[Update] How to Enable / Activate Aero Theme in Windows Vista Home Basic Edition?

UPDATE: An already patched Aero.msstyles file is available to download here. So you no longer need to manually patch the file.

Also manually patching can be done using any free Hex Editor like XVI32. Open the .msstyles file, find DF DF DF FF and change it with 00 00 00 00. Save the file and re-apply the theme.

Windows Vista Home Basic edition doesn't come with Aero interface, so you don't get the transparency and glass effects at all. Once we posted a small tutorial for enabling Aero theme in Home Basic edition which you can read here. It works but some people reported that it didn't work for them.

Today we are going to share another method to enable Aero theme in Windows Vista Home Basic edition. Actually Basic edition can provide the Aero interface but its disabled by default. So if your system hardware meets the minimum requirements to run Aero theme, you can give following method a try. We would like to clear, we have not tested this method yet. So we request you to try the method and post your comments about it:

1. First you'll need "Ave's Vista Style Builder" program which you can get from following link:

Get Vista Style Builder

Its not a free program. You'll need to purchase it for $22.5 but its worth to buy.

2. Now open your theme's .msstyles file in this program. If you are using Windows default theme, open "%windir%\Resources\Themes\Aero\Aero.msstyles" file in this program. (Here %windir% means "Windows" directory present in the system drive where Windows Vista is installed.)

3. Now navigate to "Fonts, Colors & System Metrics -> Colors (Globals)" section.

4. In right-side pane, you'll see a property with the name "COLORIZATIONCOLOR:INT".

5. You'll need to change its value to 0 (Yup, Zero).

6. Now save the file and re-apply the theme and you'll get Aero theme enabled in your system.

All credit goes to "killermole23" @ DeviantART for finding this cool trick and thanks to "fediaFedia" for sharing it...

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This article was posted in Troubleshooting, Windows Vista.

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19 Comments

Anon

I've tried this and it works... sort of xD now I have the blur effect on non-maximized windows.

I have three "Windows Standard" options in the classic view. One gives me the effect on maximized windows with the windows 7 task bar. The second gives me the effect on non-maximized windows with vista taskbar, and the third gives me the effect on maximized windows with vista taskbar.

So I guess I must have done something wrong with some 7 conversion theme xD

Any idea on what could I do to make it work?

Thanks
Dave

tried it and it works.
NoOne

Might as well just pay the extra money for Vista Home Premium if you would put out 20 bucks. The glass isn't really even necessary since Vista provides a non glass-like aero feature on basic now. You can change the color of the frame borders and the windows are treated the same as aero because they no longer create a trace like before or on Windows XP when an application froze and was moved around the desktop area.

Trust me, the glass isn't that great and it runs the CPU about 5% higher. It's up to you though.
almost

that already patched aero.msstyles really works but it has a very ugly bug. when you resize or move a window horrible lines appear(with negative colors). I really hope this is gonna be fixed
Lewis

Almost, that isn't to do with the visual style. It's to do with your graphics card.
almost

yeah my bad....had to enable show window content while dragging and it works now.
krish

Doesn't work for me. tried both the patched VS and hex editor method.
these are my specs:
Vista Home basic 32-bit sp2
running on Vostro 1500 with NVidia 8400m GS.
MasterDelta

THIS DOES NOT WORK ANYMORE.
Andy

- This is real - it's working!!! - I've patched Aero Theory - it's transparent now - on Home Basic SP1 OEM!!! (With Vista Style Builder)
- And the Aero VG was transparent already (almost the only theme that actually was transparent on Home Basic )
- Thanx!!!