How to use Flip 3D in Windows Vista

Q I read in the Computeractive Ultimate Guide To Windows Vista Secret Tips and Tricks that if I press the Tab key when holding down Alt, Windows will switch between the open windows on the desktop.

I also read that if I hold down the Windows key and press Tab then I should see a 3D preview of each open window, called Windows Flip 3D.

However, when I tried this on my Windows Vista Home Premium computer, all that appeared was a blue 2D box with icons rather than previews. Pressing the Windows key and Tab just switched between the icons, without the 3D preview.

How can I set up my PC to display the 3D application switcher rather than the 2D one?

Katharine Quinco

A The 3D effects in Windows Vista, known as Aero Glass, are included with Home Premium and Ultimate but your graphics card also needs to support them.

The majority of PCs released in the past few years, especially those with Nvidia or ATI graphics cards, should be able to run Aero Glass.

However, older computers, especially laptops with older types of integrated Intel graphics chips, may not be able to. To check if Aero Glass is available, right-click on an empty area of your desktop and click Personalise. Click Windows Colour and Appearance.

If your computer supports the Aero Glass effects you will see a window with options to change the colour of window title bars and tick a box to Enable Transparency. However, if your computer does not support Aero Glass, you will see a completely different window, with the title Appearance Settings.

This doesn’t have any options to enable transparency effects and the colour scheme it lists at the top will be limited to Windows Vista Basic.

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