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How to add 3D effects on Windows 7. I am having a laptop with 1GB graphic card. I had seen a nice set of great effects on mac laptop. I am looking for something similar on windows also. I am not able to find any tool that can do the same. There are ample of themes, that's all. While Windows does not feature any great options to add 3D effects. Like icon gliding, or explorer pop up, etc. I had done with my searching and now waiting for some advice on the same.
Windows 7 only has one 3D affect which appear on the screen through Windows Aero. Just press Start key with Tab key and you can see a 3D desktop kind of effect on the screen. This only works when Aero is enabled. While there is nothing else available.
It is correct. Windows lack a set of good 3D features. The issue can be with impact on the memory. Mac also does not completely offer a set of effects. There are very few. I am using a Ubuntu laptop here. It is some 10.xx edition. I had not yet updated it. It has a nice effects. When the settings are enabled, the explorer just popups differently. When you drag any window on the desktop it simply swivel on the desktop. It really nice. There are some set of third party tools through which you can enable a 3D desktop also. The ram and gpu management on Ubuntu is far more better than Windows. I am also having windows installed other partition. I was first trying to theme the entire operating system to look different. But as I keep on installing new application for the same the system strategy getting slow. Without those 3rd party tools it is not possible to have great effects on the screen. For windows I know a tiny application that can give a bit different look. You can download and install Rain meter on your system. Through this you can add a different set of clocks and notification panel on the desktop. The best part of using this application is that it is extremely lightweight. It does not cause any problem with system performance.
I am using Rainmeter here. It is not really great but quiet light on the system hardware. I works fine. The features are great here. Sometime I found it a bit complicated to use. The effects here are static. Like you can add clocks or a media player, or etc animated widget on the screen.
For getting different kind of effects on your screen you will have to install a different set of applications. I know some applications that can allows to have a 3D desktop on the screen. Like a rotating cube when you switch from one application to another. One application that I know which can add a bit 3D effect on the screen is Prime Desktop. This works with your existing icon giving a different kind of look on the home screen. You can just drag the icons here. It is a lightweight application and looks to be working fine with windows. There are some different set of options available on the same through which you can modify the icons layout. I found it really great in terms of usage. The only drawback of this application is that it offers a very few set of icon settings. Beside changing colors there is nothing much you can do. Compare to them Android is more better here. I hope this OS someday comes on PC. This platform has a huge list of cool launchers. And works really fine. But yet it is not possible to port the same on pc platform. It still lies on the portable platform. I am using my tablet on my monitor by connecting them both through hdmi port.
Don't use all those third party applications. That is just an waste of time. It also slow down your system. Windows Aero is also a resource hungry. It is necessary that you must go with the plain interface. Disable all the unwanted settings and then test back.
If you are looking for simple 3D effect then I can help you. There is application called as T3Desk. It just gives you a Windows 8 type of look on the screen. You can arrange the icons, you can sort it out, you can simply switch different screens in 3D mode. It works really well. It is extremely lightweight and designed to give a proper output. The tool has ample of great features. You can just change your screen here completely. The tool allow you to flip your screen in different ways. You can zoom it or you can move it as per your need. There are set of hotkeys which also works here and gives you the same kind of effect. Along with some 3D desktop effects it offers you additional features like a smart Window Manager. You can manage different open windows at the same time. Application Manager here allows you to arrange a different set of icon together and you can use it whenever it is needed. As an extra benefit when you install this it adds a Application bar to the screen. This allows you to access more settings when needed. It works great in navigation. I hope there will be more new set of features this in tool in future.
I used a same kind of application long ago. It is called as Real Desktop. It is a free tool. It just turns your existing desktop to something really different. Through difference features you can just do anything in it. It offers the real 3D desktop here. Just download this and test.