Requirement for Windows Aero theme

[dougkerr]

I was excited to learn of the availability of Affinity Designer for Windows Public Beta. I downloaded it and installed it. The system here is Windows 7 Professional X64.

 

I was concerned when during installation the installer told me that it would be best to have am Aero theme in place. I do not use an Aero theme, and do not care to. So I ignored the message and continued with the installation.

 

When I tried to start the application, I found that the matter of the Aero theme was more than a suggestion. When the program found that the theme in place was not an Aero series theme, it gave me an error message and the program would not proceed to start.

 

I find this a worrisome requirement. There are many implications in my operations of the choice of theme, and I do not really want to change to an Aero theme "just" so I can run Affinity Designer.

 

What's the story here?

 

Thanks.

 

Best regards,

 

Doug Kerr

 

[Mark Ingram]

Hi Doug, we've discussed this issue on the forum before in other places, but essentially, in order for Windows to support a non-Aero theme on Windows Vista and above, it uses a different graphics driver, one which gives severe performance and rendering problems. As we want to know about genuine problems with the application, and we want it to run at maximum speed, we won't allow the application to run with Aero disabled.

[dougkerr]

Hi, Mark,

 

Gotcha.

 

Do I gather from your comments that this restriction might be planned for the beta only, to assure that beta test reports are under an "optimal" configuration?

 

If so, is it possible that the limitation might be relieved for the release (presumably subject to the caveat that a non-Aero context might result in less-than-optimum performance)?

 

Thanks.

 

Best regards,

 

Doug

[Mark Ingram]

Hi Doug, we have discussed it, but no decision has been made yet.

[dougkerr]

Hi, Mark,

 

Thanks.

 

I would encourage you to make that possible.

 

I am very interested in the product, but I am not so eager that I want to contemplate a complete upheaval of my UI to one based on a qualifying "Aero" theme. This impacts ever so many aspects of the UI.

 

Thanks.

 

Best regards,

 

Doug

[dougkerr]

Hey, Mark,

 

I was interested to learn that there are no Aero themes as such in Windows 8 or 8.1.

 

How does that affect this story?

 

I also note that I have an NVIDIA graphics card and its drivers are evidently not in the Intel WDDM family (as the Intel process for determining which driver is in place just does not seem to apply). Does that affect the story?

 

Thanks.

 

Doug

[Mark Ingram]

Hi Doug, when we say we require an Aero theme, what we're really saying is, we require the Desktop Window Manager Composition to be enabled (in order to use your actual graphics card's driver). From Windows 8, DWM Composition is always enabled (though it doesn't really have an Aero theme as such).

[dougkerr]

Hi, Mark,

 

Makes sense.

 

So, in Windows 7, can DWM Composition be enabled other than be adopting  an Aero theme?

 

I have read that there are some performance disadvantages to its being in operation.

 

Thanks.

 

Doug

[Mark Ingram]

Other themes may use DWM composition too, though I don't know for certain. I use Windows 10 on all my computers.

I doubt anyone would be able to tell the difference with regards to performance. Unless you've got DWM disabled, and then are attempting to use the GPU (as we do with Affinity products), as you won't be using the "real" driver. So in reality, having DWM disabled can only be a bad thing.

[dougkerr]

Hi, Mark,

 

Microsoft says:

 

The desktop composition feature, introduced in Windows Vista, fundamentally changed the way applications display pixels on the screen. When desktop composition is enabled, individual windows no longer draw directly to the screen or primary display device as they did in previous versions of Windows. Instead, their drawing is redirected to off-screen surfaces in video memory, which are then rendered into a desktop image and presented on the display.

 

Desktop composition is performed by the Desktop Window Manager (DWM). Through desktop composition, DWM enables visual effects on the desktop as well as various features such as glass window frames, 3-D window transition animations, Windows Flip and Windows Flip3D, and high resolution support.

 

The Desktop Window Manager runs as a Windows service. It can be enabled and disabled through the Administrative Tools Control Panel item, under Services, as Desktop Window Manager Session Manager.

 

So I looked there, and it shows that in my system, the Desktop Window Manager Session Manager is running.

 

But perhaps that does not mean that the functionality that Affinity needs is active.

 

Wears an old guy out just to think about it!

 

Doug

[Mark Ingram]

Yes, the session manager will be running, but the composition property is disabled (for you).

[dougkerr]

Gotcha.

 

Thanks.

 

Doug

[JackM3]

I bought Affinity Designer Windows. I use W7 64bit without aero. I was hoping that commercial version start without aero. Aero bothers me and I do not use what do I do now?

[SrPx]

I dislike it, like you do. You might find just fine minimizing the aero effects (besides it triggers sounds on, etc, all can be disabled.) . In my signature there's a link with advice for that...

[jaron11]

Hi Doug, when we say we require an Aero theme, what we're really saying is, we require the Desktop Window Manager Composition to be enabled (in order to use your actual graphics card's driver). From Windows 8, DWM Composition is always enabled (though it doesn't really have an Aero theme as such).

I enabled Desktop Window Manager (services.msc shows that Desktop Windows Manager Session Manager is working and I see dwm.exe in Task Manager) but I still got „Windows Aero is not enabled” error. I refuse to enable anything else, because all those thumbnails and other aero features are distracting. Also I saw in other topic, that you planned to require areo for beta only but it's still active in current versions. I was beta testing Designer without areo and now I can't run it at all!

[Sean P]

I enabled Desktop Window Manager (services.msc shows that Desktop Windows Manager Session Manager is working and I see dwm.exe in Task Manager) but I still got „Windows Aero is not enabled” error. I refuse to enable anything else, because all those thumbnails and other aero features are distracting. Also I saw in other topic, that you planned to require areo for beta only but it's still active in current versions. I was beta testing Designer without areo and now I can't run it at all!

Hi Jaron11,

 

Please see this post from Mark about getting Affinity running on a non-Aero Windows 7 machine. 

[SrPx]

I refuse to enable anything else, because all those thumbnails and other aero features are distracting

 

 

First, the best thing to do is click on the link Sean P just posted. After that, if you find Aero features distracting, tho, you can reduce them to a minimum. I have a tutorial linked in my signature about it, and indeed, you can even reduce it more than I explain there, as I did later. I had it off before beta testing Affinity (was never said it was only for beta) but since I found my way to have a non obtrusive Aero, visually and in effects, etc, I just left it so (reduced to a minimum),  not much of a real difference so, if well configured (not just activating the default Aero and leaving it like that ! )