For the past two years I have had the windows classic display theme on my
Gateway 700gr running windows XP service pack 2 without any problems. I
recently installed a new video card (ASUS EAX1600Pro). Now my computer
starts with Windows XP theme display. I've gone to the control panel clicked
on the display Icon and choose ‘classic’ (I specify the Desert color scheme
also). I've hit the ‘apply’ and ‘OK’ buttons. However, at boot up, my
“classic dessert” theme might only come up a few times but after a day or two
I'll turn on the computer and the Windows XP theme is displayed. The XP
theme will be displayed each time I boot until I manually change it back to
my classic theme. I’ve started running the "display" selection program at
start up so I can easily change my display back to Classic/desert (I have the
particular settings saved as "My Desert") whenever I see the display come up
in the XP theme. This however is becoming tiresome. How can I make my
classic theme ‘stick’?

"george" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:3AED4595-3F38-457D-AA56-(E-Mail Removed)...
> For the past two years I have had the windows classic display theme on my
> Gateway 700gr running windows XP service pack 2 without any problems. I
> recently installed a new video card (ASUS EAX1600Pro). Now my computer
> starts with Windows XP theme display. I've gone to the control panel
> clicked
> on the display Icon and choose 'classic' (I specify the Desert color
> scheme
> also). I've hit the 'apply' and 'OK' buttons. However, at boot up, my
> "classic dessert" theme might only come up a few times but after a day or
> two
> I'll turn on the computer and the Windows XP theme is displayed. The XP
> theme will be displayed each time I boot until I manually change it back
> to
> my classic theme. I've started running the "display" selection program
> at
> start up so I can easily change my display back to Classic/desert (I have
> the
> particular settings saved as "My Desert") whenever I see the display come
> up
> in the XP theme. This however is becoming tiresome. How can I make my
> classic theme 'stick'?

Hi George,

Probably NOT the best way to do it, but I would simply disable the "Themes"
service.

Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services

Scroll down to the service called "Themes" and double-click it to open its
panel, then you can select "Disabled" from the Startup type drop-down list
and click OK.

Hope this helps and a Happy New Year

Andy

"george" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4CBE1758-1D22-4C7A-9C86-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Andy
>
> So far your solution has worked fine. However you wrote that this was
> "Probably NOT the best way to do it." Is there any down side to your
> suggestion?
>
> Thanks
>
> George
>
>
>
> "Andrew Bailey" wrote:
>
>>
>> "george" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:3AED4595-3F38-457D-AA56-(E-Mail Removed)...
>> > For the past two years I have had the windows classic display theme on
>> > my
>> > Gateway 700gr running windows XP service pack 2 without any problems.
>> > I
>> > recently installed a new video card (ASUS EAX1600Pro). Now my computer
>> > starts with Windows XP theme display. I've gone to the control panel
>> > clicked
>> > on the display Icon and choose 'classic' (I specify the Desert color
>> > scheme
>> > also). I've hit the 'apply' and 'OK' buttons. However, at boot up, my
>> > "classic dessert" theme might only come up a few times but after a day
>> > or
>> > two
>> > I'll turn on the computer and the Windows XP theme is displayed. The
>> > XP
>> > theme will be displayed each time I boot until I manually change it
>> > back
>> > to
>> > my classic theme. I've started running the "display" selection
>> > program
>> > at
>> > start up so I can easily change my display back to Classic/desert (I
>> > have
>> > the
>> > particular settings saved as "My Desert") whenever I see the display
>> > come
>> > up
>> > in the XP theme. This however is becoming tiresome. How can I make my
>> > classic theme 'stick'?
>>
>> Hi George,
>>
>> Probably NOT the best way to do it, but I would simply disable the
>> "Themes"
>> service.
>>
>> Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services
>>
>> Scroll down to the service called "Themes" and double-click it to open
>> its
>> panel, then you can select "Disabled" from the Startup type drop-down
>> list
>> and click OK.
>>
>> Hope this helps and a Happy New Year
>>
>> Andy
>>
>>
>>

Hi George,

The only downside is that if ever you want to use XP style themes you have
to remember to enable the themes service.

Glad it worked for you

Andy

"Andrew Bailey" <(E-Mail Removed)>

> I would simply disable the "Themes" service.
> Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services
> Scroll down to the service called "Themes" and double-click it to open its
> panel, then you can select "Disabled" from the Startup type drop-down list
> and click OK.

Thanks for that tip. I too use the "Classic" display and suffer from the
problem of it reverting to the WinXP theme at odd moments, though not as
frequently as the OP says happens.

Does anyone know what *causes* this relapse?

My solution BTW is to create a "MyTheme" file of settings (right-click
anywhere on the desktop > Properties > Themes > Save as) that I keep in the
"My Documents" file. Any time Windows decides to revert to the WinXP theme,
I just double-click on MyTheme.Theme and put everything back the way it
was--or rather, the way I want it to be.

--
Bob
http://www.kanyak.com