Disable DWM on Windows 8

Discuss Windows Vista/Server 2008 to Windows 10.
Post Reply
giantsteen
User avatar
Donator
Posts: 3514
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 2:17 am
Location: Cologne, Germany

Disable DWM on Windows 8

Post by giantsteen »

In Windows 8, DWM does not run on one of my applications, and it (for some reason) runs the colors of the old Vista/7 basic theme within the shell of the Windows 8 themes. Anyways, I was wondering if I could disable it for good on the whole machine. Google hasn't been much of a help; so I was wondering if anyone knew how to keep it from running.

Image
Last edited by giantsteen on Sat May 19, 2012 7:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Image

Pwned
Donator
Posts: 4268
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2009 4:28 pm

Re: Disable DWM on Windows 8

Post by Pwned »

If you run an application as a service, and enable GUI in services (interactive mode), it will run without theming engine.

giantsteen
User avatar
Donator
Posts: 3514
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 2:17 am
Location: Cologne, Germany

Re: Disable DWM on Windows 8

Post by giantsteen »

Pwned wrote:If you run an application as a service, and enable GUI in services (interactive mode), it will run without theming engine.
But I want the WHOLE machine. When it starts up aero/dwm is NOT running. No theming effects, glass, anything.
Image

soulman
User avatar
Donator
Posts: 2239
Joined: Tue Dec 15, 2009 8:56 pm
Contact:

Re: Disable DWM on Windows 8

Post by soulman »

Disable the service then. 8-)
Image

Fullmetal691
Posts: 93
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2011 12:44 am

Re: Disable DWM on Windows 8

Post by Fullmetal691 »

I believe you stop the "Desktop Window Manager Session Manager" Service. That turns aero off under windows 7.

giantsteen
User avatar
Donator
Posts: 3514
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 2:17 am
Location: Cologne, Germany

Re: Disable DWM on Windows 8

Post by giantsteen »

soulman wrote:Disable the service then. 8-)
I''ve already tried that. It does nothing. And that service is not in the developer or consumer previews.
Image

Panda X
User avatar
Donator
Posts: 926
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2006 3:17 am

Re: Disable DWM on Windows 8

Post by Panda X »

I have disabled DWM (technically broke it by porting a 7 theme to 8) in 8: http://i.imgur.com/ZfwNl.jpg

You really can't use the OS though. The start screen becomes a big black rectangle that's always shown and always on top of the primary monitor and never goes away, so if you have one monitor you can't do anything. Explorer only works if it's already opened apparently. Ctrl+Alt+Del just shows a solid color overlay, no text, no buttons, nothing. Sys tray is gone as well.

Gawk751
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun May 20, 2012 2:29 pm

Re: Disable DWM on Windows 8

Post by Gawk751 »

It seems like this is a glitch in the Consumer Preview... This happened to me once with Google Chrome...
Because from what i've read at MSDN, in Windows 8 the DWM is supposed to be always on....

(From MSDN): "In Windows 8 Consumer Preview, DWM desktop composition is a core operating system component and cannot be disabled."

Panda X
User avatar
Donator
Posts: 926
Joined: Wed Oct 11, 2006 3:17 am

Re: Disable DWM on Windows 8

Post by Panda X »

Gawk751 wrote:It seems like this is a glitch in the Consumer Preview... This happened to me once with Google Chrome...
Because from what i've read at MSDN, in Windows 8 the DWM is supposed to be always on....

(From MSDN): "In Windows 8 Consumer Preview, DWM desktop composition is a core operating system component and cannot be disabled."

It's a fallback for if and when DWM fails, which is what happened in my screenshot. Due to an error in the msstyles DWM crashed so it fell back to Basic.

giantsteen
User avatar
Donator
Posts: 3514
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 2:17 am
Location: Cologne, Germany

Re: Disable DWM on Windows 8

Post by giantsteen »

Panda X wrote:
Gawk751 wrote:It seems like this is a glitch in the Consumer Preview... This happened to me once with Google Chrome...
Because from what i've read at MSDN, in Windows 8 the DWM is supposed to be always on....

(From MSDN): "In Windows 8 Consumer Preview, DWM desktop composition is a core operating system component and cannot be disabled."

It's a fallback for if and when DWM fails, which is what happened in my screenshot. Due to an error in the msstyles DWM crashed so it fell back to Basic.
I wouldn't mind editing Windows 8 to get rid of DWM and the Start Screen. Making it a thinner, less memory-hogging OS.
Image

linuxlove
Donator
Posts: 5901
Joined: Tue Dec 01, 2009 2:56 am

Re: Disable DWM on Windows 8

Post by linuxlove »

giantsteen wrote:I wouldn't mind editing Windows 8 to get rid of DWM and the Start Screen. Making it a thinner, less memory-hogging OS.
Windows 8 is a memory hog? Are you trying to run it on a PC with only 512MB of RAM?
Goodbye.

Derf
User avatar
Donator
Posts: 3943
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2008 8:09 pm
Contact:

Re: Disable DWM on Windows 8

Post by Derf »

Looks absolutely hideous. The worst part is the mismatching taskbar and Window frame - they should either both be glass or neither should be glass. No wonder this was revealed so late in development, far after anything could be changed.

hounsell

Re: Disable DWM on Windows 8

Post by hounsell »

giantsteen wrote:I wouldn't mind editing Windows 8 to get rid of DWM and the Start Screen. Making it a thinner, less memory-hogging OS.
This is the problem with only specifying the last two digits of the year. This poor soul was clearly missed in the preparation for Y2k, and thinks that current computers are closer to the Babbage Analytical Engine rather than a typical device in 2012.

Post Reply