What do I do to get Aero running?

okay so i have a T400 and am running vista64. whenever i do the switchable graphics it seems like different settings and themes get all messed up. perhaps its that, perhaps its the thinkvantage software screwing things up, but for some reason i cant get aero running. when i go to personalization and attempt to change window color, sometimes i get that window with various colors for the theme, yet now i get this:



at one point i got to this window and was able to select Vista Aero and later go back and to the appearance and window color and the option for colors i mentioned earlier was there.

 

I quit using vista but I remember that same thing.
You can get it on somehow and its quite simple but I forget.
Try going to appearances if it's not there go to themes.

Hope this helps.

 

yeh i think i figured it out. i had 16 bit color and when i changed to 32 bit, aero came back. but now my battery meter is yellow and not green....

is it supposed to be yellow or green?

also, now with the aero theme i cant seem to get back to integrated gfx. is aero only allowed with discrete?

 

windows goes into basic mode when it doesnt detect ur gpu.
just switch to dedicated gpu, then right click and choose vista aero.

 

yeh wow i just realized you can only run aero in dedicated.

i kinda wish there was an option to have different themes depending on whether you have discrete or integrated running. i think its lenovos job to do something like this though so i doubt they will.

 

Even the integrated should be running Aero.

You might have the battery stretch option (reduce display color quality) that automatically switches to 16bit color turned on. If so, turn it off and you should get Aero.

 

well i cant get aero in integrated when plugged in to A/C.

edit:
ok i did get it running in integrated. now the problem is that when switch graphics, my color keeps going back to 16 bit for some reason, whether in discrete or integrated. why the hell is this happening?

 

What does aero do? I use the windows classic theme in vista.

 

Aero adds transparency and glass like effect to the windows and lets you switch windows in a prettier way. Also, its more CPU intensive.

 

Ya, but in the days of highly customizable linux and beautiful OS X are upon us, XP or 'windows classic' really doesn't seem to cut it.

That and modern hardware is more than up to the task for most people. Can't wait to see if Windows 7 is actually better looking somehow.