Windows themes got all bad

Gil · 11 Feb 2010

Hi all.

I have a serious problem with windows themes.

I did a repair install and since then when I choose for example and aero theme it will apply high contrast theme and so on. No theme is correct.

How can I fix it?

Thanks.

Legacy Code · 11 Feb 2010

Sounds like Aero has been disabled , try this troubleshooter :

Start menu> control panel > System security > Find and fix problems > Appearance personalization > Display Aero Desktop Effects.

Hope that helps you out.

Gil · 11 Feb 2010

Hi. thanks for the reply.

The Aero is not disabled. The problem is that all the themes are kinda mixed up. I choose the theme but it displays something else. It's a guessing game.

sergiogarcia9 · 11 Feb 2010

Do you have the latest driver for your graphics card installed?
Also what version of 7 are you running? (starter, pro etc)

Uber Philf · 11 Feb 2010

I'm not sure, this is a real stab in the dark, but try opening an elevated command prompt, and type SFC /scannnow, and press enter.

Not sure if SFC counts themes as system files..

If you have patched your theme files, for custom themes etc, this will remove the patching, so you will need to re-patch the system files after.

Gil · 12 Feb 2010

I use Win7 Ultimate 64bit.
I have the latest ATI drivers. Never ran into this problem before.
The SFC command doesn't help.

Any other ideas?

sergiogarcia9 · 12 Feb 2010

Okay, i think what might have gone wrong.
Somehow, by accident you might have deleted your default Aero.theme from
C:/Windows/Resources/Themes
Go check if it's there.

Grimmjow · 12 Feb 2010

I don't now will this help, but anyway, you can try it:

Mr GRiM said:

Just need to add some info that will affect most users, when doing a Repair Install....
Another thing you might find is you loose your custom themes and this is due to not having permisions set on the old themes, go to the themes folder in C:/Users/Your User Name/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/Themes and use the Take Ownership shortcut in your context menu found here Take Ownership Shortcut on the themes folder and you will now have all your themes back.

cheers

Gil · 13 Feb 2010

I've tried it but it doesn't work.

Here is what I've done in windows that got me this problem:
1. Repair install
2. Used Windows Toolkit 1.8 to install extra themes. <- that's the smoking gun.

Now the problem has extended. Lets say I create a custom theme and I choose Windows Ultimate Extras Pearl as sound scheme, I hear Calligraphy sound instead.

Also, I've got some old downloaded themes which shows as if I have them but a quick look in the themes folder and I can't even see the theme files:
C:\windows\Resources\Themes
c:\users\my user\appdata\microsoft\windows\themes

sergiogarcia9 · 13 Feb 2010

I think the best thing you can do, to get this problem to go away, is to reinstall Windows 7 as clean install and NOT use Windows Toolkit.