Should I force enable Aero in Windows 7 even if my graphics card does not support it?

Hiya, folks!

I would like to seek your suggestion whether should I force enable Aero in Windows 7 because apparently my old notebook has a video card lower than the required DirectX 9. However, I want to experience the theme packs and other cool downloadable themes available in the net and try it in my desktop. Will force-enabling Aero in Windows 7 by tweaking some registry entries crash my computer as indicated here. What do you think?

Thanks in advance

 

From what I know, you can't force enable AERO on hardware that doesn't have hardware DX9 features. If you had a DX9 card that just had a bad driver, or the drivers hadn't been released yet, then you can force it.

 

If your graphics don't support aero, it can't be enabled period from my experience

 

The hardware is not the problem.
It can run Aero and Glass just fine ... but official drivers were never released because they wanted people to purchase new computers.
Because of this lack of support for official drivers, you cannot run Aero Glass, and you also cannot force-enable it.

 

Thanks, guys. I am now convinced not to force enable it 'cos I might just end up damaging my registries (^_^)

What experience was that? You mean you tried force enabling your registries due to your low graphics card to run aero then what exactly happened?

 

What graphic card do you have? I have intel gma950 and it runs aero perfectly fine.

 

Well, I think that supports DX9.

I'm currently running Windows Server 2008 for a project on an old computer, and it's pretty much impossible to enable Aero, even with the Desktop Experience pack enabled. The theme isn't even seen in any settings, and some screensavers don't work.

 

my video card is Intel (R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller. With this video card, I can't change my themes, can't cascade windows, and can't run aero.

 

Buy.... Buy a new pc? :|. That card is to old, indeed, and the registry "forcing aero" thing you speak of, was fixed back in Vistas beta days, i believe.

 

Actually, you're right. My graphics card is really way too old hehe Actually, I had to upgrade my ram to run 7 as my notebook's pre-installed OS is XP. Everything's working fine, I just can't maximise win7 graphical utilities...