posted
I did a fresh installation of WinXP after a HD-crash in August, one of the first things I did after the new install was to customize the overall Windows-theme. I went to "Screen Preferences" and chose "Windows Classic" instead of "WinXP", so that I'd have the gray sidebars and windows and not the bulbous blue-green ones.
About two weeks later, the window theme started regressing to the blue crap every three or four days, never with any clear method or logic to its pattern. Now it happens about every other day, still without a pattern, and I'm never fiddling with anything in the preferences except for constantly RESETTING the damn theme to "Classic" every time the shit goes blue on me.
So why this constant theme-switch? Anyone?
Grr.
(Oh and no zings on my choice of OS or I'll rip your pants off at a wedding and tie you together with the priest and I won't care, what with double jeopardy and all that)
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
Is it happening after your machine installs windows updates?
That's my guess.
Or your computer has evolved an immune system and is desperately trying to reject XP.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Indeed. :-) Well actually it seems to reject Windows Classic, since I want the grey but it insists on changing to blue at startup. I quit every computer session in "Classic"-mode but it obviously don't care about my statistical preference. What bothers me is that it should revert to XP-theme EVERY time if there was some trouble with the classic mode, but it's only like every other or third startup. So illogical.
Hmm, I don't have automatic updates on and I only go to the Windows Update page every two months or so, this theme-switch happens a lot more often. Good guess though, I guess it could've been a factor if I'd had auto-update on.
Another strange thing is that when I open my Windows Outlook mail program it doesn't start in the Inbox, it starts in the worthless and empty "Outlook Today" section and I have to click on the Inbox to get my mail. This has never happened before on earlier Outlook-installs except the first time I open it after installing it.
The connection between these two teases is that it doesn't "learn" what I want or remember how I had it the last time.
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
Hmmm...have you tried installing from a diffrent CD? Mabye your particular version is all lemony.
For fun, I typed "windows XP problem" into Google to see how many hits I'd get.....37,500.
Lotta reading there.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
One thing to try: get your profile set up exactly how you want, then login to the Administrator account (if you have one; otherwise you might need to set up a temp account on your PC with Admin rights; this is because you can't perform this operation while logged in to your own profile - you can delete tyhe temp account later) and use Control Panel, System, Advanced tab, User Profiles - Settings and copy your profile to C:\Documents and Settings\Default User, which you may need to change Folder settings to View All Files and Folders in order to be able to see. This makes your preferred Windows layout the default which anyone using the PC will have to accept unless they change it themselves.
posted
Could be a registry problem, not saving the setting. Anything else not sticking? To force the issue, stop the theme service from starting, and the PC will do the grey thing. (do a snapshot first) It's also a trick to get 2003 server to do themes, just start the service (great for doing client demos when you only want to run one machine acting as server and client).
-------------------- Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil...prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon...
Don't think so. Except for the random theme revertion and the Outlook non-Inbox-startage, I'm fine.
quote:To force the issue, stop the theme service from starting, and the PC will do the grey thing.
But I forgot to take the feat that allows me to manipulate "services" last time I levelled (August 15th). How would I go about stopping the theme service? It sounds to good to be true. Is it something in the registry?
I don't suppose I can just find a "ThemeService" entry in the activity queue and stomp on it?! One doesn't just CtrlAltDelete into Morrdor.
Lee: Up until now I have indeed used only the Admin account as my primary profile (to avoid cluttering), so now I created a Temp-account with full admin privileges, trimmed it up to my standards (ClearType mm) and then I went to "System\Advanced\Profiles\Preferences", but the new profile (NiklasTemp) doesn't seem to be copy-able. I click on it (not being logged in on it of course) but the "Copy To"-button remains grey.
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
No admin tools folder in control panel? if you can get into regedit, look under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\themes
Set the start value to 3 (manual startup) To set it back to autostart, set it to 2. 4 is disabled (backup registry before editing it, Flare is not liable to any damage to your machine, blaa blaa blaa...)
-------------------- Over the centuries, mankind has tried many ways of combating the forces of evil...prayer, fasting, good works and so on. Up until Doom, no one seemed to have thought about the double-barrel shotgun. Eat leaden death, demon...
posted
Oh yes I have admin tools and Regedit now that you mention it, I don't know the registry tree by heart yet, though.
Is it enough to do an "Export" in Regedit and save the .reg on the desktop? (I may be overly cautious but bear in mind I had a HD meltdown not three months ago)
And I suppose to shut down the theme service I choose 4 in the entry?
What's the dif between manual startup and autostart, anyway?
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
Impossible, that would lead them straight to us.
Is there another way of backing up the registry in RegEdit other than doing an Export?
Registered: Aug 1999
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
Hacking the registry just to kill a service is 1) unnecessary and 2) moronic.
Right-click on My Computer. Your My Computer, not my My Computer. Then on Manage. Then expand the Services and Applications node. Then select Services. Then go to Ravenholm, or something.
"What's the dif between manual startup and autostart, anyway?"
Autostart means a service starts by default whenever the OS is loaded. Manual means it only starts when needed.
-------------------- ".mirrorS arE morE fuN thaN televisioN" - TEH PNIK FLAMIGNO
Registered: Nov 1999
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Grr.
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