corrupt desktop theme - can not see anything

[Mat1920 0]

Last night I attempted to switch my desktop theme on WindowsXP to Windows Classic. Everything except for the icons went black and mouse. The text was black, the menus were black, the tooltip background color was black.. everything! I couldn't see what was happening when I right clicked on the desktop but I managed to change the background image to an actual picture.

 

At that point I logged out and restarted in safe mode. I selected a different desktop theme at that point and then restarted. Everything was still black. For the time being I have created a new user account but I would like to correct my other account as it has my Outlook Express e-mails and many other settings. The new user account is able to use the Windows Classic theme and all the other desktop themes.

 

I'm stumped as to what the problem is. It seems as if something related to the desktop has become corrupted or perhaps my trail-expired version of StyleXP might have caused a conflict.

 

My question is, can I fix my other account (modifying a config file perhaps)? Failing that, how can I recover my Outlook Express files?

[Mr.Guvernment 0]

try copying ove teh desktop.ini file form your other account?

 

and about Style Xp, just find a crack for it, and try it out, i use style XP my self, but nver had that prob.

[Mat1920 0]

Quote:

try copying ove teh desktop.ini file form your other account?

Thanks for the suggestions Mr.Guvernment. I did a search for the desktop.ini and included hidden/system files but came up with nothing. It's so strange. It's as if the desktop theme files became corrupted on the other account but are fine on the new one (same machine and installation of XP). I tried restoring an earlier settings/save of the other account but the problem persisted.

[Mr.Guvernment 0]

I found my Desktop.ini under

 

C:\WINDOWS

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32

[Mat1920 0]

Quote:

I found my Desktop.ini under

C:\WINDOWS
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32

I located the files and changed their names to nullify them. The problem persisted. I found that under the User Settings for the account in the Startmenu folder there was a file named 'desktop'. I ended up renaming the entire User folder and Windows booted properly. The problem was somewhere within the User folder (sub-folder under c:\Documents and Settings\).

I'm still not sure where the problem file was. I removed all text and multimedia files from that User's folder and that changed nothing as to be expected. Then I went through the remaining folders and individually delted the files (those that were important I sent to the new User's subfolders).

As far as I could tell, there were no files left in that User's folders. The directory structure was left intact and yet the problem persisted. I gave in and deleted that User folder and I kept on receiving messages that system files were about to be deleted. Where did that come from?! Under my Folder Options for Windows/Explorer I have it set to *not* hide system files. Why did WindowsXP refuse to reveal these files to me? They didn't appear under Command Propt either.

Any ways, once I deleted those files that User account was able to log in without the corrupt desktop albiet with the default WindowsXP theme. I couldn't retrieve my Outlook Express files but that's okay. I found that Outlook Express stores the inbox here: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\serial number\Microsoft\Outlook Express\Inbox.dbx

I couldn't find that file (I must have deleted it accidently while transferring files) but I'll know where to look next time a catastrophe like this happens.

[adamvjackson 0]

How about installing new video drivers, in safe mode? I've found that a corrupt or missing desktop can be fixed with a driver update.