Aero Standard is just a slightly watered-down version of Aero Glass.
Basically, the only differences between them are Standard's lack of glass
transparency and the "extra" 3d effects (such as Flip 3d, the new Alt-Tab
replacement, the preview thumbnails on the taskbar, and the minimize/restore
effect).
However, Aero Standard still supports all of the cool features of the new
display technology (using the video card to render to the screen), and as
far as I can tell still requires a glass-capable video card. At the very
least, it requires WDDM drivers.
The only time I have seen Aero Standard is when using Vista Home Basic,
which does not allow Aero Glass.
- JB
Vista Support FAQ
http://www.jimmah.com/vista/