, as you can see here: so basically vista basic is capable of running aero, but nobody has found a way yet. I THINK EVERYONE HERE IS A LITTLE CONFUSED AS TO WHAT VHB OFFERS AND WHAT AERO REALLY IS. FROM THE SECOND I FIRST TURNED ON MY COMPUTER I COULD PERSONALIZE THE COLORS OF MY WINDOWS USING THE SLIDERS. PEOPLE WANT THE TRANSPARENCY, 3-D FLIP, AND ALL OTHER FEATURES AERO OFFERS. DOESN’T SEEM TO ME A LOT OF PEOPLE GIVING ADVICE AND CALLING PEOPLE NOOBS UNDERSTAND THAT.
There’s nothing you can change to your system to get the true Aero interface as of now. You can always find some downloads that will do the same thing. I think Microsoft knows what they’re doing. First of all i have not tryed this hack. But i hope it works.
I got a fast computer Core 2 quad Over clocked to 4 GHz 3 gtx 280s in tri sli on a 790i and i run vista basic. Y you might ask. And because do not want to pay 300 for the higher end vistas. Basic does every thing i want it to this aro hack if it works is just a bonus. Now if it does not what ever. Now i also know there programs like windows blinds crystalXP ect. But i dont want to have to run and set up 3 or 4 differnt programs.
When 2 REG changes get me the same thing. Oh and Keshav i think Glass 2k just works in XP/2000.
Winsxs folder cleanup 2008 r2. And not in vista. Leigh Kennedy says: rumour has it that Bill Gates uses Linux, I am shure Bill gates DOES NOT use linux. If he does not like vista the he is probley useing XP. Leigh Kennedy says: Vista has a lot of stuff copied from another operating system.
I asume the outher os your talking about is MacOS. But you must rember that bill gates gave Apple computers 7mil to keep them from going under. Now i dont want to start a PC vs MAC War. Becase those go no whare. Its like ford saying that doge cant have power windows because they did it first. And if mac os is so good how come people are puting XP on there macs hmmm? Leigh Kennedy says: And since when has a Mac had a virus Never!
CHECK YOUR FACTS MAN they had Viruses. Just not lots. Because no hacker wants to infect 20% of the computer useing population. And if you think i am lieing GOOGLE it. Now i got nothing aganst macs or apple computers i have a mac and i got no problems useing it.
I am NOT a PC fan boy or any thing like that. But i am a INTeL guy.
WOW i shure can ramble. Billgatez 31337 Super NERD. Hi all, Which one of you are calling yourself ‘Leigh Kennedy’, Because I know for a fact I haven’t posted any comments on this for a while! Yes I am aware of the fact Mac OS X can get viruses, the Apple website clearly states that they get SOME but not all. And I have an extremely good suggestion If you want to have ALL the Vista features for nothing, How about turning to custom editions of Windows Vista! One that I know of that a friend reckons is good is ‘Vista 2009 Black Edition’.
He says it has ALL the features of Windows Vista and also packs in extra features and fixes that Microsoft haven’t put in. Kind Regards, Leigh Kennedy P.S. If you want to post comments, please use your own name and not mine!
Hey guys It finally worked. All you need to do is. Of course do that Compostion thing a magig. HKEYCURRENTUSER Software Microsoft Windows DWM Composition = 1 CompositionPolicy = 2 Than open up your Start Button.
And search for CMD. Once you found it. Then, either use an administrative command prompt (right-click on Command Prompt and choose ‘Run as administrator’) to enter: net stop uxsms net start uxsms Right click on “Personalize” and click on “Window Color And Apperance” And choose “Windows Vista Aero” Boom it worked.
My McLovin, can you please advise what else can be done to get this to work. I’ve tried —————— all you need to do is.
Of course do that Compostion thing a magig. HKEYCURRENTUSER Software Microsoft Windows DWM Composition = 1 CompositionPolicy = 2 Than open up your Start Button. And search for CMD. Once you found it. Then, either use an administrative command prompt (right-click on Command Prompt and choose ‘Run as administrator’) to enter: net stop uxsms net start uxsms Right click on “Personalize” and click on “Window Color And Apperance” And choose “Windows Vista Aero” Boom it worked ———————- I’ve also tried CompositionPolicy = 1, but when I go to choose “Windows Vista Aero” it’s not available. I’ve already restated my PC as well. I know not to advise to people in these sites that it’s B.S., everyone has different system types and configurations, it’s finding the one that works with yours.
