Windows 7 taskbar changed to basic view and won't change back

Hi,

I've seen a lot of posts about this issue but unfortunately none of the solutions offered worked for me.
I have a Sony VAIO VPC laptop, Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit.
Everything was fine until yesterday when I opened my computer and the taskbar now looks like this:


when it should look like this:


I ran the Aero troubleshooter and the report says my Desktop Window Manager is disabled. I tried turning it on in the Services window but nothing happened. It also said that the current theme doesn't support Aero, and nothing happened when I changed the theme back to the default Aero theme.

I also updated my Intel GMA 3150 driver. again, nothing's changed.

This is extremely frustrating, any help would be appreciated.

The computer is 2 weeks old, I haven't set a restore point.... :/

Could a program be causing this?
Right before the change occurred, the computer ran a disk check and found a corrupted file or something. How do I know what caused this?

brianzion said:

Perform a SFC Scan

1. Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow

2. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:

sfc /scannow

A message will appear stating that 'The system scan will begin'. Be patient because the scan may take some time

3. If any files require a replace SFC will replace them. You may be asked to insert your Windows 7 DVD for this process to continue

4. If everything is okay you should, after the scan, see the following message "Windows resource protection did not find any integrity violations"

5. After the scan has completed, close the command prompt window, restart the computer and check.

more information here How to use the System File Checker tool to troubleshoot missing or corrupted system files on Windows Vista or on Windows 7

I ran the SFC and and you said it did finish with "Windows resource protection did not find any integrity violations".
I restarted my computer and my blue taskbar is back!!!
thanx!!!

brianzion said:

Enable Desktop Window Manager

1. Click the Start
2. Type in: "Services.msc" (without the quotes) into the Start Search textbox. If prompted by the UAC, provide a password or confirmation. Click Continue.
3. Scroll down until you locate the entry that is labeled: “Desktop Window Manager Session Manager”
4. Right-click on this service. Select Start from the context menu.
5. Right click once again on the entry. Select Properties from the context menu.
6. Go to the “General tab.” Change the Start up Type to "Enabled." Click OK.

Hope this helps!!

I don't have an "enable" option, all i have is Automatic, Automatic (Delayed Start), Manual and Disabled.
It's currently set to Automatic, is that ok?

we're not done yet
i shut down my computer last night and this morning i opened it and now the old grey taskbar is back.
am i gonna have to run SFC every day for it to go back to normal?
how can i find out what's causing this?

thanx guys