Solved Can't get rid of Vista Effects!!

Greetings!

I am running Vista Home Premium (64bit version) with Service Pack 1 & have admin rights. I have all the latest drivers (especially for my video card) installed.

The system specs are:
- Intel Core2 Quad Q8200
- Asus P5QL PRO MB
- Asus EN8400GS video card
- 4GB RAM

I don't want ANY Vista effects AT ALL and have tried for the last couple of days to disable them... all efforts have failed.

A) System Properties --> Advanced (Tab) --> Settings.. (under Performance): I have deselected ALL the checkboxes in BOTH my admin account and also in my non-admin account (using elevated status)... the effects still come back!

B) Personalize appearance and sounds --> Window Color and Appearance : I have purposely NOT chosen any Aero scheme.. I've even tried the bare bones Windows Classic scheme.. still the effects come back... I've even tried changing EVERY single user on the system to a real basic scheme... the effects still come back!

In the color scheme selection, under the "effects" button, I have deselected ALL effects!.. but still the effects come back!

C) I have tried "adjust for best appearance" & then "adjust for best performance" (with the intention of resetting the settings!).. the effects still come back! (initially at least they disappear, but as soon as I log out & log back in, or reboot, etc. they come back!)

What is interesting is that in my admin account, I don't get any effects (yay!), so the settings DO stick in that account... but I don't want to run my day to day affairs using my admin account and my non-admin account (as well as every single other user on the system) has the bloody effects enabled!!! GRRR!!

HELP!! How the heck do I get rid of them?????????? They are driving me flipping insane!!!!!!!!!

Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Chad

I dont understand why you would want to, especially as you have a quad core but you can try this.

Click the windows start orb
Type services into the search bar and hit enter
Locate the service called Desktop Window Manager Session Manager
Double click on it and change the startup type to disabled then reboot your pc

Hey stew2! Thanks very much for your reply! The unfortunate news is that it didn't get rid of the effects If I add them back, accept the changes, then deselect them & accept the changes, the effects go away, but then when I log out & log back in or reboot, shutdown, etc.. they come back!

Disabling the Desktop Window Manager Session Manager should have disabled aero, taskbar thumbnails etc.

Go back into services and make sure Group Policy Client is set to automatic startup. Then go HERE and scroll down the page to method two and allow colour scheme change. Reboot and check if it now works.

If not then go to the vista start orb and type in the search bar cmd then hit enter. Then type in the window sfc /scannow and then hit enter.

Once that scan is completego to Start>Computer>Right Click "C" drive>Click Properties>Tools>Error Checking-Click "Check Now">Under Check Disk Options click "Automatically fix file system errors" and "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors"> Restart Computer

If either of those scans come back showing corruption your best bet is to re-install Vista.

Stew2: Thanks very much for your thoughts. I really appreciate them. I FINALLY got it to work! This is going to sound strange, but this is what did it: I created a new user account & gave it admin privileges.. then did the System Properties --> Adjust for best performance (so no effects) thing.. as well as setting the colour scheme to Vista Basic (and making sure that the "effects" button had no selected articles)... rebooted.. then downgraded the account to "standard user" and the changes STUCK!!! So for some strange reason the changes weren't taken seriously by the system unless it had direct admin (and not just by elevated prompts, because I had tried that & it didn't work) privileges!! I don't have an explanation for why this is, but am very glad that I FINALLY have some degree of control over the effects in my system now!!! Thanks again for your help & ideas. Take care, Chad

No problem. Glad you finally got it work