Resolved How do I reset Taskbar appearance?

Yesterday, I was notified of 5 updates, 3 required, 2 optional.
I looked at the 3 required, and only 1 (the XP Service pack 3) was needed; if I use the old XP based Office 2002 apps, Excel, Powerpoint, Word, etc. which I do.

So I unchecked the other 2 (mainly for app developers), unchecked the 2 optionals and clicked --- Install.

I shoulda stayed in bed......

After about a minute, Update said install FAILED, with an error code.
Looking up the error code told me NOTHING, but directed me to a system performance scan for possible problems. I went there, really shouldn't have......

A scan showed my display was a bit slow (3.9) compared with the rest at around 6.9 to 7.3. yet its performance is quite good.

Checking into the display performance settings (Windows, not Nvidia) I looked at options, and decided the existing default was best, ie: no change. But, Win now would not exit without an "Apply" so I clicked apply.

After a long time, the screens flashed and went to a black background coupled with a really bad format for the toolbar. Dammed near unreadable.

An hour later, I got the "theme" background back, but NOT the taskbar.

In XP all that was in one place in "Display settings" but not so in Win 7.
I cannot find how to reset the taskbar "theme" back.

And, to make matters worse, my Firefox and Thunderbird dashboards and toolbars now follow the Win 7 unreadable format. Other apps are affected as well.

Not only that, but videos are now slow and jerky, where they were smooth before.

How do I reset the Win 7 taskbar format back to what I had earlier yesterday morning? Do I do reversion to an earlier config?

I'm assuming that should also fix FF & Tbird. If not, I'll go to their BBS.

 

Have you tried updating your Drivers (hardware) - Graphics? Neil.

 

Pete, This is where we statrted :http://www.windowsbbs.com/windows-7/107586-why-does-manual-update-update-automatically.html Neil.

 

Me too, confused, but since it was directed at Office 2002, which I have installed, I thought it mattered. At first I did not see its date, so now I think it was mistakenly sent to me.

System Restore will be used if nothing else works to make my Taskbar readable.

It's not just the WIN 7 Taskbar, it is every app installed on my PC that follows the Win 7 default theme settings.

 

FIXED!!!!

I did a rt-click on the desktop and selected "Personalize ".

I had did this twice before, but this time I noticed the section at the bottom, and played with that a bit.

Got it to my old "Default" theme, and saved it.

Consider this thread closed, and thanks.