Issues with "My Current Theme"

[Guest]

I have noticed this problem on two separate machines, a Win XP Home and one Win XP Pro, running an AMD and Centrino chipsets, respectively

I use the typical/standard Windows XP Theme. In that theme, when I use Internet Explorer, for example, and move the mouse over the menu bar, the menu items are highlighted in blue. However, if I select "My Current Theme" as the option, the menu bar items appear as 3D when selected. In some applications, like Media Player or Adobe Reader, the menu bar displays different colors of gray. When I move and select menu items in these applications, portions of the menu bar change color to the lighter gray color

What is going on here? Has anyone else run into this issue as well. I believe the problem also occurs if I save out the standard Windows XP Theme to a file, such as My Favorite Theme and then re-load that theme.

 

[Keith Miller]

Exactly right, Bryan. Here's what I posted recently:

User have sometimes reported that menu buttons in programs other than Explorer (notepad, etc.) lose
the default background and show as white or the custom menu color they have chosen. Reapplying the
XP buttons & menus style would fix the problem, but custom colors were lost.

I think I've found the problem bit but would appreciate feedback as I only have my system to play
with.

To replicate this problem:

First, a clean slate:
In Display properties -> 'Appearances' tab, select 'Windows Classic Style' (don't apply), then
select 'Windows XP style' and click 'Apply'. Open an Explorer window & note that menu selections
are shaded when you hover over them; open a Notepad window and note no change in menu items when you
hover, but shaded when selected.

Save and reapply:
Now, click the 'Themes' tab, and use the 'Save As..' button to save the settings to a .theme file.
Select another theme from the droplist (no need to apply) then reselect the theme you just saved and
click 'Apply'.

Now look at the Explorer window -- nice 3D effect when you hover over the menu buttons! Now look at
the notepad window -- Yuck! and it gets uglier as you click on them!

The culprit??? UserPreferencesMask, found under HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop.

Specifically, bit #1 (0x02) of the 3rd byte is set when applying the XP styles, but gets cleared
when a user-saved theme is reapplied. I imagine that switching amongst saved themes is how most
users end up with this. So if you menus look bad, and UserPreferencesMask looks like this:
be 7e 05 80

change it to:
be 7e 07 80

and logoff/logon for changes to take effect (killing & restarting explorer does not seem to be
sufficient).

I'd appreciate it if those so inclined would play with this and see if they can replicate what I've
found.

Thanks,
Keith

You can edit the userpreferencesmask as described or set your menu color to match the color for 3d
objects, which gives a passable appearance.

Keith

I have noticed this problem on two separate machines, a Win XP Home and one Win XP Pro, running an

AMD and Centrino chipsets, respectively.

I use the typical/standard Windows XP Theme. In that theme, when I use Internet Explorer, for

example, and move the mouse over the menu bar, the menu items are highlighted in blue. However, if
I select "My Current Theme" as the option, the menu bar items appear as 3D when selected. In some
applications, like Media Player or Adobe Reader, the menu bar displays different colors of gray.
When I move and select menu items in these applications, portions of the menu bar change color to
the lighter gray color.

What is going on here? Has anyone else run into this issue as well. I believe the problem also

occurs if I save out the standard Windows XP Theme to a file, such as My Favorite Theme and then
re-load that theme.

 

[Guest]

Keith

I'll give that a try later today and repost with any updates. BTW, I thought if you select the Windowx XP style that the advanced selections for object colors get overridden.

My Current setting for the preference is: 9E 3E 07 80 which is different from what you posted. The key value for the .DEFAULT user mask is: 9E 3E 03 8

I also have several other users, such as S-1-5-xx where xx is a number. I imagine these are created from System Restore's, otherwise I have no idea how they got there. Most of them have the third byte as 03

Maybe that will help you shore up your concerns. So I have to try to replace the 07 with an 03 on my desktop. Before I do this I will need to check my laptop for the same info and see if there is a correlation. Stay tuned and thanks

Bryan

 

[Keith Miller]

Replacing the 07 with 03 will turn off menu shadows, replacing the 07 with 05 will change the menu
buttons.

The values differ based on whether or not menu animations are enabled, x-mouse behavior is enabled,
mouse pointer shadow, menu shadows etc

Keith

Keith,

I'll give that a try later today and repost with any updates. BTW, I thought if you select the

Windowx XP style that the advanced selections for object colors get overridden.

My Current setting for the preference is: 9E 3E 07 80 which is different from what you posted.

The key value for the .DEFAULT user mask is: 9E 3E 03 80

I also have several other users, such as S-1-5-xx where xx is a number. I imagine these are

created from System Restore's, otherwise I have no idea how they got there. Most of them have the
third byte as 03.

Maybe that will help you shore up your concerns. So I have to try to replace the 07 with an 03 on

my desktop. Before I do this I will need to check my laptop for the same info and see if there is a
correlation. Stay tuned and thanks.

 

[Guest]

Keith

So if I want to keep everything as I have it, but still want the hover over the menus to give me the 3D look, what should I change the key value to?

Your original suggestion was: be 7e 07 8

My current desktop config is: 9E 3E 07 80 . This is the same behavior for my laptop also.

Why does selecting My Current Theme cause the menu's to change

 

[Keith Miller]

Keith,

So if I want to keep everything as I have it, but still want the hover over the menus to give me

the 3D look, what should I change the key value to?

Your original suggestion was: be 7e 07 80

My current desktop config is: 9E 3E 07 80 . This is the same behavior for my laptop also.

That was to turn the 3D OFF. You currently have it off, so to turn it on you want to SUBTRACT 02
from 07, changing your mask to 9E 3E 05 80. But you can't have nice 3D on the buttons in Explorer
and well behaved menu buttons on the other apps, the two behaviors are linked. For a passable
appearance with 3D menu buttons enabled, you'll need to play with the color of 3D objects under
Appearance -> Advanced in control panel - trying to match it the color of the menu bar in notepad.

Why does selecting My Current Theme cause the menu's to change?

When you apply the XP style directly, by toggling the Windows and Buttons setting from XP to classic
and back, the 3D bit is set (which remember, turns 3D OFF); apparently because off the effect it
produces in apps that aren't fully style-aware. The bit is cleared (3D ON) when classic style is
selected, because it seems to behave properly.

The difference between the .theme files included with Windows and those saved by the user is the
presence of the sections [Control Panel\Colors], [Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics] and [Metrics]
sections. Something about their presence causes the bit to be cleared when a saved theme is
reapplied.

Keith

 

[Guest]

Keith

Thanks for the knowledge. Basically, Windows XP Windows/Buttons style cannot produce 3D hover over menus with the same cleanliness of Windows Classic style. When re-applying saved themes or even the My Current Theme, it clears the bit to enable the 3D hover effect -- which on my machines looks horrible, except in IE. I'll leave the bit set and deal with basic blue on menu hovers

Thanks again. I'm sure others have found the same issue and are wondering what in the world is going on. Your info will be a great benefit to others

Bryan

 

[Keith Miller]

You're welcome. It is annoying that you can't have the best of both worlds, but at least we know
what's going on.

Keith

Keith,

Thanks for the knowledge. Basically, Windows XP Windows/Buttons style cannot produce 3D hover

over menus with the same cleanliness of Windows Classic style. When re-applying saved themes or
even the My Current Theme, it clears the bit to enable the 3D hover effect -- which on my machines
looks horrible, except in IE. I'll leave the bit set and deal with basic blue on menu hovers.

Thanks again. I'm sure others have found the same issue and are wondering what in the world is

going on. Your info will be a great benefit to others.