Unfortunately, visual effect tab is placed inside advanced system settings dialog only admin users are allowed to invoke.
As you might have noticed yourself, the visual effect settings are user, not machine related.
By doing a registry comparison of HKEY_CURRENT_USER
registry hive of administrator user on Windows Server 2016 changing visual effects from Best Performance to Best Appearance, the following values get changed:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
"DragFullWindows"="1"
"FontSmoothing"="2"
"UserPreferencesMask"=hex:be,3e,07,80,12,00,00,00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics]
"MinAnimate"="1"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"IconsOnly"=dword:00000000
"ListviewAlphaSelect"=dword:00000001
"ListviewShadow"=dword:00000001
"TaskbarAnimations"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects]
"VisualFXSetting"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\DWM]
"EnableAeroPeek"=dword:00000001
"AlwaysHibernateThumbnails"=dword:00000001
(Some differences were omitted, judging they are not related to visual effects.)
- Sign-in as the non-admin user.
- Import registry settings above.[1][2][3]
- Sign-out and sign-in again for settings to take effect.
[1] Usual Modify your registry at your own risk; author of this post takes no liability applies.
[2] The REG file configures current user visual effects to Best Appearance. You can apply individual registry values separately if full Best Appearance experience is not desired.
[3] Please note, that regedit.exe will still invoke UAC prompt. However, for importing REG files containing only HKEY_CURRENT_USER
entries, regedit.exe is sufficient to receive current non-admin user credentials.