Lost Windows XP Appearance?

I seemed to have lost my Windows XP appearance. From the lovely blue taskbar to the old style grey one. Been to properties then to both Appearance and Theme's but there's nothing there?

It happened when I was playing Counter Strike and my whole PC just rebooted for no reason?

Grateful for any reply, cheers!

 

Wainie:

Welcome to the boards.

Click on Start|Settings|Taskbar & Start Menu. Click on the Start Menu Tab and make sure that Start Menu (not Classic Start Menu) is selected.

Then right click on the desktop, select Properties from the pop-up menu. On the Themes tab make sure that Windows XP is selected under "Theme ". Then click on the Appearance tab and under "Windows and Buttons" make sure that Windows XP Style is selected.

HTH.

 

Didnt seem to have settings in my start menu, but after about the 4th reboot of my PC today the option to change apperance to Windows XP was restored? Huzaah! Thanks anyway though

 

Glad to hear things are back to normal. Thanks for posting back to let us know.

 

If you don't see "settings" listed when you click on the start button, you have other problems.

But start~run~control should also open up the control panel for you.

 

Oh right, well deffo no setting's there. Whats the new problem then? I have another but I'll put that on a seperate thread I'll keep you guys busy, heh.

 

It can be blocked by a local or network policy. You/someone may have somehow accidently set a policy on your PC, your network admin may have if you are on that sort of network, or something.
For something maybe a bad file or virus or ???? Sorry I can't be more specific but I just don't know. Lots of searching only tuned up the policy thing.

 

Wainie;

My Bad. I took for granted from the description of your problem that the classic menu was being displayed. The directions I gave you in the first paragraph of my first post are used with the classic menu display.

Apparently you are using the XP menu, that being the case the following is how you access the Taskbar and Start menu settings;

Click on Start|Control Panel|Appearance and Themes|Taskbar and Start Menu.

The directions in the second paragraph of my first post should be the same regardless.

HTH.

 

Wainie - I made the same wrong assumption Rod did. Sorry for the confusion.

I only run the classic since I know where stuff is with it and the XP version is just too busy for my taste. And sometimes (like here) I forget about the other, more usual option.

 

I was getting a bit worried, thought Id never seen settings before