The Aero Effect

You always learn from friends… Blair just told me how to make Vista much more pleasant… with more Aero… and therefore I thought I should pass it on.

This, of course, requires a version of Windows Vista which actually supports Windows Aero.

Objective: To make your programs’ title bars, the start taskbar and the Windows Sidebar not appear black and without transparency when you have a maximized window.

Brief: This tutorial will make the taskbar, the top portion of a program (titlebar) and the Windows Sidebar not appear black whenever a window is maximized. In other words, it will make those areas permanently translucent (not transparent… as you can still see them).

The image on the right shows what the top left corner of a window would look like before and after, when the window is maximized.

Method:

1. Download a program called VistaGlazz there: (http://www.codegazer.com/vistaglazz/downloads/)
2. If you use Windows Vista SP1, do not click on the big “Download now” button. Click on the “current beta release” link for a version which works with the new service pack.
3. If not using the beta release, double-click to install, then launch VistaGlazz from your desktop. If you are using the beta release, just double-click the downloaded file.
4. Click “I agree”
   
5. 3 icons will appear, though not with the ticks in the screenshot. Click the leftmost icon, and click “Patch”. If there is a corrupt file error and you see a “Patch anyway”, don’t click it. Something serious happened that I can’t help you with.
   
6. Restart the computer
7. Click the middle icon now and follow the steps (if there are any )
8. You should now have a transparent taskbar, sidebar and window frame! Always!