Transparent background windows and drop shodows etc...

[Senectus .]

Some time a few "late nights ago" I somehow managed to turn on drop
shadows, transparent background windows and a neat trick where only
the current highlighted window is lit up and all other windows are
"greyed" out..

Now while this is a neat trick and very pretty, it makes my poor old
A31p (Thinkpad) run like a pig.
What I'd like to know is, is it possible to turn off the transparency
stuff and keep the other two tricks?
Would this run any better?
or if that isn't possible, can I just have the "grey out non active
windows" trick on it's own?

Thanks guys.. 


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Ubuntu Hoary 5.04 
"The thing Ubuntu means to me is, I'm glad I didn't get a Debian
Tattoo..." - Matthew Lambie