Sorry this has nothing to do with "Number Crunching" but this has me really angry. For about one year or more every time I reboot or shut down and restart my computer the "Windows and buttons" settings reverts to the Windows XP setting rather than the Classic Windows setting that I prefere. Happens all the time! Anyone know how to fix this so it stay's in the Classis setting??

Thanks

---

Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....

...For about one year or more every time I reboot or shut down and restart my computer the "Windows and buttons" settings reverts to the Windows XP setting rather than the Classic Windows setting that I prefere. Happens all the time! Anyone know how to fix this so it stay's in the Classis setting??

???

Windows updates problem?

Sticky registry setting??

Good luck,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Sorry this has nothing to do with "Number Crunching" but this has me really angry. For about one year or more every time I reboot or shut down and restart my computer the "Windows and buttons" settings reverts to the Windows XP setting rather than the Classic Windows setting that I prefere. Happens all the time! Anyone know how to fix this so it stay's in the Classis setting??
Thanks

Are you pressing "apply" and then "ok" before you exit the change area? Sometimes if you do both it won't save the settings.

---

I concur with Mikey...with ANY MS app or OS, the settings will revert as soon as you re-open the app or reboot the OS.

ALWAYS use Apply before hitting OK :)

---

Have you tried saving a new theme after making your changes? In the Display Properties window you'll change to the Windows Classic style in the Appearance tab, when you're done there go to the Themes tab and Save As a newly named theme. This theme should now be the default at Windows boot-up.

Are you pressing "apply" and then "ok" before you exit the change area? Sometimes if you do both it won't save the settings.

I have done this time and time again. It just seems not to remember the setting no matter what I do.

---

Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....

I made that change when I got this machine, 4 or 5 years ago, and the setting has remained in place through thick and thin - service pack installs, security updates, security/antivirus program upgrades, joining BOINC......

So I guess something in your startup process is actively unsetting it.

Do you have any sort of security suite/registry cleaner which checks for supposed "errors" at startup? Or has the machine ever been part of an active directory domain, and have bits of a group policy in force?

I made that change when I got this machine, 4 or 5 years ago, and the setting has remained in place through thick and thin - service pack installs, security updates, security/antivirus program upgrades, joining BOINC......

So I guess something in your startup process is actively unsetting it.

Do you have any sort of security suite/registry cleaner which checks for supposed "errors" at startup? Or has the machine ever been part of an active directory domain, and have bits of a group policy in force?

Actually I formated the hard disk and installed Windows XP in an attempt to rectify this problem. With only XP installed the problem is there. Even after a clean install of XP. I don't understand this at all. As soon as XP is installed, I changed from the XP theme to classic. Rebooted and the problem continues. "Windows and buttons" does not remember that I set it to classic and not XP.

---

Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....

If you desktop or folders on your desktop do not retain their settings:

Start Regedit

Go go HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\Program Manager\\Restrictions

Create or edit the DWORD value NoSaveSettings

Give it a value of 0

If you desktop or folders on your desktop do not retain their settings:

Start Regedit

Go go HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\Program Manager\\Restrictions

Create or edit the DWORD value NoSaveSettings

Give it a value of 0

NoSaveSettings already there and set to 0 value.

---

Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....

Well I found this.............

As a work around this MS knowledge base article states that if the "Themes" service is not running Windows will revert to the Classic display. I dissabled the Themes service and seems to have solved my problem. I hope!

Thanks for all your suggestions!!

---

Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....

Well I found this.............

As a work around this MS knowledge base article states that if the "Themes" service is not running Windows will revert to the Classic display. I dissabled the Themes service and seems to have solved my problem. I hope!

Now that is a good piece of obscurity!

Well found!!

Cheers,
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

The part which has me scratching my head, is why would you need to have desktop theme management routed through a Windows service? Seems like overkill to me.

Alinator

Deleted by poster. Operator error.

I just wanted to thank you for posting this fix! Recently, my system began resetting from Classic to XP after a boot, despite all the policy edits, registry edits, etc, etc. Turning off the service fixed it.

Of course, that begs the question, at least in my case, of what changed, and how? In the past, I have had things happen which were some form of the system not properly saving personal preferences. In every case, within a few days one of my anti-spyware programs would pick up something after an update, and the problem would go away. So far nothing, but I will keep an eye out for something popping up.

Again, thanks.

Alan

I just wanted to thank you for posting this fix! Recently, my system began resetting from Classic to XP after a boot, despite all the policy edits, registry edits, etc, etc. Turning off the service fixed it.

Of course, that begs the question, at least in my case, of what changed, and how? In the past, I have had things happen which were some form of the system not properly saving personal preferences. In every case, within a few days one of my anti-spyware programs would pick up something after an update, and the problem would go away. So far nothing, but I will keep an eye out for something popping up.

Again, thanks.

Alan

By chance do you have an ATI Radeon video card and drivers? I believe my problems started after I installed the ATI video drivers.

---

Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....

No, I have an NVIDIA GEFORCE 7500 LE, which is the board which HP supplies unless you get a premium board.

You raise a good point. As best as I can determine, the only changes to the system were some spyware and virus definitions, and an updated driver for the RealTek mobo audio chips. In trying to trouble shoot this, I did a full reformat/restore a couple of times using images from before the problem started. In each case, it worked ok for a few reboots before starting up again. I scrupulously made no changes to the system.

Alan

No, I have an NVIDIA GEFORCE 7500 LE, which is the board which HP supplies unless you get a premium board.

You raise a good point. As best as I can determine, the only changes to the system were some spyware and virus definitions, and an updated driver for the RealTek mobo audio chips. In trying to trouble shoot this, I did a full reformat/restore a couple of times using images from before the problem started. In each case, it worked ok for a few reboots before starting up again. I scrupulously made no changes to the system.

Alan

Couple of things I found recently that may or may not be related to your problems.

#1 I noticed in Event viewer that a warning that something was accessing the registry while trying to logoff prevented changes being written - This was solved by running the "User Profile Hive Cleanup Service" from Microsoft. It solved that for me.

#2 Realtek Mobo Audio Drivers, The latest HD audio drivers from realtek's site worked but ocasionally caused strange problems, Installing the latest from the Mobo Manufacturer's Site instead fixed that for me, they seem to be different (better) though they are still Realtek [earlier version]: symptoms for me were occasional glitchy sound, and the rare "sound stutter freeze", Other more wierd problems like services & programs failing to load at startup
[Edit: I think the concept here is that Realtek are a chips maker, not mobo maker, and motherboards can vary slightly from the reference design]

No idea if any of that may help but it may be worth checking for #1 in event viewer at least.

Jason


Hope

---

"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.

Jason,

Unfortunately, that did not solve the problem, but thanks for reminding me about the cleaner! I forgot to reinstall it when I moved to a new computer. The event log looks ok as well.

Alan

Well It might be worth looking for relevant scripts at Kelly's Korner if the machine appears otherwise OK ... there some I have used before to fix start menu issues being stuck on autohide (very annoying), a good trawl through these might turn something up. Goood Luck :D

---

"Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions.