Windows and all its window-ness

Hawke · Post by **Hawke** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 2:12 am

So here I am - loating all that is M$.

In an attempt at changing their gawd afull green "start" menu, I've managed to break my pc =).

The little damage that I did, was no more than replacing the luna.msstle file (c/windows/resources/themes) , as well as the vxtheme.dll (c/windows/system32). It made my windows into a constant state of classic mode.

In attempt ar reversing the effects, I ran a system restore to 2 days before I did the changes.

Now my computer won't boot.

It gets to the log in screen, but before freezes before it shows the username and password screen. Just a blue screen and a "Windows XP" logo

No keyboard commands work

safe mode does the same thing.

Any suggestions? -- I'm really not liking the idea of reinstalling windows AGAIN for the 4th time this month...

Vchat20 · Post by **Vchat20** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 2:30 am

thats why you NEVER use system restore. i just formatted this thing last week and the first thing i did was disable system restore. 2 reasons why: 1) it uses way too much space for the restore files and 2) all it does is restore major system files and registry settings, it doesnt bother with things like 3rd party programs or anything outside of the core system files.

my suggestion is to format and reinstall windows (yes, you have to, sorry), and this time around try and get a good system restore program such as TrueImage. it will make a full disk image of your hard drive and with the use of a custom bootable cd, it will restore the hard drive to the exact same way it was when you backed it up.

DanteJay · Post by **DanteJay** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 3:13 am

How about letting me fix it! =D

megaman8x · Post by **megaman8x** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 4:10 am

just boot off another drive and get all your data from the other simple ass that or just simply run a repair

BlackAura · Post by **BlackAura** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 4:59 am

Re-install over the top of the current system. Half of your apps will probably break, and you'll lose many of your settings, but at least you'll be able to boot.

nymus · Post by **nymus** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 5:09 am

Isn't it possible to look through the cab files on the cd for the files you deleted/replaced. If you know what you touched, it might work.

Vchat20 · Post by **Vchat20** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 5:19 am

Re-install over the top of the current system. Half of your apps will probably break, and you'll lose many of your settings, but at least you'll be able to boot.

not all the time. my last thread about the boot problem i had couldnt be fixed by a simple reinstall. the error i had which prevented it from booting just came back.

Isn't it possible to look through the cab files on the cd for the files you deleted/replaced. If you know what you touched, it might work.

doubt it considering he did a system restore which restores more than just what you changed at that point.

BlackAura · Post by **BlackAura** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 6:08 am

System restore wouldn't have helped in this case anyway. The only way you can actually replace system files is to disable system file protection (which would have restored the file from a backup when you change it). That's separate from system restore, which mostly works on configuration files and registry entries.

You could copy the files from a Win XP CD, but it's probably easier to copy them from the backup (usually C:\Windows\system32\dllcache, or something like that). Of course, if you deleted the backup copies, then you'd have to try to get them off the CD.

Assuming, of course, that you could get it to boot...

One other possibility - go to the menu that you use to get into safe mode (I think it's F8 at bootup, isn't it?). There should be an option labelled "Restore last known good configuration". Try it.

Hawke · Post by **Hawke** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 9:57 am

All great ideas.. and off them them I've tried.

The only thing I havn't tired yet is re-installing over my old windows.

The "Last Known Good Configuration" still hangs at the login screen (well.. Just before).

I figure I'll just slave the HDD, take all my important stuff off it, and format... AGAIN.

~ Damn I hate you M$

butters · Post by **butters** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 10:15 am

Hawke wrote:Damn I hate you M$

You hate them for something you did?

ETR · Post by **ETR** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 10:20 am

dude, there is a simple setting to change it back to classic 2000 mode....

Don't EVER screw with settings files unless you know what you're doing.

Post by **|darc|** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 10:22 am

ETR wrote:dude, there is a simple setting to change it back to classic 2000 mode....

Don't EVER screw with settings files unless you know what you're doing.

He didn't want it in Classic mode.

ETR · Post by **ETR** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 10:25 am

In an attempt at changing their gawd afull green "start" menu, I've managed to break my pc =).

was what I noticed on first read, and that it totally screwed up his machine.

bizzle · Post by **bizzle** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 10:30 am

ETR wrote:
In an attempt at changing their gawd afull green "start" menu, I've managed to break my pc =).

was what I noticed on first read, and that it totally screwed up his machine.

I am pretty sure he wanted to replace the uxtheme.dll file to use other themes.

MulletMan13 · Post by **MulletMan13** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 11:35 am

.... why didnt you use windows blinds or something?

Post by **|darc|** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 11:44 am

MulletMan13 wrote:.... why didnt you use windows blinds or something?

Windows is already bloated enough as it is.

MulletMan13 · Post by **MulletMan13** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 12:06 pm

Hrmm... yes, but AFAIK to change a windows theme, all you had to do was edit 2 files to allow other themes-- then just add in the other themes. The free windows blinds edited these two files (or maybe it didnt), but I remember having a totally different GUI without any system resources being used.

Stardock however, and any of those other 'utilities' destroy RAM.

(I'm saying this because on my old XP machine.... 768mb ram.... 950mhz processor, I never had slowdown or never even noticed a task/process of windows blinds in windows task manager. Stardock raped both ram and processor however.... but for some reason i used it for 2 weeks -_-)

Post by **Roofus** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 12:19 pm

Yeah I used Stardock before. It was neat until it rendered my laptop unusable.

Anyway, about uxtheme.dll. The hacked file works great, just make sure you got the right version. Pre-SP1, SP1 and SP2 aren't interchangeable.

Hawke · Post by **Hawke** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 1:28 pm

Windows blinds is terrible.

And it wasn't chaging the start menu that killed my machine, it was running the system restore.

I am pretty sure he wanted to replace the uxtheme.dll file to use other themes.

Exaclty

You hate them for something you did?

yes

Don't EVER screw with settings files unless you know what you're doing.

I did know what I was doing o_o
Only problem was in an attempt to fix it, It broke completly.

Hawke · Post by **Hawke** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 8:35 pm

Well M$ won. Formatted and re-installed.

...damn M$... Damn them to the ends of the bluescreen!