Here's some interesting facts regarding Aero (based on recent
PC World article):
Q. How do I enable or disable Aero effects?
A. Right-click your desktop, and select Personalize, Window Color and Appearance, Open classic appearance properties for more color options. In the Color scheme list, select any non-Aero scheme, such as Windows Vista Basic or Windows Vista Standard, and then click OK.
Q. I heard that Windows Vista itself will sometimes decide to disable Aero. What's up with that?
A. In general, Vista will disable Aero if it determines that it needs to improve performance, recover from a technical issue, or (in the case of laptops in power-saving mode) reduce demands on your battery. According to Microsoft, Java apps are the most common trigger for disabling Aero. Remotely viewing or sharing another machine's desktop can cause Vista to disable Aero, too, and Vista disables Aero when presenting a User Account Control (UAC) elevation prompt.
i_XpUser