Windows Vista™ Step by Step

Optimizing Visual Effects

In the previous exercise, you set the desktop theme, which selected the Windows Vista background, sounds, icons, buttons, windows shape, and so on. These options provide a pleasant user interface and are available on any computer running Windows Vista. However, the pinnacle of the Windows Vista visual experience is Windows Aero, which is identified within Windows Vista as a color scheme, but is so much more than simply colors. It is truly a thing of beauty, incorporating soft edges, shadows, transparent window frames, animated window transitions, active previews of hidden windows from the taskbar, and a three-dimensional rotating stack display. In short, all the bells and whistles! Unfortunately, Windows Aero works only ...