How to have the same theme customization freedom as with XP?

Ok as expected it repaired a few DLLs I intentionally modified to remove that stupid padding in the details view as well as to install Luna XP theme. However, I restarted with these corrections and the problem remains. You said I have to do this 3 times? Fine, attempt number two:

Yup, same problem still.

You may ask him as well if the system performance index allows the aero theme?

Couldn't do it.

I'm running 7 in a VM btw with 1GB of RAM.

Well that explains why the aerotheme won't work.
Somehowe your PC is to slow.
Sometimes you may solve this with updates of drivers.
Even one component could drag your pc under the limits.
And than your stuck with windows basic.
Think you have an old PC cause 1 GB for W 7 is the underlimit.
You shure need more mem like at least 2 GB.
Also it should be fast enough.

No I'm running it in a VM. I can assign more RAM. My PC which is 7 times slower than this one was able to run Vista with Aero so I assure you this PC is more than adequate. I leave the judging to you though. If 1GB is too little for Aero I'll give it more. The minimum requirements do say that only 1GB is required though.

Yes minimum yeah, but less mem may slow down your pc considerable as I found out.
And that may sink your performance index.
This index is just a wet finger in the air and very much disputable.
Also the videocard may cause problems.
If your not running 64 bits you may ad some 3 GB mem. max.
It won't address higher with 32 bits.

The failure you make is comparing with Vista.
Windows 7 requires much more en has that annoying index.

I tried with 2GB RAM, it still failed. I can't assign all 3GB because then I'll have nothing left for my host system. This piece of garbage Firefox that I'm posting on this forum with takes up 300MB of RAM alone.