Enabling Aero in Windows Vista 50xx+ x86 (VMware)

[Courage]

This is a small tutorial for enabling Aero Glass in most post-reset Vista Builds, namely the builds from the 50xx range onwards.
This tutorial was tested with the following builds: (Professional/Ultimate unless otherwise noted)

5048
5219
5231.0 (by ovctvct)
5231.2 (Ultimate & Enterprise Server)
5259.0 (also by fred30w and ovctvct)
5259.3 (by ovctvct)
5270 (Ultimate & Enterprise Server) (Ultimate also by ovctvct)
5381 (Home Premium)
5384 (Enterprise Server)
5456 (Home Premium & Ultimate) (Ultimate also by ovctvct)
5472 (Ultimate & Home Premium) (Ultimate also by fred30w)
5536 (Business & Ultimate) (Ultimate also by ovctvct)
5552 (Home Premium)
5600 (Datacenter Server & Ultimate) (Ultimate by ovctvct and Arths)
5728
5754 (Home Premium & Ultimate)
5757 (Datacenter Server)
6001.16406 (Enterprise Server)
6001.16510 (Web Server)
6001.17051 (x64 Web Server)

You will need the following items:

1. A relatively recent version of VMware Workstation. (10 or 11 will work)
2. The WDDM Display Drivers from Workstation 11. You can get an ISO that has them here: https://mega.nz/#!CMQzyDTJ!rQ72sAqgHi5Q ... Z-OcA5XjSk
If you are using an AMD64 (x64) build, you can get the x64 drivers here:
https://mega.nz/#!3FAmlIZR!fIkxmXF1X5R9 ... rfEUgDuhPA
3. The install DVD of your desired build.

Builds 5381 & later:

1. First, start creating your VM, but make sure to select Custom in the first screen.



2. Set the HW compatibility to Workstation 10.0 (for 11 users). You do not need to change the compatibility in earlier versions.



3. Set the Guest OS option to 'Windows Vista'.



4. Install the build as normal, including setting the BIOS Date.





5. After installing, open regedit and browse to Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM.

6. Over there, create a DWORD key named CompositionPolicy and set its value to 2.



7. Open Device Manager, browse to the 'Display Adapters' section, and right-click on the name of your display adapter. Select 'Update Driver Software' on the menu that comes up.

8. Select 'Browse my computer for driver software' and mount the ISO containing the display drivers from the 'Items you need' section.



9. Point the installer to the 'video_wddm' folder of the root of the ISO and click 'Next'. After the display driver installs, reboot the VM.



10. Aero Glass should be automatically enabled. It will be a bit slow, but it works.





Here's the ones for 5536 and 5754 as well:





Builds 5048, 5219-5270: (Thanks to fred30w and ovctvct!)

1. Follow Steps 1-4 of the previous guide. NOTE: For 5231.X, use 'Workstation 6.0' as the compatibility mode!

2. After installing, open regedit. From here, it branches off into two different paths, depending on which build you want to use:

Builds 5048, 5219 & 5231.X:

Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\DWM. (if the key does not exist, create it.)

Over there, create a DWORD key named EnableMachineCheck and set its value to 0.

Builds 5259.X & 5270:

Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\DWM. (if the key does not exist, create it.)

Over there, create a DWORD key named UseMachineCheck and set its value to 0.



3. After this, open Device Manager, browse to the 'Display Adapters' section, and right-click on the name of your display adapter. Select 'Update Driver Software' on the menu that comes up.

4. Select the options required to choose your driver manually. (Sorry, but there is no screenshot for this one as these builds use different interfaces. 5048 & 5219 use the XP-style interface while the later builds use the Vista-style.)

5. When you have to install the driver, mount the ISO you downloaded way back in the beginning and point it to the 'video_xpdm'
in the root directory of the ISO.

6. You will receive an error about the drivers not being signed. Ignore it.

7. After the driver installs, reboot the computer. You should have Aero Glass enabled unless if you use 5048.



8. (Thanks to ovctvct!) If you use 5048, open services.msc and enable the 'User Experience Session Management' service by setting it to automatically start on start up.

