Win7 lost all styling after BSOD & Start up repair

i have an intriguing issue which I hope some lateral thinker can help me with!

On my aged laptop, have a partitioned HD - one side runs with XP and the other with Win 7. This was set up on my 4 year old laptop a couple of months ago by a retail/engineer shop following the burn-out of my old HD.

The XP is original on the machine and the W7 was installed by the shop using an OEM key.

Today, when closing down from XP, There was a short power outage. Next time I booted up in Win 7 I got a BSOD. Panicking somewhat and forgetting at that moment all about the power outage earlier, I ran the start up repair tool.

Of course Win 7 opened, but not with the usual background behind my users photos. When I logged in and it fully opened, the slideshow theme I set up was still running OK but all of the display settings had reverted to what I would call a very basic classic Win 98 mode. Gone were the nice aero touches. See the photo of the taskbar here:



The icons with descriptions are the open applications. needless to say there is no thumbnail view.


the icons have all reverted to basic default and the windows have '98 style borders and top right buttons.



Also my browser and e-mail client has reverted to a basic utilitarian look and windows such as notepad all have a gray border around them.

Whatever I have tried has not re-enabled them. In troubleshooting it says 2 things, 1. that the chosen theme does not support Aero. This is daft because i chose and Aero theme. And, 2. That the desktop Window manager is disabled. When I check, it is actually enabled.

I have done a windows update - no change

I did a complete cold install of graphics card drivers using a removal tool and re installing in safe mode....no change

I tried system restore and, although I created a restore point 3 weeks ago after ridding my machine of some malware. Windows says that it can find no restore point to restore to prior to the stat up repair.



I really think its an OS problem...heres why:

Everything else works fine. The Graphics card troubleshoot says its working without issue. The DirectX troubleshoot gives it a clean bill of health. It is displaying the theme desktop background photos OK and changing them according to the theme settings.When in XP everything works and displays without any issue. The system is more than man enough to run Aero graphics. I have checked that out. Besides, before this happened, it was running them just fine.

Here is a report from the DirectX diagnostic tool:





I have some other diagnostic reports too which I could attach if needed.

I feel that something has been altered during the start up repair I foolishly ran.

Please help!

Barry

Have you used/Are you using a custom or third party theme? If so you'll need to patch the three system files again that enable you to do so.

Yes. I had a theme running with a slideshow from My Pictures. This was still working after the graphics went strange..the photos scrolling as normal. I have tried using other themes inside windows since the problem started and they still rotate the slides correctly.

So, based on your answer above, what should I do to patch those files please?

I'm talking about Desktop Themes where you change the Start Menu to a custom shape, your opened Explorer Windows look nothing like the normal Aero Windows etc. etc.. Some Examples. If you'd applied a custom theme like one of those then you would know about it.
It sounds to me as though you haven't and I'm barking up the wrong tree!!

I can give you a link but it doesn't sound to me as if what I'm talking about is your problem.

Yes. I believe I did.

Although I didnt download or install any I think that there were some put in by the engineer at installation as the start up screen (behind the user photos) was different and the background and start menu were not like a default windows one.

maybe it is the right tree!

There's a 32bit and a 64bit installer in the zip folder. Use whichever floats your boat.
(I've found my Book of Idioms!)
Deepxw's Theme Patcher.

The best bit about this patcher is it can undo it if you change your mind.

Ahhhhhh......If you didn't come from the North East I could kiss you!



That worked like a charm. Thank you so much!

The thumbnail preview is working again as well!!

Any idea how to get rid of the text in open applications in the taskbar? once I have done that I am back to perfect again.

Hang on....I figured how to do that in properties.

Thanks again!

No problem. Glad you got it sorted.
I'm a Brummie really. Does that help!!?
(Probably not, but me Mum loves me)

Well, I am a Brummie too...

But I live in Greece so too far for tongues...thank goodness