Are you accessing all Aero's features?

Much has been made of how extraordinarily useful Windows 7 Aero features are. Perhaps not by those whose computing adventures are limited to e-mail, the Internet, and a document or two. But most definitely by those who participate in many and varied computing adventures.

The most used Aero effects are:
Aero Peek: It provides a thumbnail preview of a window(s) without actually opening it by simply hovering over the icon in the taskbar. Click on a thumbnail and you’ll be taken to that window. Peek also works with Internet Explorer tabs.

Show Desktop: To quickly preview or to go to your Desktop, click on the Show Desktop bar at the far right end of the Windows Taskbar and Notification area.

Aero Shake: If you have many windows open on your desktop and only want to look at one, left click on it, hold it and shake it! All the other windows will minimize. Shake it again and all your other windows will restore.

Aero Snap: If you click and drag a window up to the top of the screen it’ll
automatically maximize itself. If you have two windows open and want to view them side by side, click and drag one to the right edge of the screen and the other to the left. They’ll both resize automatically to fit the screen

If you find you’re not able to access all of the Aero features it may be because by default Windows 7 is set to automatically adjust its Aero effects based on your system’s Windows Experience Index Rating (Start, Control Panel, Systems). Based on your index rating Windows may not have activate all of Aero’s effects.

If you believe you’re not enjoying all of Aero’s features and you would not mind a wee bit of a performance slow down, you can enable all of them.
1. Depending on how you view your Control Panel, Click Start, Control Panel, System and Security, System or Start, Control Panel, System.
2. Click on Advanced system settings and then Performance settings.
3. Under the visual effects tab you should see that the option “ Let windows choose what’s best for my computer” is by default checked.
4. Below it you should see a list of visual effects. If any are unchecked you’re not experiencing the full range of Aero features.
5. Select the Custom option and then select all the effects from the list below it. Click Apply and OK.

All your Aero effects will be enabled.

Here’s wishing you a Good Boot.