Vista: Enable and Disable Desktop Compositing

Contributed by Hack_Vista March 14, 2006  
Tagged: Microsoft Vista

Desktop compositing, also known as Desktop Window Manager (DWM), controls the 3d effects in vista. Some programs do not yet work well with these effects enabled. This shortcut will allow you to enable and disable them with ease.

Editor’s Note:
This feature no longer works on later builds of vista.
Those grooooovy 3d glass effects are often referred to as Desktop Composition. You may have seen the following Desktop Window Manager message:

Desktop composition has been temporarily disabled.

A program is running that's not compatible with desktop composition...

Even when Vista is not controlling it for you, turning Desktop Composition on or off can be valuable in getting programs to work correctly. You can also turn it off any time you need a speed boost. 3d is always going to be slower than 2d, ya know!

Toggle Desktop composition on/off:

Ctrl+Shift+F9