WindowBlinds 7.01 won't load Aero

try a reboot after selecting aero

I thank you, Lantec. It worked. Is this a known issue, was that a hunch, or do I maybe need to errr, reconfigure, umm something, do you know?

What Graphic card are you running?

ATI Radeon X1250?

If rebooting after selecting aero does not work, check your video card settings as aero can be turned on and off there sometimes.

I asked about the video card because your experience score seemed low. You may want to check all of the cards settings and adjust for a better experience score.

Well, would increasing my experience score increase my success at using WB? I am a new, rank amateur consumer (hopefully future producer) of these incredible skins. I wouldn't recognize good card settings if I stepped into a pile of them. Without knowing my system, would you or someone be able to suggest in general terms what a good configuration might look like, or to point me in the direction of an online knowledge scource I might find helpfull?

I know nothing about ATI cards but I know the nVidia card in my laptop has it's own control panel. Basically, a program that allows me to fine-tune the various 3D and resolution settings.

The low Experience Score could just be because it's an older card. In which case, there probably isn't much you can do to improve it.

I have a pretty good card though, it plays Fallout 3 at relatively high settings with a stable framerate. And sometimes, I also have the problem of WindowBlinds refusing to load Aero or custom skins. It just loads Windows Classic. Rebooting has always fixed it for me though.

Skillet98, your answer suggests a possible direction for me. As WB is graphics intensive, perhaps I should check to see if I can locate some documentation for my card and then configure it as if I wanted to play games on it. I appreciate your input and that of the other community members. This is a new direction for me in several ways, and it's beggining to seem as if this is going to become a more rewarding and enjoyable association than I had assumed.

I Only just installed my first ATI card. It has it's own menu for settings. I'm not sure about yours as it is intagrated.

You can download current drivers and the Catalyst Suite here - LINK at the bottom of the page. (They have lumped a bunch of XP and Vista drives together)

Then - control panel>system maintenance> Performance Information and Tools to update your WIndows Exxperience.

When you right click on your desktop, the Catalyst control center should be your first choice in the right click menu. You can use the Basic Interface or Advanced. You can always set everything back to default.

Your card is supposed to be fine with aero and 3D in Vista. Your drivers may just be out of date. I haven't done much with laptops, but have replaced quite a few video cards in desktops. Most recently a very hard to find PCI express low-profile for a slimcase desktop. You can find decent cards at affordable prices on and off line. You might want to look into a new one for your laptop just to brighten things up.

I downloaded those drivers and installed them. It raised my experience level to 3. It also has a menu for settings, and the 3-d settings seem especially configurable. It seems to me that I should just use the defaults, since the skins all look great and I'm not experiencing system slowdowns. I thank you for the link and instructions.

I'm very happy it helped!