Windows Vista · How-To

Slow down the window animation speed in Windows Vista

Kristan Kenney · · Restored archive post · Edited by Muhd Radhi Wahab
Restored from the windows-now.com archive. This post was originally published by Kristan Kenney on 17 November 2006. It is reproduced faithfully for its historical and reference value, with the original author and date credited. If you are the author and would like this amended or removed, contact us.

This little tip has been kicking around since Windows Vista Beta 1 and I just confirmed that it works on the RTM build (6000.16386). For those of you who don't know what this is, you can change a certain registry key and it will allow you to slow down the animation of windows (on minimize/maximize/close for instance) by holding down the SHIFT key while performing an action.

In order to enable this, you must edit the registry.

  1. Click on the Start button.
  2. In the "Start Search" field type "regedit". When it is displayed, either click on it or press Enter.
  3. If User Account Control prompts you for consent, click on Continue.
  4. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM
  5. In the right hand pane, right click on an empty space and from the context menu that appears choose "New > DWORD (32-bit) Value".
  6. Give the new DWORD (32-bit) Value a name of "AnimationsShiftKey" (without the quotes).
  7. Double click on the "AnimationsShiftKey" value and give it a value of 1.
  8. Close the Registry Editor.
  9. Log off of Windows and log back in for this to take effect.

Please note that in order for this to work you must be using Windows Aero.

One really cool way I've found to test this is to invoke Windows Flip3D by pressing CTRL+WinKey+Tab and then holding shift while clicking on a window. Pretty nifty.

Frequently asked

How do you slow down a window animation once the tweak is enabled?

After adding the AnimationsShiftKey value and logging back in, hold down the SHIFT key while performing an action such as minimizing, maximizing or closing a window, and the animation plays in slow motion.

What does this tweak require to work?

You must be using Windows Aero for the effect to work. The tip was confirmed on the Windows Vista RTM build (6000.16386).