Windows 7 has some interesting visual effects in the UI that grabs your attention. One of them is the shadow effect which you can easily notice in the Aero Theme.

With Shadow

Without Shadow

It is also easy to enable / disable this shadow effect.

1. Click start menu and Right click on Computer and then click Properties.

2. In the Properties Window, click the advanced system settings.

3. In the System Properties Dialog, Navigate to the Advanced Tab and then click “Settings” of the Performance group.

4. In the Performance Options – Visual Effects tab, select the Custom Radio button and then uncheck “Show Shadows under mouse pointer” and “Show shadows under windows”

5. Click ok on the Performance Options Windows and System Properties Dialog respectively.

To enable the shadow under mouse pointer and window, go to the same “Performance Options” window and enable / check those options.