Theme not changing...windows and taskbar stuck on one color

Hey everyone,

I'll try to make this as quick as possible. So pretty much, I've been messing around with themes since i just got my hp envy 15 and the very first time i turned it on it asked me what theme i wanted to use so i chose the hp envy theme. It was all grey, so soon after i changed it back to an aero theme (the light blue one with the windows logo in the middle). The background changed but the taskbar and windows and everything remained as the envy theme...So i started to look at custom themes, patched my theme folders, and tried to download a couple themes. The 2 themes i tried to use didnt work because everytime i would transfer them from the zip file to the themes folder it would either show up under personalization as a theme but nothing would change or it just wouldnt be there...or just the background pic would be there.

So before i ask for help on the custom themes, i really just need to fix the taskbar and window problem..which is that it wont change colors or transparency or anything even if i change the theme. Right now my background is light blue and the taskbar and windows are dark grey and light grey which is really annoying. The aero theme says the windows and taskbar should be transparent light blue...but they arent..

Thanks, if theres anything you can do please help

cmon, theres a ton of people viewing this site...theres bound to be someone who knows how to fix this problem.

When i try and change the theme, the only thing that changes is the background...taskbar and windows remain dark gray and gray

First off, thanks for the reply!

Secondly, unfortunately that sfc prompt did nothing . The taskbar and windows are stuck as the hp envy theme. Gahh this is so frustrating..It said there was a corrupted file, and it repaired it, i rebooted and nothing changed.

Any other thoughts?

Lol... I had this same problem too. Some themes changes completely but some don't. It's annoying.

Westeros said:

Hey everyone,

I'll try to make this as quick as possible. So pretty much, I've been messing around with themes since i just got my hp envy 15 and the very first time i turned it on it asked me what theme i wanted to use so i chose the hp envy theme. It was all grey, so soon after i changed it back to an aero theme (the light blue one with the windows logo in the middle). The background changed but the taskbar and windows and everything remained as the envy theme...So i started to look at custom themes, patched my theme folders, and tried to download a couple themes. The 2 themes i tried to use didnt work because everytime i would transfer them from the zip file to the themes folder it would either show up under personalization as a theme but nothing would change or it just wouldnt be there...or just the background pic would be there.

So before i ask for help on the custom themes, i really just need to fix the taskbar and window problem..which is that it wont change colors or transparency or anything even if i change the theme. Right now my background is light blue and the taskbar and windows are dark grey and light grey which is really annoying. The aero theme says the windows and taskbar should be transparent light blue...but they arent..

Thanks, if theres anything you can do please help

I got ya covered man! I was having the same issues and went through all the ropes you did. Nothing worked, and it was aggravating. But then I found the simple fix.

Go to Start, All Programs, then Stardock MyColors. In it, you will be able to change the Envy theme to the Windows 7 theme. Once you do this, it will simply change the coloring. Now right-click on the desktop, go to personalize, then click the windows aero theme (the one that would previously not work). Now it works! All the aero perks come with it.

Thanks BDParmer - this is a pain for sure - the theme didn't even let the minimize and maximize icons appear in IE and made explorer windows difficult to use.

Here's an update on what I found while trying to correct this.
On my HP Envy I couldn't find a Stardock MyColors application that would work. The only one showing was Loader. So I went into the Program Files (x86) folder and found Stardock and MyColors and found ThemeMgr.exe and launched that and there was the option to change to the Windows 7 Aero theme. I selected it, clicked the blue Apply button, and presto.
Hope this helps, as I haven't seen this description in all of my searches

BDParmer said:

Westeros said:

Hey everyone,

I'll try to make this as quick as possible. So pretty much, I've been messing around with themes since i just got my hp envy 15 and the very first time i turned it on it asked me what theme i wanted to use so i chose the hp envy theme. It was all grey, so soon after i changed it back to an aero theme (the light blue one with the windows logo in the middle). The background changed but the taskbar and windows and everything remained as the envy theme...So i started to look at custom themes, patched my theme folders, and tried to download a couple themes. The 2 themes i tried to use didnt work because everytime i would transfer them from the zip file to the themes folder it would either show up under personalization as a theme but nothing would change or it just wouldnt be there...or just the background pic would be there.

So before i ask for help on the custom themes, i really just need to fix the taskbar and window problem..which is that it wont change colors or transparency or anything even if i change the theme. Right now my background is light blue and the taskbar and windows are dark grey and light grey which is really annoying. The aero theme says the windows and taskbar should be transparent light blue...but they arent..

Thanks, if theres anything you can do please help

I got ya covered man! I was having the same issues and went through all the ropes you did. Nothing worked, and it was aggravating. But then I found the simple fix.

Go to Start, All Programs, then Stardock MyColors. In it, you will be able to change the Envy theme to the Windows 7 theme. Once you do this, it will simply change the coloring. Now right-click on the desktop, go to personalize, then click the windows aero theme (the one that would previously not work). Now it works! All the aero perks come with it.

I just registered in this site to say THANKS to you. I knew I had Stardock MyColors, but I didn't knew I had chosen my theme there (an AMD one). So thanks again! I couldn't have though about it by myself.

Now this goes to everyone else who might have the same issue: If you have Stardock MyColor installed and you have this same problem, go check that out right now.