i can say i've never had the sidebar ever active, but only because i think it takes up desktop space that i could otherwise use for other, more important things.  turning off the vista start menu? that kind of defeats the purpose of having vista on you computer.  there's nothing really that different between the vista start menu and the "classic" one... well, except that the classic is uuuuuugleee.

 

i wouldn't take what these people tell you all that seriously.  if your computer has sufficient ram (2gb, but 3gb is ideal), a good CPU (any recent processor is more than enough) and good video card (for example, i have a nvidia 7600gt and it is rated pretty high in vista... so it doesn't have to be the most recent GPU), then you won't even notice vista's use of your "resources".  it's obviously a much more graphic-intensive interface than XP ever was or will be, so i hardly deem this to be any bit of a surprise that it would require more ram, more CPU usage and a better video card to run it. 

 

i often bring up mac OSX in this case - it's a pretty graphic intensive OS, yet i have *never* heard any mac user whine about tiger or leopard being a "resource hog" as far as its interface is concerned. 

 

in short, aero is just eye candy.  it's worth it imho.  i would much rather aero than the awful, awful XP interface i've had to deal with for so may years now.   

 

   

The only reason I have turned Aero off on my system is because of an online game that I play.  It will not run with Aero activated and the system automatically switches it on/off.  While in game, if you were to click on Bug report or any support features, it loads a web page while still in game and kicks on Aero.  It just causes to much of a delay between screens to keep it on.

If you dont' like the visible windows when you alt tab or do the task bar, then turn it off.  I like seeing what the actual window is that I have open, rather than an icon.  I like the alt-windows key scrolling.  I like the sidebar, I have pictures, calendar, weather, notepads and the cpu meter, although I have 17 and 22 inch monitors.

 

I like Aero.  I do have programs set to shut it off.   If you click on the icon and select properties you can select disable desktop enhancements and when you start the program it will disable aero, if there is a conflict.  Then when the program shuts down, aero will turn back on.

 

To each his own.  It's not a big deal, but it's not a "huge" resource hog.  To me that's just people who don't like microsoft, whining like they do.  SOme people are never happy.  If Windows had a program that did everything except make you lunch, people would be mad about the fact they had to prepare their own lunch. 

 

discostu668, I have only the Intel onboard graphics which everyone says are bad so apparently I dont have what you say it takes.  Nevermind the dual core Pentium processor instead of a Core 2 Duo.

 

What I am asking is what Aero gives me.  The only thing you've mentioned is a better Start Menu, so that's it?  That's all Aero does? 

 

I don't need a flashy Start Menu, I don't even use it (maybe once a month when I open a program not on the desktop).

 

If anyone knows of something else that Aero does, please let me know.

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eskymi wrote: 

 

To each his own.  It's not a big deal, but it's not a "huge" resource hog.  To me that's just people who don't like microsoft, whining like they do.  Some people are never happy.  If Windows had a program that did everything except make you lunch, people would be mad about the fact they had to prepare their own lunch. 

 

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I couldn't have said it better. It's so true.

SSteelCity,

 

aero is the theme of the whole OS.  so one of the things aero gives you compared to XP is fairly obvious from the start.  one of the other things aero gives you is the ability to flip through windows "three-dimensionally" instead of them just being tabs within your taskbar.  admittedly, i do not really use this feature very much but it's nicely done.  the transparent windows is another thing as well.

 

compared to how stale and boring XP is, vista is kind of refreshing.  it's good to see an OS with some visual forethought put into it.  now if they could only make it similar to OSX's interface.... without having to download questionable add-ons/mods to make it more like OSX.    

 

at any rate, if you have to disable aero for reasons of gaming, then whatever... you have to do it.  but i still don't see the point of regressing the start menu.      

 

and for the record, i'm running vista on a dimension 9150 pentium D 830 3.0ghz dual core (not core duo) perfectly fine. i have never seen the alleged slowdowns and resource "hogging" that people whine about.  this, of course, could be because i have 4gb of ram installed.

MoneyGuyBK, that's what it seems.  I was concerned that I would lose important features by turning it off.  But since it's just eye candy, I don't mind.  I don't care if my Start Menu is "boring and stale". 

One word = Aero ... Equals Two words "Eye Candy" :)

That's about it really!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peace

 

 

worth a read

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/experiences/aero.mspx

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/aero.aspx

Vista doesn't make lunch so disappointing. :(

 

I have the rubbish GM945 integrated graphics and have noticed no difference in performance with Aero on or off. After installing 4Gb of RAM (3.25Gb) and a clean install of Vista my laptop outperforms XP in everything apart from start-up and shut-down.