Vista Glazz: Maximized Transparency

One of the best features of Windows Vista is perhaps the Aero interface, the translucent Glass effects that are present on the windows. It’s best use is perhaps on the Windows Media Player 11, which has it’s controls “Glassed up”. But there’s a catch to it all: The effects disappear the moment the windows are maximized, the glass effects being replaced by solid black borders.

Given that most of the people who use Vista nowadays have a decent DirectX 9 or higher capable GPU, able to handle the Aero interface decently, Microsoft could’ve made the glass effect omnipresent in its OS, rather than limiting it just to it’s non-maximized windows. There are third party software’s like Windows Blinds that does a pretty good job of improving it, but degrades the performances of the PC.

But, like always, there’s an escape hatch: Vista Glazz. It patches the Windows files responsible for the effects to retain its effects even when maximized. You can even unpatch the files if you want the old windows back. It also allows you set up your own custom styles, like in Windows XP, with icons, cursors, wallpapers & themes.

You can get the latest Vista Glazz (version 1.1) here

A note of caution though, if you’re using Vista Service Pack 1, then make sure you get version 1.1, as version 1.0 doesn’t support Vista Service Pack 1.

The Requirements are:

Minimum system requirements

Windows Vista Premium/Business/Ultimate edition

Hardware support for Windows Aero

800 MHz processor

512 MB of system memory

2 MB of disk space

Recommended system requirements

Windows Vista Premium/Business/Ultimate edition

Hardware support for Windows Aero

1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

1 GB of system memory