Increase Windows Vista’s Speed by Tuning Aero

In addition to making Windows more stylish, transparent windows can make the operating system a bit sluggish. Many users decide they would rather turn off the transparency settings in Windows Vista. You can do this by de-selecting Enable transparency under Window Color and Appearance.

The fancy animation that happens when a window opens or closes can also tax on system resources. If the system seems slow, you can turn off this feature. You can turn off the animation by: 

1. selecting the Start Menu
2. Computer
3. System Properties (from the toolbar area)
4. Advanced Settings (from the Tasks list)
5.  Settings (under the Performance section)
6.   then de-select Animate windows when maximizing and minimizing.
7.  Be sure to click Apply then OK to completely turn off the animation.

You can also speed up the system by allowing Windows Vista to choose the best performance settings for your computer. This option appears in the Performance Options display (follow steps 1-5 above to get there). By adjusting these settings, Windows may remove the animation if it appears to take too many resources.

Aero also has a lot of minor graphical enhancements that may slow down a computer system. For instance, every window has a slight shading underneath the frame of the window. This can be turned off under Performance Options. In addition, you can change the environmental variables like mouse shading, thumbnails instead of icons, previews in folders, and fade or slide menus. All of these Aero features may tax a system with inadequate processor speed or memory. You can turn off these features, without removing all the enhancements of Aero.