I have been having a weird problem, and it seems to just be getting weirder as I try to troubleshoot it. Here is the problem and the steps I have taken so far.I installed the Windows 7 Beta for the first time. I was using it for a while without any problems. Then one time I restarted and I got an error that said "Windows cannot connect to the System Event Notification Service. At the same time, Aero stopped working and I could only select the Windows Classic theme. During shutdown and startup, it takes much longer than before this problem was happening and sometimes appears to freeze. I ultimately couldn't figure out the problem so I reinstalled Windows 7 using a clean install. I integrated the drivers from HP that were provided for Vista x64.I began reinstalling programs. I installed them one at a time. After each new program I installed, I would restart the computer to see if I could find a program that was causing the errors. I reinstalled the programs in this order:Office 2007 Pro(restart)Save as PDF Plugin for Office 2007(restart)Windows Live Essentials(restart)Aim 6.9 Beta(restart)Adobe Reader 9(restart)Adobe Flash Player(restart)Adobe Shockwave Player(restart)JavaAfter I restarted my computer after installing Java, the error occurred again. I did a system restore to before I installed Java and the problem went away. I then restarted without doing anything and the problem occurred again. I did the system restore from before Shockwave Player. Once again, the problem went away. This time I restarted twice in a row without doing anything else, and then the problem reoccurred. I then did the system restore from before that. The problem went away. I restarted three more times without doing anything else and the problem reoccurred.It seems like this problem is occurring after a certain number of restarts, which seems really weird.The problem is really annoying because I don't get any of the benefits of the Aero user interface, and I hope that I can get it figured out.

Have you installed the drivers for your video card?

It seems Aero stops working if you disable UAC - move the slider up one notch from bottom and it should start againbtw - gadgets have the same problem and the same solution

this helped with the aero problems, although it only helped when i disabled UAC, but it still made me messwith the UAC settings, however, the slow startup and shutdown still persist as does the error message that appears on startup

i solved the problem by uninstalling the driver for my audio device (IDT HD Audio Codec on my HP HDX 18t) that was provided for Vista SP1, i just allowed Windows to install a default driver, and everything works fine on my computer, although i dont have some of the extra features that were available with the sound card software

As below the release notes state that if your signed in as guest this could happen (particularily if you install Adobe Flash Player) confirm you are not signed in as guest? "If you do any of the following in a standard user account that has Guest Mode turned on, subsequent logins to the account will fail: Change any HomeGroup settings. Use CardSpace to create a personal InfoCard. Install Adobe Flash Player. In addition, Windows Media Center will stop responding if you attempt to run it from an account in Guest Mode. There is no workaround for either issue at this time other than to log on with an account that as administrative privileges and turn off Guest Mode for the user account. If Windows Media Center stops responding, use Task Manager to stop the Windows Media Center process."

I tried opening the User Account Control program and it will not open. I have NO aero features, at least I don't think I do. My taskbar looks kinda plain and boring, and doesn't look anything like the vista taskbar on my g/f's lap top, the only similar thing is the Start button. Also trying to solve some video driver issues to see if that'll fix the problem.

smartguy, have you had any further issues with this coming up? I have an HP HDX and have had identical problems and it has been extremely frustrating to say the least! I'm going to try out your fix now and uninstall the audio codec. If it works, I owe you a beer!

Same problem on my hp hdx, Im going to try uninstall idt.