two questions

[dpm]

1 - the sidebar on my wife's vista system is transparent [you can see her
wall paper thru the sidebar]. my sidebar is opaque [light gray color; not
transparent]. i can't see how to make my bar transparent? [note: i'm talking
about the sidebar itself, not the gadgets in the sidebar; for those, i can
change the transparency].

2 - my window switcher doesn't work anymore. it used to give me the 3-d open
windows view. now it does nothing.

any help greatly apreciated. tia.

dpm

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

This is attributed to the fact that Windows Aero theme is not enabled. Right
click the Desktop > click Properties > Personalize > Themes > click in the
Themes list box and select Windows Aero > click OK. The option to have to an
opaque Sidebar will now be available and you can now have the Flip 3d.

 

[Charlie42]

1 - the sidebar on my wife's vista system is transparent [you can see her
wall paper thru the sidebar]. my sidebar is opaque [light gray color; not
transparent]. i can't see how to make my bar transparent? [note: i'm
talking about the sidebar itself, not the gadgets in the sidebar; for
those, i can change the transparency].

2 - my window switcher doesn't work anymore. it used to give me the 3-d
open windows view. now it does nothing.

To answer both your questions: Windows Aero is turned off. It could be
temporarily disabled because you ran some old software, or it could be that
your hardware isn't quite up to Vista's requirements (I'm assuming you don't
have Vista Basic, which doesn't feature Aero at all).

The 3D Flip is part of Aero, but the old Alt-Tab function should still work,
allowing you to cycle between programs.

Try to turn the Aero features back on in Control Panel > Appearance and
Personalization. Follow the troubleshooting advice in this article:

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/c33fe91a-9e6f-41f4-ae82-3ed2d5fa2fbf1033.mspx

Charlie42

 

[dpm]

OK. I don't have a theme called Aero. I switched it to the theme called
Windows Vista and now my sidebar is transparent. One problem down. I must've
had this Aero theme when I first got my computer because in the beginning I
could use the 3-D. I can still do the alt-tab between windows, but I really
liked the 3-D display. Is there maybe a place I can download additional
themes from, including this Aero theme? Thanks.

This is attributed to the fact that Windows Aero theme is not enabled.
Right click the Desktop > click Properties > Personalize > Themes > click
in the Themes list box and select Windows Aero > click OK. The option to
have to an opaque Sidebar will now be available and you can now have the
Flip 3d.
--
Andre
Blog: http://adacosta.spaces.live.com
My Vista Quickstart Guide:
http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!E8E5CC039D51E3DB!9709.entry

1 - the sidebar on my wife's vista system is transparent [you can see her
wall paper thru the sidebar]. my sidebar is opaque [light gray color; not
transparent]. i can't see how to make my bar transparent? [note: i'm
talking about the sidebar itself, not the gadgets in the sidebar; for
those, i can change the transparency].

2 - my window switcher doesn't work anymore. it used to give me the 3-d
open windows view. now it does nothing.

any help greatly apreciated. tia.

dpm

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

It should be 'Windows Aero', Vista includes three themes:

Windows Aero
Windows Aero Basic
Windows Aero Standard (for Windows Vista Home Basic users)
Windows Classic

Flip 3D is a part of the Windows Aero experience, the only other thing I
suggest you do is ensure that the following services are running:
- Themes
- Desktop window manager

You can find them under Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services

If that does not work
If none of the above work, you might need to refresh your Windows Experience
Index (WEI) rating.
1. Click Start
2. In the search box, type Performance Information and Tools, hit enter
3. Click the Update my score link
4. Click Continue on the User Account Control dialog
--
Andre
Blog: http://adacosta.spaces.live.com
My Vista Quickstart Guide:
http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!E8E5CC039D51E3DB!9709.entry

OK. I don't have a theme called Aero. I switched it to the theme called
Windows Vista and now my sidebar is transparent. One problem down. I
must've had this Aero theme when I first got my computer because in the
beginning I could use the 3-D. I can still do the alt-tab between windows,
but I really liked the 3-D display. Is there maybe a place I can download
additional themes from, including this Aero theme? Thanks.

This is attributed to the fact that Windows Aero theme is not enabled.
Right click the Desktop > click Properties > Personalize > Themes > click
in the Themes list box and select Windows Aero > click OK. The option to
have to an opaque Sidebar will now be available and you can now have the
Flip 3d.
--
Andre
Blog: http://adacosta.spaces.live.com
My Vista Quickstart Guide:
http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!E8E5CC039D51E3DB!9709.entry

1 - the sidebar on my wife's vista system is transparent [you can see her
wall paper thru the sidebar]. my sidebar is opaque [light gray color; not
transparent]. i can't see how to make my bar transparent? [note: i'm
talking about the sidebar itself, not the gadgets in the sidebar; for
those, i can change the transparency].

2 - my window switcher doesn't work anymore. it used to give me the 3-d
open windows view. now it does nothing.

any help greatly apreciated. tia.

dpm

 

[dpm]

My theme options are: Windows Vista; Windows Classic and Browse. Browse
starts me in C: Program Files - not sure where the themes are located.
Themes & Desktop Manager are both running OK. My WEI rating is 5.2, which
was the lowest sub rating. The highest was 5.9. So i'm pretty good there.
Did something get fried? Can I download the Aero theme I need from
somewhere? If so, where do I save the theme to> Thanks.

It should be 'Windows Aero', Vista includes three themes:

Windows Aero
Windows Aero Basic
Windows Aero Standard (for Windows Vista Home Basic users)
Windows Classic

Flip 3D is a part of the Windows Aero experience, the only other thing I
suggest you do is ensure that the following services are running:
- Themes
- Desktop window manager

You can find them under Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services

If that does not work
If none of the above work, you might need to refresh your Windows
Experience Index (WEI) rating.
1. Click Start
2. In the search box, type Performance Information and Tools, hit
enter
3. Click the Update my score link
4. Click Continue on the User Account Control dialog
--
Andre
Blog: http://adacosta.spaces.live.com
My Vista Quickstart Guide:
http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!E8E5CC039D51E3DB!9709.entry

OK. I don't have a theme called Aero. I switched it to the theme called
Windows Vista and now my sidebar is transparent. One problem down. I
must've had this Aero theme when I first got my computer because in the
beginning I could use the 3-D. I can still do the alt-tab between
windows, but I really liked the 3-D display. Is there maybe a place I can
download additional themes from, including this Aero theme? Thanks.

This is attributed to the fact that Windows Aero theme is not enabled.
Right click the Desktop > click Properties > Personalize > Themes >
click in the Themes list box and select Windows Aero > click OK. The
option to have to an opaque Sidebar will now be available and you can
now have the Flip 3d.
--
Andre
Blog: http://adacosta.spaces.live.com
My Vista Quickstart Guide:
http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!E8E5CC039D51E3DB!9709.entry
1 - the sidebar on my wife's vista system is transparent [you can see
her wall paper thru the sidebar]. my sidebar is opaque [light gray
color; not transparent]. i can't see how to make my bar transparent?
[note: i'm talking about the sidebar itself, not the gadgets in the
sidebar; for those, i can change the transparency].

2 - my window switcher doesn't work anymore. it used to give me the 3-d
open windows view. now it does nothing.

any help greatly apreciated. tia.

dpm

 

[dpm]

Thanks. It wasn't quite the right answer, but it got me there while I was
reading the instructions. For anyone else that might have this problem, in
additiona to the theme selection, I needed to go to the Windows Color and
Appearance tab and reset the tab there to Windows Aero also. Thanks to
everyone for there assistance.