I do not want/need to upgrade my version of Vista which my laptop came with but I would really like to have that cool glass effect, is there any (free) software out there that I can do it with?

no

True Transparency

True Transparency is the best you're going to get - though it's not as slick as Aero Glass. Theres no blur, and the titlebars don't look as good.

If you want something better you're going to have to upgrade to Vista Home Premium. You got Home Basic on your laptop because it's not capable of running the Vista Premium features at high performance (Aero Glass, Media Center etc). That's usually the case anyway.

If you have GMA 950 or above GFx use anytime upgrade or source a home premium disk and do an upgrade.

I heard my basic _custom_ theme enables it. People have been asking how I've enabled it on their Basic, and I'm not sure. I think there are other custom themes out there that do the same.

But anyway, Basic is capable of doing the blurring/transparency, but that feature is supposed to be locked out and available only on Home Premium and onwards.

If the glass effect ur talkin about it Aero, just do this. You may need to restart ur computer. Always works for me

Regedit:
HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Windows/DWM/

Composition = 1
CompositionPolicy = 2

Right click Command Prompt and run as admin:

net stop uxsms
net start uxsms

that doesnt work lol

it's not licensed by MS, but theoretically possible.

Wait for the Windows 7 upgrade to be available, then buy 7 Home Premium. Voilà, Aero Glass.

Any particular reason to not use WindowBlinds ?

This is kind of a bumb, but it seems its now possible. http://killermole23.deviantart.com/art/Tra...Basic-130211498

Check out this page for full tutorial, Hex editing method and a video:

http://www.winprj.net/board/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=589

I wouldn't risk messing up your install...just go buy Windows 7 when it comes out anyway