So I’ve tried everything in these postings and am pretty PC savy (hack up most everything, but I haven’t vested time in this topic other than tonight). So any help is greatly appreciated to all. Cyberjax, I’m not quite sure what do you want actually. Do you want your window’s interface to look transparent or just have the aero effect?(aero effect is just the glassy look on the taskbar, no transparent effect).
If you are going for the aero effect, the hack thingy should work. I don’t know other tricks. If you are going for transparent effect in Vista Home Basic, well, I used TuneUp Utilities 2009 software and SteelFlash 100K theme. Hope this helps. I’m ready to debrief more if this didn’t helped you enough though. T is apparently not a big problem to enable the Vista Aero interface in Windows Vista Home Basic even though it is officially not included in that version.
All you need to do is to change the values of two registry keys and restart Windows Vista afterwards. Open the registry by pressing Windows + R, typing regedit and hitting enter afterwards. Navigate to the key HkeyCurrentUser Software Microsoft Windows DWM and change the value of the entry Composition to 1 and the value of CompositionPolicy to 0. AND NOT 2 Now you can select the Aero interface by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting Personalize from the menu. Switch to Colors and Appearance and click on Classic Appearance Properties. And choose Windows Vista Aero from the menu.
Remember, this hack still requires you to have hardware capable of running Aero (in other words, a good graphics card), and don’t go to Microsoft expecting support if things go wrong. Ok: McLovin says: January 10, 2009 at 2:37 pm cyberjax, I’m not quite sure what do you want actually. Do you want your window’s interface to look transparent or just have the aero effect?(aero effect is just the glassy look on the taskbar, no transparent effect). If you are going for the aero effect, the hack thingy should work. I don’t know other tricks.
If you are going for transparent effect in Vista Home Basic, well, I used TuneUp Utilities 2009 software and SteelFlash 100K theme. Hope this helps. I’m ready to debrief more if this didn’t helped you enough though I tried this and it actually works, but I couldn’t find the SteelFlash 100K theme anywhere, so I was just wondering where you found that but thanks a lot already!!! Ok, so I’ve looked into this awhile and I’ve found something that works for me. Sorry, but it does involve the registry. Do exactly what he explains up there but on CompositionPolicy change the value to 2 and on Composition set the value to 1.
Be safe, create a restore point by clicking Start, Control Panel, System and Maintenance, Backup and Restore Center, and then clicking create a restore point on the side bar. Restore points create a place for your computer to fall back onto if everything goes to hell. (btw my value for Composition was already at 1 so don’t freak out if your’s is too). Hope this helps. Disregard the last comment I posted. Read this updated one. Do exactly what he explains up there but on CompositionPolicy change the value to 2 and on Composition set the value to 1.
Restart your computer. Open command prompt.
Type net stop uxsms, press enter. Type net start uxsms, press enter. You should now have Aero. You will not have the ability to change how Aero looks easily but I’m sure there is a hack to do it.
(btw my value for Composition was already at 1 so don’t freak out if your’s is too). Hope this helps. Well, it is very easy to actually do windows transparency in vista home basic. Try some theme in.
Download these theme: glass se7en final, or windows 7 narrow. With them you can get the real glass transparency like the other windows with aero. With windows 7 narrow theme, you get the transparency when the windows are not maximized (the default way of how transparency in vista work), while with glass se7en final theme, you get transparency in both, maximized or not maximized.
I assume you know how to apply these theme, if not, the website tells you how, or just google it. O hai dere Leigh Kennedy. I just wanted to direct you to a few sites: They wouldn’t have a site monitoring Mac security if there were no holes. Why do you need to fix a Mac if there are no flaws? Oh, and also: There are viruses for Apple computers. They wouldn’t be able to sell antivirus software for Macs if there weren’t. Also, the only people who get viruses are people who download stuff from unsafe sites, anyway.
Free and I had ONE banner inserter that one of my friends installed on my computer as a joke. Only because I left him alone with it for five minutes. I’m running Vista Home Basic on a PC and on two laptops. Here’s what I’ve found. You don’t need to hack the registry to enable glass effect(not transparency) on any of my computers. It is available right out of the box.
(right click desktop, select personalise, select windows colour and appearance, then select windows vista standard). This will give the coloured squares to select the colour of your windows.
