Windows Vista on Toshiba A105

I installed the latest Vista Beta on a Toshiba A105-S2712 laptop. The Vista advisor, running under XP, says it can run Aero. This laptop has an Intel 915 chipset with Intel Graphics Accelerator 900 chipset video (uses shared memory). This video system can allocate 128MB of video memory and supports Pixel Shader 2 and DX9. The computer has a gigabyte of total memory. The CPU is a Pentium M 1.73GHz (not a Celeron).

My questions all revolve around running Aero the Aero interface on this system.

First, how can I tell if Aero is running? If Aero is like an Orgasm ("if you don't know if you are running it, you are not"), then I'm not running Aero. There is nothing spectacularly different that reaches out and shakes me, no transparent see-through Windows or anything like that.

Second, if I'm not running it, is there anything in Vista itself that will come right out and tell me if I'm running Aero, if not why not, and is there anything I can do turn Aero on if it's currently off?

[Note, I'm using pretty much "Classic everything" .... start menu, desktop, folders]

[The A105 series is insanely popular right now, and it's interesting to note that the Toshiba web site lists over FIVE DOZEN different "configuration models" (the "-Snnnn" suffix) of the A105, ranging from $399 Celeron configurations to $1,400 Core Duo configurations. Probably more configurations of a single model than Toshiba has ever offered. Which suggests that a huge number of people will ultimately be interested in the answer to this.]

Thanks
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Relevant Pages

  • Re: E1505 Ordering Question: ***DELL READ THIS***
    ... GMA900 apparently has all of the hardware necessary to support Aero, including 128MB of video memory and Pixel Shader 2. ... But there currently is no WDDM driver, and at one point Intel had reportedly said that they would not provide one. ... But then about 3 weeks ago there were reports -- unconfirmed -- that they were backtracking on this and would offer a driver, although possbily not until some time after Vista was actually shipping. ... Dell can't get their act together so that a customer can make an intelligent ordering decision about what will and will not run Vista with Aero. ...
    (alt.sys.pc-clone.dell)
  • Re: Windows Vista on Toshiba A105
    ... Vista advisor, running under XP, says it can run Aero. ... This laptop has an Intel 915 chipset with Intel Graphics Accelerator 900 chipset video. ... My questions all revolve around running Aero the Aero interface on this system. ...
    (comp.sys.laptops)
  • Toshiba Satellite A105 Vista Aero Question
    ... I have a question for owners of Toshiba Satellite A105 models that use Intel GMA 950 onboard chipset video. ... I'm trying to get a good handle as to whether or not the A105's with GMA950 video will or will not run Aero. ... I know that there were some alternate drivers and patches that did enable Aero with GMA950 video on some early builds of Vista, but I don't want to consider such options at this time as there is no guarantee that they will be available or will work with the final release of Vista. ...
    (comp.sys.laptops)
  • Re: XP Home and XP Media Center Editions
    ... Do I recommend they run out and upgrade? ... Am I recommending Vista just to get Aero, ... But my point is simply why get Vista without the eye-candy? ... Are XP Home and MCE inferior? ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)
  • Re: Why Ubuntu (Still) Sucks - Part 2: Compiz Fusion
    ... Aero is an extremely functional feature of Vista. ... Vista, like XP is purely "Flat Screen" technology. ... simply questioning what MS needs to develop (And Linux too for that matter) in order to keep us all going forward. ... Once you use Vista for real work for even a short period of time and then go back to XP you soon miss all of the nice little features that you've come to really like and appreciate in Vista like file transfer information, search, Aero, where things are located, etc.. ...
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