where is my windows shell common?

[ralphwh]

First of all Iam a real amateur here could you please help me!
Sorry for my bad english I am from germany!
I updated to windows 7 homme premium 32 one month ago!
2 days ago I tried to open a windows theme pack file!
It should open with windows shell common but opened with windows photo gallery which naturaly didn`t work! I tried to change the program to open it in the properties of the theme file to windows shell commen but could nowhere on my pc find this programm to open the theme file! Can someone please help me what to do! windows shell common where are you?

 

[DeaconFrost]

My car is from Germany, so I will try to help you! What is the file extension for the Theme Pack...was it a .theme file? I believe you would need to enable themes using a program that patches your OS to allow 3rd party themes.

 

[ralphwh]

thanks for the super fast reply! I like american cars!
the file extension is "Windows Theme Pack File (.themepack)"

the problem all the windos desktop themes should open with
windows shell commen. I just can`t find this programm on my C drive to select it as opener! So I momently can`t open any destop theme or download one to install

 

[karlsnooks]

Ralph,
Willkommen beim SevenForums.

What is the extension of the themepack?

Is it themepack?

Where did you download the themepack?

A themepack is a .CAB file.

If you change the extension to .CAB, then you caneasily view the contents of the "theme" to see if the themepack is in order.

Download a themepack from Microsoft and change the extension to .cab. Then you can use that as a reference to determine the structure of a correct theme.

 

[Orbital Shark]

Hi ralphwh, welcome to the forums

It could be that 1 or more of your system files may have changed (for the worse). You could try restoring your system files to their original state

1, open Command Prompt (start->All programs->Accessories) by right clicking and selecting 'run as administrator'.
2, type in sfc /scannow

Once complete you may need to restart your machine

Hope this helps


OS

 

[DeaconFrost]

thanks for the super fast reply! I like american cars!

I don't..that's why I drive a German one!

Was the theme downloading from Microsoft?

 

[ralphwh]

well every theme I try to download from microsoft tries to open with windows photo gallery which doesn`t work. So I can`t open any of the desktop themes they all try to open with windows photo gallery. And this program windos shell common dll is nowhere to find on the pc as openener. I know it should be shell common dll because I checked it on my sister pc where all theme pack files for the desktop open with this.

 

[karlsnooks]

ralph,
To install a themepack, simply double-click on it.

This should work, unless you reassigned the program for opening a themepack to some other program.

As I've stated, to view the contents of a themepack:
1. Change .Themepack to .CAB
2. Use Windows Explorer or WinZip or 7-Zip or WinRar to view the contents of the .CAB file.

I use WinZip and then extract the pictures and add the ones I want to a folder which holds the pics in my theme.

 

[karlsnooks]

ralph,

Is this maybe what you seek?

go to "open with" and the 'browse' to C:\windows\system32 shell32.dll

 

[Bill2]

The file association seems to have got corrupted, you need to reassociate. See this pictorial tut.

How To Re-associate .themepack File So That It Opens in Display Personalize Directly Again? | Windows7hacker

 

[SledgeDG]

Willkommen hier im Forum, Ralph..I'm originally from Germany but my car comes from Japan

Du könntest versuchen, das Theme von Hand zu installieren:
Themes bestehen im Prinzip aus 2 Teilen: einer Steuer-Datei mit der Erweiterung .theme
und einem Ordner gleichen Namens mit den benötigten Teilen. (Beispiel Datei: aero.theme Ordner dazu: aero)
beides kopierst Du in den Ordner c:\windows\ressources\themes dann kannst Du das Theme ganz normal unter Personalize auswählen.
Sollte es sich allerdings um ein Theme handeln, das nicht von Microsoft kommt, musst Du erst z.B folgendes Programm ausführen UX Style

Translation:
You could always try to install the theme manually.
A Theme consists of 2 basic elements: a file with the extension .themes and a folder with the same name.
Jost copy both into C:\Windows\Resources\Themes and you'll find it with the other themes under Personalize.
In case your theme isn't signed by Microsoft you'd need to run this software first UX Style

-DG

 

[karlsnooks]

Bill,
Thanks. That says pictorially, and better, that which I said in words.

 

[Bill2]

Bill,
Thanks. That says pictorially, and better, that which I said in words.

No problem, Karl. BTW, sorry if i tread on your toes, realized both of us are basically saying the same thing after posting.

 

[ralphwh]

thanks to all of you for your quick and very kind help!
well what can I say! karlsooks thats it thanks shell32.dll everything works again!
Great forum great guys. I am sure I contact you again with plesure!!! Have all of you a great week! ralphwh (ralph)

 

[ralphwh]

sorry karlsnooks

 

[Orbital Shark]

thanks to all of you for your quick and very kind help!
well what can I say! karlsooks thats it thanks shell32.dll everything works again!
Great forum great guys. I am sure I contact you again with plesure!!! Have all of you a great week! ralphwh (ralph)

Glad it's working again

 

[karlsnooks]

thanks to all of you for your quick and very kind help!
well what can I say! karlsooks thats it thanks shell32.dll everything works again!
Great forum great guys. I am sure I contact you again with plesure!!! Have all of you a great week! ralphwh (ralph)

Glad that we could be of assistance, und 'ne schoene Woche.

 

[BigSchu22]

Same Issue Here - Not Resolved

Hi, I had the exact same issue as Ralph. Here is a description of what happened:

I recently upgraded my laptop from Vista 64 Ultimate to Windows 7 64 Ultimate and have been experiencing a strange error with theme pack files.

- First thing I noticed is that .themepack files were associated with Windows Live Picture Gallery, thus double clicking on .themepack files resulted in Picture Gallery saying it didn't know what type of file I was trying to open.

- So, I changed the file association to Shell32.dll, as it should be.

- Now when I try to open a .themepack file it says, "Not a valid win 32 application"

I have another computer running Windows 7 64 Ultimate and it has never experienced such a problem. You double click on a .themepack file and it installs. I have also tried using an elevated command prompt and the assoc command to change the default association, but same problems resulted.

**Note, I am using Microsoft themes directly from the Microsoft site. Any other ideas? Thanks!