XP SP2 Professional - resets theme itself

I use XP SP2 Professional on an IBM Intellistation M pro machine and prefer the classic theme so I have set display as:

Theme - Windows Classic
Appearance - Windows Classic style


however about 50% of the times I start the machine up, the desktop has changed to the XP style.

When I right-click on the desktop and select properties, either the theme has changed to Windows Xp or the appearance has changed to Windows XP style.

I then have to change them back and either OK or apply or even both. This keeps happening and is driving me nuts!

Any one got any ideas?

I have a couple of XP machines but this is the only one that does it.

 

Hi,

At work we run Norman antispyware and it sees any changes as spyware. Check if an antispyware or some other third party program is resetting it.

I don't know if User Rights might have something to do with it. I would think that most types of User Accounts should be able to set their own themes, but maybe check the User's Account level and it's rights/privileges.

Matt

 

Hello johnmi,

If you have Active Desktop enabled, try shutting it off: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000593.htm

 

thanks fellers,

I've checked your suggestions :-

Active desktop is NOT enabled

I don't run anti-spyware continuously, just manually at irregular intervals. I run my machines through a network with an old 233 with a linux firewall as the only route to the Internet. Each machine does run AVG as anti-virus protection.

and I only have one user on this particular machine.

as additional info : I started using Autopatcher for the first time. downloaded a full version for May which ran perfectly on two machines but failed on this machine! It kept signalling that I had an old version of a dll (which was downloaded as part of the May Autopatch and had worked fine on the others).