9. After you reboot, you must log off and log on again on every startup to enable Aero.

All other builds: (ones which are not listed at the top, that is)

I don't know whether they work with these methods or not, as I don't have the builds themselves or they do not work for me. (5112, 5308.60 and 5365 are applicable for the second category.) If someone can provide a conclusion, I'd gladly provide credit for them.

(PS: This started out as an experiment for lulz on 5456, but it turned into a reliable way to enable Aero Glass.)

UPDATE: Reuploaded the ISO, with the fix suggested by fred30w applied. Thanks, fred30w!

[ReztaNZ]

Great tutorial! Helped me a lot, thank you

[ovctvct]

Offtopic Comment

BTW I know 5270 doesn't support WDDM, is there a way to get aero in vmware?I even managed to get 5231 aero in vmware, but 5259/70 aero never worked.

[Courage]

5259.0 installs the WDDM driver just fine, but DWM does not start. 5259.0 is a hopeless case, as it refuses to install the XPDM driver and has issues with the WDDM driver.

However, 5219 works very well with the XPDM driver in the ISO, with DWM:

[fred30w]

5259.0 installs the WDDM driver just fine, but DWM does not start. 5259.0 is a hopeless case, as it refuses to install the XPDM driver

If you are having issues with 5259 complaining about the catalog file, you can simply remove the corresponding line in the driver's INF file. This will invalidate the security signature, but the driver will function just fine.

Here's a screenshot of the line to remove and proof DWM works fine on the XPDM driver.

[ovctvct]

5259.0 installs the WDDM driver just fine, but DWM does not start. 5259.0 is a hopeless case, as it refuses to install the XPDM driver

If you are having issues with 5259 complaining about the catalog file, you can simply remove the corresponding line in the driver's INF file. This will invalidate the security signature, but the driver will function just fine.

Here's a screenshot of the line to remove and proof DWM works fine on the XPDM driver.

How did you exactly get aero in 5259,what reg. edit, driver etc did you use???I never got aero in 5259/70...

[fred30w]

How did you exactly get aero in 5259,what reg. edit, driver etc did you use???I never got aero in 5259/70...

I'm using VMware player 7.1.0 build-2496824. (this is not workstation!) I'm just using the SVGA driver that comes with this version of VMware player.
To active Aero: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\DWM
Add DWORD "UseMachineCheck", set to 0.
Log out and log back in and Aero should be activated.

[wasabilee]

5259 works fine with nvidia's XP drivers

also talking about VM and SVGA 2 and then saying its a XP driver is ... so so wrong

[Courage]

5259.0 installs the WDDM driver just fine, but DWM does not start. 5259.0 is a hopeless case, as it refuses to install the XPDM driver

If you are having issues with 5259 complaining about the catalog file, you can simply remove the corresponding line in the driver's INF file. This will invalidate the security signature, but the driver will function just fine.

Here's a screenshot of the line to remove and proof DWM works fine on the XPDM driver.

Awesome, so this leaves 5112 & 5308 as the only cases (in post-reset, 5270 & 5342-5384 are wildcards but I am testing 5365 now) where you can't enable DWM now. (For info, 5308 crashes with the WDDM driver, but works with the XPDM driver from version 7, but DWM just spazzes out if you try to enable it.)

Here's my one for 5259.0, if anyone's interested: (Also, I like this Aero and 5231's Aero better than any other.)



Also a friendly reminder to test the drivers on as many x86 builds as you can and they also work on Server editions:



UPDATE: 5270 works with the method used in 5259's case with the XPDM driver, and 5308.60 does not work under any config. Here are the screenshots:

5308.60 Error:



5270 Aero:

[ovctvct]

How did you exactly get aero in 5259,what reg. edit, driver etc did you use???I never got aero in 5259/70...

I'm using VMware player 7.1.0 build-2496824. (this is not workstation!) I'm just using the SVGA driver that comes with this version of VMware player.
To active Aero: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\DWM
Add DWORD "UseMachineCheck", set to 0.
Log out and log back in and Aero should be activated.

Tried that and the mouse cursor doesn't show up Maybe workstation 7.1.4 will do it better, since the mouse cursor bug happens with 5219/31 to in vmware 11 or player 7.

