Alright, I have visual issues

[MengusDew]

This is my issue. I installed Vista Home Premuim 32-bit and at first everything worked fine and looked how it should. Then i purchased driver detective. I have a dell with the sigmatell audio and nvidia graphics. I updated all the drivers it said were out of date, but there is one that i've downloaded and didn't automatically install, so I manually stuck the driver files into the folder specified by Dell, specifically the R144920 folder. Now when I load Vista it looks just like xp. no black toolbar, no glass windows, just your basic classic windows look. I tried to go to to colors and appearances to switch it back to the vista look and it's not even an option anymore. I've tried everything I know to get it back to the vista look, set aside another whole system restore, which I really don't want to do again( just got all my programs installed and registered, took 1 whole day) but nothing has worked.


WTF?

 

[smarteyeball]

Please post don't post multiple threads about the same issue. (It gets confusing for all ) If you think you have it in the wrong place, use the 'report post' icon to alert a mod.

Now for your issue, try running the WEI (rating score) WIN+Break , run assessment.

 

[MengusDew]

Sorry to confuse anyone. Ok so I assume you're talking about running the program that i downloaded from your signature in the post, so I did that and ran the WEI Score and it gave me this:
*************************************************************
**************** Windows Experience Index *******************
*************************************************************

CPU Score: 4
Disk Score: 5.4
Graphics Score: 2.4
Direct 3D Score: 2.4
Memory Score: 4.4
WEI Score: 2.4

I haven't a clue what this means.

 

[smarteyeball]

No worries about the confusion. It just makes it easier for people to to reply to one single thread instead of repeating answers in multiple threads about the same issue

The Windows Experience Index (WEI) in Vista gives a rating of the 'performance' of individual components. Your overall score (2.4) is determined by the lowest performing component, in your case the Graphics Score.

Since you had it Aero/effects working before working before, you can try:


right-clicking on the desktop, select Personalize.
Click on Themes and select the default Windows Vista themes.
Next, in Windows Color & Appearance, ensure that Enable Transparency is checked.

Now, inspite of this, you still find that Aero does not work, or your Aero has stopped working, simply copy-paste the following command in Vista Start Menus Search Box, and hit Enter.

rundll32.exe Dwmapi.dll,DwmEnableComposition


It could also be a driver issue. Here are the latest proper nvidia drivers:
http://uk.download.nvidia.com/Windows/182.08/182.08_geforce_winvista_32bit_international_whql.exe

Without knowing what specific card you have, double check to see if your card is supported.

Good luck

 

[MengusDew]

When I go to themes my only options listed is "Modified Theme", "Current Theme", "Windows Classic", and "Browse".

As far as drivers I have Driver Detective, I have the most recent version of the nvidia geforce 6150 le, and nvidia nforce drivers. Now the only driver coming up outdated is my generic pnp monitor, which when I go to download it downloads three files in R144920.zip. I extracted those files to r144920 in the Dell drivers folder. But it still comes up outdated, and downloads those same files every time.

 

[smarteyeball]

The monitor .inf file should not have any impact on the ability to view Aero.

Apps like Driver Detective are a good idea in theory, but it's still a better practice to find and download the drivers yourself.

Perhaps you can try clicking on the aero.theme file itself found at:

C:\Windows\Resources\Themes

If all else fails you could try using a restore point to roll back to when Aero was working properly. Then try updating drivers one at a time to find out what stops aero.