Resolved Themes

All of a sudden I lost all the normal XP themes. The green start button etc. The task bar is grey. Also at the top. In control-system-advanced under performance settings it is set to "let windows choose what's best for my computer "

any help would be appreciated

 

What happens if you select "Custom" or "Adjust for best appearance "?

 

Hi Wildfire, nothing happens.

Hi Evan Omo, No luck. Regular xp style is not available

 

OK,

Have you tried to use a restore point dated before this happened?

And, can you think of anything that changed on the system when "all of a sudden" you had this problem...

Software installation
Hardware installation
Software/Driver updates etc?

 

Yes, I installed PC Tools system mechanic. I never thought installing it would alter my computer. I have uninstalled it however themes are still gone.

 

The restore point?

And the link you used for system mechanic?

 

I tried Windows system restore and went 2 days back. I put registry mech. on today. The restore did'nt have any effect. The restore in registry mech. was no help. The link was from PC Tools.

 

System Mechanic or Registry Mechanic? (Detail is important )

When you installed Registry Mechanic did you play with it?

 

It is registry mechanic.

 

Follow Pete's advice and take notes when you're playing with unknown software in the future.

Pete:
I would have thought system restore would have resolved this

 

Thanks for your help guys.

 

Darn it!!!! Disregard this please. I see you've already tried the applications backup restores. I will however leave the below for the archives. Someone else may not realize that this is an option when a registry clean goes belly-up.

Registry mechanic does backup before cleaning and has a method from within its self to restore back to a point before you used it. Have you tried this?

See:
Restore Changes:

1. Open Registry Mechanic
2. Click the 'Restore' button in the main program window
3. A list of backup files is displayed along with the date and time of their creation. Place a check in each backup that you wish to restore, and then click the 'Restore' button.
4. When the restore is complete, click 'Finished' to return to the main program window

Note that you may be required to re-start your system to activate the newly-restored keys in your registry file.


registry mechanic support

 

Hi goddez1,

I took a shot in Administrative tools and themes was disabled. I enabled it and, problem fixed. Thanks for the tip on restoring in Registry Mechanic.

 

Hi goddez1,

I took a shot in Administrative tools and themes was disabled. I enabled it and, problem fixed. Thanks for the tip on restoring in Registry Mechanic.

 

Hi all,

Good job Bimmer Guy and wise of you to check your services. Thanks for the update.

To Evan,
Agreed, I'm sure we're all smacking our heads, thinking we should have suggested that particularly since restore points didn't kick the XP theme back into gear. Perhaps that answers why the system restore didn't appear to have worked.

 

Agreed, sometimes information given can lead you in the wrong direction...

My thanks too, but I'm still confused as to how the themes service became disabled in the first place

Anyway glad you got it sorted.