If you are stuck in Basic Mode, but want to use Aero themes, here’s a small guide.
1. Step There can be various reasons why you are stuck in Basic Mode, for example you might not have the correct drivers or uninstalled one of your devices recently. Also, if the themes service is disabled you can’t run Aero themes
2. Step Click on Start and enter Troubleshooting, then select the top option
3. Step Now on the Control Panel page, you first should make sure to have up to date content for troubleshooting, because Microsoft regularly updates the troubleshooting features
4. Step Then click on Display Aero desktop effects to start the troubleshooter and follow the instructions
Enable Visual Styles on Windows and Buttons
- We’ve explained how this works in more detail here
5. Step Next on the list, try to make sure that you did not disable Visual styles using the “best appearance” option. Enter appearance into the search and click the top option Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows
6. Step Make sure to check the option Use Visual Styles on Windows and Buttons
7. Step By now you should now how to effectively use the Windows search, so enter services.msc and then scroll down the list on the window until you find Themes
You should now double-click on it and click the button Restart – if Windows 7 fails to start the Themes service, it is recommended to run sfc.exe to check for broken system files, read our tutorial how to repair system files using sfc.exe
8. Step Finally, you should make sure to check for driver updates for your graphic card drive and install. If it worked before, this may not be the reason, but it’s possible that your drive is corrupted and a driver update might fix that.
If you are still stuck in Basic Mode and want to use Aero themes, you can try to force enable Aero mode using a registry tweak, please use it with caution and make sure to first check your motherboard to see if it actually supports Aero themes, because if it doesn’t you shouldn’t enable it
