If you have applications that take a lot of system resources, or applications that get messed up by Aero, there is an easy fix. It turns out that you can set things up so that when certain applications are run, Aero is disabled. And when those applications are no longer running, Aero will be re-enabled.

To do this, you need to create shortcuts for the applications where you want this behavior. Once the shortcut is created, right-click on it and choose Properties from the menu. When the Properties panel is shown, select the Compatibility tab. In the Compatibility tab, there is a section labeled Settings, and in this section is a checkbox labeled "Disabled desktop composition". If you check this checkbox and then click the Apply button, the next time you start this application from the shortcut, Aero will be disabled. And once the application is no longer running, Aero will be re-enabled.