[Courage]

Install the mouse driver from any VMware Tools package. (Hounsell's 6.5 or 7.0 packs will do just fine.)

[hinatahyuuga]

Anyone can extract the flip3D icons from vista build (5270 for exemple) please ' i would like to use for me theme
Thanks .

[ovctvct]

Install the mouse driver from any VMware Tools package. (Hounsell's 6.5 or 7.0 packs will do just fine.)

Doesn't do anything.... the mouse WORKS but the CURSOR doesn't display.. I'll try it with Workstation 7.1.4. And: Workstation also runs aero with the same drivers, no need to use Player

EDIT: As expected, the mouse cursor displays with workstation 7.1.4(even with the same drivers!)


So, do NOT use anything newer than workstation 7.1x unless you want the mouse pointer to be inivisible!

[Courage]

So, do NOT use anything newer than workstation 7.1x unless you want the mouse pointer to be inivisible!

I can't see why it does not work for you on Workstation 11 and I'm using the same SKU of the same compile of the same build. I even get Flip3D:



The only reason that my mouse pointer is not present is because of the mouse pointer integration that is enabled by default. What was your config in Workstation 11?

[ovctvct]

So, do NOT use anything newer than workstation 7.1x unless you want the mouse pointer to be inivisible!

I can't see why it does not work for you on Workstation 11 and I'm using the same SKU of the same compile of the same build. I even get Flip3D:



The only reason that my mouse pointer is not present is because of the mouse pointer integration that is enabled by default. What was your config in Workstation 11?

Pointer integration was off AFAIK. Anyway, workstation 7.1.4 is the best in running aero.

Offtopic Comment

Can you give me that wallpaper?I like it!

[TheCollector1988]

Other than real hardware of course, there should be a way to enable Aero Glass in the 53xx range on VMware.
As I tried to force 5308 to enable Aero Glass some years ago on VMware, it flickered.

[fred30w]

Thank you Courage for posting this tutorial. Vista build 5472.5 works great! I remember back when VMware Workstation 7 came out, there was a big rage about the new WDDM support, but this build never really worked. This is a build I always wanted to run Aero on, and now (of course after I get a real machine that could run it), it works on a much more convenient virtual machine!

[Courage]

Other than real hardware of course, there should be a way to enable Aero Glass in the 53xx range on VMware.
As I tried to force 5308 to enable Aero Glass some years ago on VMware, it flickered.

Precisely my problem with 5308.60 here. The WDDM driver causes the BSOD seen above, and the XPDM driver causes DWM to have a seizure.

Offtopic Comment

@ovctvct: Here you go:

[ovctvct]

I believe few noticed this:


In 5270. Weird thing that the "Aero express" theme has the taskbar and start menu transparent, despite the titlebars are not

[Courage]

Express is the prelude to the Windows Vista Standard theme, which basically means a locked-down DWM.

[wasabilee]

guess they were still testing it in beta 2
cool to know, I thought 5112 was last one with that

but overall standard theme is failure, as later all they did is remove blur and put borders
to opaque, you didn't get this different win borders which were much nicer

this later changes just make OS more flat uglier

[ovctvct]

Weird [censored] is going on. After a while, Aero stopped working on 5259, it now freezes destop instead of loading glass and the only solution is press ctrl+shift+f9 to turn it off.... I have no idea what happened... EDIT: I even reinstalled the SVGA driver but nothing changed...

[Courage]

Which version are you using? I can confirm that my 5259 VM survived an upgrade to the host OS (namely, 10056 to 10074) on Workstation 11.

[ovctvct]

Which version are you using? I can confirm that my 5259 VM survived an upgrade to the host OS (namely, 10056 to 10074) on Workstation 11.

5259.0 and VMware workstation 7.1.4, windows 8 (not 8.1) as the host OS.

[Courage]

Try importing the VM to Workstation 11, upgrade the compatibility mode to Workstation 10 and see if it works from there. Otherwise, get ready for a reinstall with 6.5 compatibility due to both 5259 builds being buggier than a pile of cow dung surrounded by flies.