Windows 7/Aero Problems

I just installed the Parallels 5 upgrade on my Mac OS X 10.4.11/Mac Pro system. I tested the new Windows Aero support with Windows Vista without issue. However, when trying it with Windows 7, I cannot get Aero to work. When running the troubleshooter, I get get the following message:

"Desktop window manager is disabled"

The troubleshooter proceeds to tell me that it has fixed the problem and to try re-enabling Aero. This fails. I tried a hack to enable Aero here:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/01/13/hack-to-force-enable-aero-in-windows-7/

This fails as well. If anyone has any suggestions on this, I would be very grateful.

Thank you in advance.

 

I did a clean reset up of Windows 7, and Aero still does not work. Once again, it does work fine under Windows Vista.

 

Is 3D support turned on in that VM configuration? With 128 MB of video memory or more?

 

Also, PD5 has a setting to turn OFF Aero when running in Coherence mode, that's in Configuration - Crystal&Coherence, be sure it is NOT checked.

 

re

Thank you for the reply. To answer your questions:

1. 3D is turned on.
2. The video memory is set to 128mb (I even tried 256mb with no success).
3. I'm not running in Coherence mode. But in any case, the option to turn off Aero is NOT checked.

 

i am also having this problem. running Boot Camp machine in Parallels, i'm in full screen or windows mode, i've set my theme to an Aero theme but its still not working. i've made sure to upgrade parallels tools, allocated 256MB vRAM and 2GB of RAM to my virtual machine.

i'm running on a white Macbook with Intel GMA X3100.

 

Due to OS X drivers limitations 3D acceleration support is limited on Tiger with any graphics card and for Intel graphics on all systems. This makes official Aero support impossible.

You may try some hack though. It is possible to force Aero compatibility at the cost of possible 3D problems. In virtual machine properties select Hardware tab and Boot Order. Type in "video.dx_profile=6" without quotes into Boot flags and start your VM.
Note that this setting may cause artefacts or instability to 3D applications because it stretches the system beyond its capabilities. Remove this boot flag in case of problems.

 

Thanks! I'll try this.

Would upgrading to SnowLeopard correct this issue as well?

 

Mark,

Yes, Snow Leopard should fix it. By the way, what graphics card do you have?

 

This worked! I now have Aero under Windows 7.

I'm running an NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256mb on a MacPro. I'll probably be upgrading to SnowLeo in the next month.

Thanks again for your help!

 

Just remember to remove this boot flag after upgrade or if graphics problems arise.