How do you hotrod windows 7 Aero mode, making it lean and relatively fast?

1

Plugable has shown users how to turn fedora’s Gnome 3 for best usb video performance. Under Windows 7, performance requires Aero mode. Can you show us how to setup Aero as a lean, basic, performance desktop?

2

Hi Jeffrey,

Thanks for asking! Windows (Vista and later) is even more committed to desktop composition than Linux. Its fall-back mode (called “Basic” mode) has negative compatibility consequences (unlike Gnome fall-back mode), and doesn’t provide nearly as much of a performance win as on Linux. It’s a small win, and only on marginal systems.

All that said, for the specific case of USB graphics, two simple ways you can speed things up a bit:

  1. Set your desktop background to a solid color (not a gradient)
  2. Turn off transparency (the main Aero effect) without turning off Aero itself. Here’s how: http://www.ghacks.net/2010/12/20/how-…

Hope that helps. But again, different OSs and different situations – the differences on Windows are not as dramatic as on Linux.

Thanks!
Bernie