Is DwmIsCompositionEnabled still of use in Windows 8?
dwm, windows
Solution
According to Desktop Window Manager is always on (Windows) on MSDN:
In Windows 8, Desktop Window Manager (DWM) is always ON and cannot be disabled by end users and apps.
In Windows 8, DWM desktop composition is a core operating system component and cannot be disabled. With a few exceptions, desktop composition is always on; it’s started before the user logon and remains active for the duration of a session.
All of the options for disabling desktop composition that exist in Window 7 are removed
Apps cannot use DwmEnableComposition to disable desktop composition. In order to maintain backward compatibility, a call to this API will return success; however, desktop composition is not disabled
Well, there's a pretty definitive answer. I'm somewhat curious what the "with a few exceptions" refers to, though... please add a comment if you happen to know. :)
Problem
According to Enable and Control DWM Composition: Note As of Windows 8, the information in this section is no longer valid. DWM can no longer be programmatically disabled, nor is it disabled when an application attempts to draw to the primary display surface. The following information applies to only Windows 7 and earlier systems. OK. So we can no longer programmatically disable DWM. But can it still be disabled? Will `pfEnabled` of DwmIsCompositionEnabled always be set to TRUE on Windows 8? If composition can be disabled somehow, is DwmIsCompositionEnabled still somewhat useful in any manner?