LizMarr, what is the graphics program that you are using?  Knowing what you are using may assist those who can help you.  Is there any chance that you have some bad memory?

I'm sure she has no fond ones of this.

Start Menu type services and you should be able to open this: then double click on the DWM and set it to Automatic.

You can also see under the Services column "Restart" the service. Just select the DWM and click the restart if it's already on Automatic.

 All facetiousness aside, LizMarr. Philly brought up a valid question... also, could you have too many things running or too many layers/history states in your image processor?

Do this first

then in command line (start > type "cmd.exe" > hold Ctrl + Shift > Press enter)

Type "net stop uxsms" > press enter

This will stop the DWM service

Then type "net start uxsms" > press enter

This will start the DWM service again.

Did both of those. In Services it is lying to me - says it is running but obviously isn't. In the preferences thing (whatever you call it) the manager was already checked. And of course did the policy edit thing to tell it that anyone could run it. Perhaps I will stare at that a little more in case the one I edited wasn't the only one there.

Cranky graphics program (Ulead PhotoImpact X3 - I refuse to call it Corel because they abandoned it) has always had some problems on Win 7 machine, but better than other OS but never like it has been of late. Before the big crash it was actually pleasant to use. I read that excessive memory use/stall can trigger Windows to turn the pretty stuff off. But it didn't say how to find and reverse the effects of memory overload. It seems that if I quit using said memory hog then everything should reset. I'm still looking. Nothing else to do when the wind storm is expecting steady of 25-35mph and gusts of 65mph (off shore they are expecting gusts of hurricane strength. What is that, 80mph? Says 75 knots)

After the crash I reinstalled over the top of the existing Windows. It seems to have fixed what wasn't working, but now I think it created more.  If this keeps up I'm doing a virgin install without the formatting (although I have everything worth keeping neatly backed up - in duplicate)

I can't make heads or tails of half of your ramblings....other than your system is a mess.

Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Troubleshooting\Appearance and Personalization: click: Display Aero desktop effects

Neither can my husband half the time.

Well, we went from high wind warning to snow. Good ol' fashioned heavy white stuff. 2.5 inches in just over 90 minutes or so.  Before you say, "so what", remember, I live on the coastal lowlands. The last time we saw snow was probably 7 years ago - and nothing like this.  If you look at my web cam you will see that part of the old pine tree came down and hit the house. The web cam wasn't budged.

As for the system. I made a new user. There is nothing wrong with the new user's interface. Next I'll skin it and some other things. Then I'll trash main user and make another (or use that one) if everything goes well. I think I might make a "plain" user for my graphics creating.