Start button and toolbar have changed from green and blue to grey.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
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Guest

I had a problem with my computer a few days ago and the style of the desktop
has changed. Most of the colours are the same apart from the bottom toolbar,
which has changed from a green start button and blue toolbar to a grey start
button and toolbar. As I much prefer the previous look I would like to know
how to change it back.

So far I have looked at 'Display' in the control panel but can't seem to
change it back to the original look. if I right click on the toolbar and
then properties, the window shows the original display colours but I can't
change them here either.

Any help with this would be appreciated.

Thanks.
 
In Display Properties select the Themes tab, and change back to the
Windows XP theme. That usually fixes it.
 
Hi Ted,

Thanks for replying so promptly!

I can see that that would fix it but there is no 'Windows XP' in the drop
down menu.
Listed are Windows Classic (Modified), My current theme, Windows Classic,
More themes online and Browse. I think I must have the Windows Classic
showing at the moment.
 
Nearly there!

I now have Windows XP theme listed in the Display Properties but when I
click on it my computer gives out this message -

"Could not be loaded as theme service is not running. You can turn the
service on in the Computer Management Administation Tool in Control Panel."

This is not enough information, as there is nowhere that says anything about
'Theme Service' or anything similar, or even gives the option of switching
things on or off!

So near yet so far!!

Thanks for your help.
 
Jeez, what did you (or someone else) do to your computer? That's the
kind of problem we typically see when someone follows misguided advice
to supposedly make their computer run better.

Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools and click on the Services
icon. On the right hand side look for the Themes service, start it and
set it to start automatically.
 
Ted,

Having had enough problems with my computer in the last week, I was
beginning to get seriously worried. The themes service was switched off, as
you suggested. It took a couple of attempts to get things back on track but
at least I have the XP theme back on!!! - much better. It's only taken 8
hours!

Thank you so very much for your invaluable help. I've actually learned
quite a lot in the process. But what I would have done without it I don't
know, as the repairers were monumentally unhelpful this morning. My computer
had needed a new CPU fan, which I diagnosed with some software that came with
my computer when I bought it - (it was shutting down and sirens going off!)
However, the repairers said that the security on my PC was out of date and
installed new, even though I have 'live updates' on the one I had already. I
also have a lot of security with my ISP. But I bowed to their better
judgement and had new installed. They said that they had cleared a lot of
stuff off my computer ( which basically I could have done) and made it so
things would run faster (not sure what they meant by that)- and charged me a
nice bit for doing it! Maybe this is where the problem came from. I don't
know.

But anyway, you are a star. You fixed it and I am very relieved.

Thanks again.
 
Ted, how much resources does the theme service take up by its own?

and when you load a theme, say that has an msstyle of 2-3 mb, that is loaded
in the
ram right?

I have seen a small difference in speed between classic and a skinned
theme....

also.. if you know this... is there a way to decrease the hight of the
taskbar buttons
on a classic theme? I know you can do this with normal msstyles, since there
are some themes around that are "thin taskbar" versions.. but I cant find a
way to do this on the classic theme

Why do I need this? well I use my taskbar as 2 toolbar height....

thanks in advance
 
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