help with appearance

[steve]

background: (read if you're bored skip down to 'the
question' if you really want to help but have no time)
so i've been having some virus problems, and so i was
trying to find out if i might delete it by looking into
the msconfig program and checking out the processes that
were running. however, it kept closing before i could
really do anything, so i would open it up and try and get
my computer to start on basic mode (or whatever it's
called). when this failed, i noticed that my taskbar,
start menu, windows, etc. had stopped looking like xp, but
now looked like older versions (i.e. the buttons were no
longer red, but the gray and black, the taskbar was gray,
not blue. thinking this was a mistake, i went to
the 'properties' display, clicked the 'appearance' tab,
and attempted to change the 'windows and buttons' menu.
however, the only option availible to me was 'windows
classic style'
THE QUESTION:
how do i get the other option to appear there, the xp
defaults? would i have to use the setup cd's? a response
would be appreciated. b/c i really don't like windows
classic style.

 

[Guest]

Somewhere along the way you probably managed to stop the "Themes Service"

To restart it:

Open Computer Management.
(Right Click My Computer click Manage)
In the console tree, click Services.
Computer Management
Services and Applications
Services
Themes

Start the Service.
Make sure it is set to Automatic.

John Bukowski [MSFT]
Escalation Engineer