Wow, thanks so much. Great guide. I'll be saving this

woah. i enabled dwm and the aero tweaks on 4074 (in VPC) and i got some wierd stars floating on my desktop. isn't the glass supposed to show up though?

That's actually Aero Stars, a feature and glass won't work in VPC due to the video card.

Sorry for bumping this topic.

I finally got DWM/Aero working in 5048 in VMWare.

Is it normal that those windows fade in if you open them or "roll" in when you restore them but if you close or minimize them they just disappear?

Which registry tweaks are possible to change the appearance? Can I increase the size of the tiny buttons in the title bar?


lol creating a screen shot was hard. Either I was too lazy and the window was already fully opened or... when I got the screen shot perfectly timed the drawing routine gave me an empty/black window.
So, on this screen shot it is fading in, unfortunately it's empty

There's no such thing as bumping a sticky so you're in the clear.

Thanks and working like a charm

neoice... got it working first shot....

would it be possible to just put a shortcut into the "startup" folder with the correct parameters?

In Longhorn 4074 you could even activate full DWM with the 4074 Customization Pack. Honestly, I can't find a download link.

PS. I don't know or the rule that you might bump a sticky is anymore here.

thanks for that FAQ

Great guide, thanks!

Thank you for this guide!

But I heard what in build 5048 you can run Aero in VM! Because Aero in this build use CPU's resources. Is it really?

Yes, thats true. Aero Glass works in that build in Vmware, but its really slow and nearly unusable.

Oh. Longhorn build 4074 in VM works very slow too... I think every Longhorn will work slow until you'll give him RAM about 4Gb But if the build has a bug like a memory leak it will need all 8Gb

For Longhorn 4039 you must apply a simple "CHANGE" in desksrv.dll

Thnx. I love It

can activate in vmware DWM tecnical 7 preview?

Install Windows Vista (5840 and higher) and install the VMWare Tools (only the the Techinal Beta Preview) and you have aero.

Thank You! I have been needing something like this and I have been wondering how to enable Aero in a Virtual Environment.

Does Longhorn 4028 have DWM? I think the visual style is disabled by default anyway...

this thread might help you

http://www.betaarchive.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4283

Thanks for that.

This shall be very useful if I decide to change my build.

do remember that even if some builds have DWM broken
they might contain other working goodies

What is DWM?

DWM = Desktop Window Manager

Horia, Desktop Window Manager. You can get a glass effect from DWM too