With FSX and W7, is there a way to prevent FSX changing a windows theme to Windows 7 Basic upon start? I believe my FSX would work as good as with Basic, because when I quit dwm.exe, it reverts to normal Aero and FSX is performing flawlessly.

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If it doesn't affect performance I would like the Aero effects to remain as well.

The way to "force" the disabling of Windows Aero interface for a running program is to right-click on the program's EXE or shortcut (in this case FSX.exe or the shortcut to that), go to the PROPERTIES page, click on the COMPATIBILITY tab, and then to check (tick) the "Disable desktop composition" box. So, obviously, if you want the Aero interface for remain working, you just leave this check box unticked; or, in the case where it is checked (ticked), you uncheck (untick) it. In other words, have a look at the compatibility tab for FSX.exe (or your FSX shortcut) and see if that box is checked. If it is, uncheck it. Failing that, I'm sorry, I have no other ideas.

The way to "force" the disabling of Windows Aero interface for a running program is to right-click on the program's EXE or shortcut (in this case FSX.exe or the shortcut to that), go to the PROPERTIES page, click on the COMPATIBILITY tab, and then to check (tick) the "Disable desktop composition" box. So, obviously, if you want the Aero interface for remain working, you just leave this check box unticked; or, in the case where it is checked (ticked), you uncheck (untick) it. In other words, have a look at the compatibility tab for FSX.exe (or your FSX shortcut) and see if that box is checked. If it is, uncheck it. Failing that, I'm sorry, I have no other ideas.

Thanks for your try. If you would try yourself though, you would see that such thing doesn't work in Windows 7. It's already disabled and is still disabling Aero. I think it might be hardcoded or something like that.

The way to "force" the disabling of Windows Aero interface for a running program is to right-click on the program's EXE or shortcut (in this case FSX.exe or the shortcut to that), go to the PROPERTIES page, click on the COMPATIBILITY tab, and then to check (tick) the "Disable desktop composition" box. So, obviously, if you want the Aero interface for remain working, you just leave this check box unticked; or, in the case where it is checked (ticked), you uncheck (untick) it. In other words, have a look at the compatibility tab for FSX.exe (or your FSX shortcut) and see if that box is checked. If it is, uncheck it. Failing that, I'm sorry, I have no other ideas.

Doesn't work...

Thanks for your try. If you would try yourself though, you would see that such thing doesn't work in Windows 7. It's already disabled and is still disabling Aero. I think it might be hardcoded or something like that.

Hmmm, I have used this check box to successfully disable the Windows Aero interface for a number of programs (games) on my Windows 7 computer at home and I have used it with Vista and Windows 7 programs as part of my job in IT. That check box does do the job. However, it does look as though FSX controls this natively (ie, yes, it seems to be hardcoded with the FSX.exe or something). Now that I think about it, I do seem to remember that maybe FSX was changed this way with SP1 (or was it SP2?) to help with Vista compatibility for FSX running in windowed mode. But my memory is a little lacking, so I cannot be sure.