Click on the “windows classic clour”blue writing to get the sliding bars for saturation etc. I have checked the registry values an all of my machines, and they are all set to Composition 1, and Composition Policy 2. Therefore no need to go into the registry and change anything!
For transparent window borders, try Truetransparency. It’s a freeware download, and works well. For transparent windows, I use Glass2k. It’s also free and you can set the transparency of each individual window to your own taste.
You can also set the transparency of the taskbar. For live taskbar thumbnails, I’m using Visual Task Tips. This is a neat little gadget that will open a live thumbnail of any open window, when you place your cursor over the window name in the taskbar.
It also allows you to alter the size of the thumbnail. And for the 3D Flip effect, I’m using Winflip. Wich uses the same keys to operate as the Home Premium and Ulimate editions. All of these are free and have no adverse effects on my system. I can run them all at once with no problems. Hope this helps. Thank you very much for this article!
I don´t know if things are new now but I made my first entry-change in the registry and to remind to hit for the “old”-button showed me why the dark color of the taskbar went away. Somehow the entry was “standard” and not “basis”. I spend half a day to load some 250MB of zipped themes.
Windows Basic Theme Windows 10
Got unsure and error installations of uxstyle and ux6themes and mcafee was telling me there was a troyan beside the ux-theme-pack prooved by Kaspersky by the magazine chip. Thanks a lot to give me a good sleep after this 12 hours mining dust! Karl Reimer Godt.
Is there any way to adjust the windows basic theme to change the color of windows? I have tried changing the color and it accepts them but then stays the baby blue color. I do not have a computer capable of running Aero (Built in Intel Video). And this is a laptop so I can not upgrade the graphics card.
I really like the start menu and task bar colors. But the baby blue background is driving me crazy. I have tried applying XP themes but they do not work. I have not found any themes for Vista yet or a application to make my own theme. Any suggestions?
Windows Vista Theme For Xp
I would be happy with a black theme similar to the start menu and task bar. Be happy with that 'babyblue'.
Because.: Half a year ago when vista was in development, they had a grey theme and looked so ugly I cannot decribe it. It resembled something I call 'deadlooking old rubber' - it made vista look cheap and very very misdesigned, The new theme is a bit closer to what Aero is.
Of course very very basic, it cannot be emulated better. Because only many testers have complained about that, Ms has redesigned the theme to what you have now. But don't expect any newer 'basic theme' from Microsoft - and I wont bet on Products like WindowBlinds, because they will also require a Aero capable card. And it is not too easy for ethusiasts to make individual themes for vista. Becasue those files are digitally signed and encrypted, u would have to change system-files with 'cracked ones' - not everybody will do that only for a bit different look. And you are right, XP themes do not fit Vista. They are absolutely not compatible.
The old XP- way to draw windows on the screen is definately over. It's only there for the few like you that have no Aero-card and will have to use the themes so long until you put in a new gpu. The future is Aero /DWM on Microsofts OS and Xgl/Compiz on Linux ( also a decent 3D card is required to run Linux with effects ) You should use Aero, there you can choose between every thinkable colour to tint the borders wit a mixer. And you are not 'forced' to use transparency, if you don't like it. Aero is more than only 'glass'. SJ / germany 'CodeJoe' schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: Is there any way to adjust the windows basic theme to change the color of windows?
I have tried changing the color and it accepts them but then stays the baby blue color. I do not have a computer capable of running Aero (Built in Intel Video). And this is a laptop so I can not upgrade the graphics card.
I really like the start menu and task bar colors. But the baby blue background is driving me crazy. I have tried applying XP themes but they do not work. I have not found any themes for Vista yet or a application to make my own theme. Any suggestions?
I would be happy with a black theme similar to the start menu and task bar.
The problem lies with one of the 3 security updates for windows vista. Originally when I downloaded all of the updates I too was presented with a theme from the 90's and the vista theme was no where to be found. Having uninstalled the updates I then proceeded to install the updates one at a time. As yet I haven't completed all of the updates but I do know that it's one of the 3 security updates. Once I've determined which, I will be able to get further advice on this from microsoft.
In the meantime I'm a bit peeved that this update has been put out there without microsoft thoroughly checking for and offering a solution for this problem. After all it's there OS! Having installed my updates I can confirm that the update - 'Security Update for Windows Vista (KB2876331)' is responsible for removing the vista theme from the system!