Simple System Tweaker FYI - Desktop Composition and screen tearing

[demonsorrows]

I thought this may be useful to some, because it drove me crazy until I sussed it out. It's an issue that I'm sure irritates and drives a lot of people crazy, and may even cause them to think they have something wrong with their GPU or browsers. The issue comes from disabling Desktop Composition.

Before I tried the Simple System Tweaker, I had pretty much turned off most of the visual effects manually, and I checked it again just prior to writing this to make sure. (At the bottom I'll put in how to manually get to the place to adjust a few visual appearances and such)

BUT, the warning applies to the Simple System Tweaker, as well as manually adjusting things.
You should probably, most definitely, leave "Enable Desktop Composition"checked and not disabled.
When disabled, it can causes issues with v-sync and does/can cause screen tearing whenever watching videos, and perhaps also gaming. (I didn't confirm it with games, but it seems likely)
If you frequent Youtube and watch videos, it becomes almost impossible not to notice since it happens constantly.
Messing with the visual settings, I found that disabling Desktop Composition was the culprit responsible.

So I have two things for feedback:

1. it may be wise to put a warning that there is the potential for screen tearing for videos and gaming if they apply the Desktop Composition tweak.
2. Leave the ability to enable Desktop Composition through the normal manual Windows route. I attempted to manually enable it, but the option was removed for the customize settings Windows normal has altogether, leaving me no option but to restore the backup.

That's all I guess. If you want to test/see for yourself, use the quick how-to at the bottom to get to the manual visual adjustment settings, and watch a video on YouTube, enable vs disabled. I used the "HALO 4 F U D Movie" video 5:05-7:00. The tearing is clearly visible.

Thanks if you read this,and thanks for program. Have a good one. =)

~How to manually adjust some visual appearances for those interested.. for Win7 at least. May work for other winOS~

-Click the Windows Start Icon
-Type in "appearance"
-click "Adjust the Appearance and Performance of Windows" in the list that appears(it's usually at the top)
(A list of choices on the new window "Let Windows choose what's best for my computer", Adjust for best appearance, Adjust for best performance", and "custom")
-select what ye wish, but if you do custom, make sure to leave Desktop Composition checked.-
Peace

[Shane]

I turn it off on every single system I work on and even my own systems and never had screen tearing once.

But that is because it all comes down to the video card drivers. The Desktop Composition also relies on the drivers as well, So it is possible that the current video drivers you have where made to work directlyy with Desktop Composition instead, and so when turned off it may not be working like it should.

I am on an ATI card and so the current ATI drivers dont have any problems with it.

Anything being drawn to the screen goes through the video drivers, so when ever there is screen tearing, mouse flickering and such it is related to the drivers. Turns out it doesnt just happen with that disabled, but if you also use the classic theme in windows as well
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/525625/geforce-drivers/nvidia-geforce-gtx-650-ti-horizontal-screen-tearing-/post/3724749/#3724749

Shane