Recommended Posts

Okay, I was looking around and seeing if I could change the theme of my Windows because I was getting bored of the same thing. I came across a site called Customize.org. I browsed around and found one that I liked, downloaded it and automatically tried to use it. Obviously I got some typical error. I went back and saw that I needed some software so I just clicked what was in my face which happened to be: Ux Theme Multi-Patcher.

I downloaded, patched, rebooted and tried again. No luck. I then found out that this wouldn't work on SP2 or SP3. So, I went back and found: SP3 UxTheme Patcher 1.3. I downloaded, patched, and rebooted that and tried yet again. No luck. I opened the SP3 Patcher back up to restore and that worked fine. But when I opened the first Patcher, the option was not available after opening it (there's only Patch or Cancel).

Now, I'm stuck on Windows Classic Theme and can't get back to Windows XP Theme or any other without getting an error: "The visual styles could not load because the file failed to load. Details: "

I read that having more than one uxtheme.dll could cause errors. I read that you should ONLY have one in your system32 folder. So I searched and found one in a $NtServicePackUninstall$ (blue text) and one in ServicePackFiles/i386. These two are the same 214kb size while the one in my system32 folder is 199kb (if that makes any difference; probably, but I wouldn't know).

I've already tried system restore and that did nothing. I searched for any type of virus/malware/spyware/etc and found nothing. I fixed my registry with a software and when I rebooted I still had the problem. I also had downloaded this "XP_Theme_Fix" and put that in my registry prior to all the scanning and repairing and that did nothing.

I still have Luna and Classic Theme and everything in my Resources>Theme folder. I just don't know what else I need to edit, install, or restore to to fix this... All of this nonsense over wanting a new look... really?

If you need more information, I can provide it. Just help me at least get back to XP Theme... THANKS! :)

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/868294-uxtheme-problems-sp3/
Share on other sites

Copy over the 214kb one to your system32 folder. If windows complains that the file is in use rename it to uxtheme.old then try copying it over again. Reboot and delete uxtheme.old. You can also take the file from your Windows CD.

Rename the 214kb one I'm copying over to uxtheme.old or the 199kb one already in there? Oh, and remember that there's two 214s, so I do that with both which would inevitably delete one of them?

Edited by Darkiboo

Fixed! Thanks Lepton! :D

Took the uxtheme.dll from ServicePackFiles, tried to move it to system32, said if I wanted to override, said no, renamed system32 file to '.old, tried again, said if I wanted to override again (this time it listed they were the same size but after ordering by name and finding the second one, turns out it was 199-200kb), named that new file '.old2, transferred over ServicePackFiles uxtheme.dll (was allowed with no problems), rebooted and when it came to I saw that ugly, annoying, typical, olive green bar at the bottom of my screen again.

I listed the steps in case this happens to anyone else. >.<

Alright... ROUND 2!

Even though you've said you've fixed it already. When you come to wanting to patch another system try using UxStyle rather than UxTheme because it doesn't require patching, just a tiny process in the background.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Microsoft had to shut down 70+ GitHub repos after getting hacked, brings back some by Aditya Tiwari The self-replicating malware campaign known as Miasma took the open-source world by storm. It was reported that almost 73 Microsoft GitHub repositories were infected by the worm and had to be temporarily shut down to determine how attackers compromised projects and stuffed password-stealing malware in the code. These GitHub repos span across different organizations, including Microsoft Azure, Azure-Samples, Microsoft, and MicrosoftDocs. The malware enabled attackers to steal passwords and credentials when compromised tools were opened in popular AI coding apps, including Claude Code, Gemini CLI, VS Code, and Cursor. The security firm Cloudsmith, malware analysis site OpenSourceMalware, and 404 Media were among the first to report the hack. For background, Miasma is a variant of the Mini Shai-Hulud worm, open-sourced by the threat group TeamPCP. It started its journey by compromising a Red Hat employee's GitHub account to attack the @redhat-cloud-services npm namespace. Earlier this month, Microsoft Threat Intelligence reported that the Miasma attackers published 32 malicious packages across more than 90 versions under the @redhat-cloud-services npm scope to steal cloud credentials. The worm didn't take long to start attacking source repos directly rather than package registries. It is known to skip the npm registry entirely for several targets and plant malicious code straight into public repos like "icflorescu/mantine-datatable." The delivery approach was designed to weaponize AI coding tools. Miasma's malicious payload embedded into projects can trigger automatic code execution when the infected repo is opened in an AI coding tool or IDE. The list of affected projects includes "durabletask", a Python package compromised by TeamPCP a month earlier to deliver an information stealer designed for Linux systems. That said, Microsoft has begun restoring some repos affected by the malware campaign, The Hacker News reports. A company spokesperson stated the following: Microsoft will continue to investigate the attack. It has notified a small number of customers who may have removed their content from the affected repos. The company will reach out to customers again through established support channels "if anything further is identified that requires customer action."
    • Why is Opera doing this notification at all? They have their own extension store. They don't have to obey anything dictated by Google. Others like Brave and Vivaldi that rely on Chrome's extension store, not so much. Firefox is entirely separate as well with its own extensions store. I honestly don't understand why entire world is just insisting on Chrome. Like, why? It's a stupid fat browser with barely any functionality. But sure, it's installed on everything by default. I don't understand how people even use web that's filled with tracking garbage and ads all over the place.
    • Just for anyone reading, AdGuard (the free, standalone MV3 extension) is quite good now, a direct competitor to uBlock Origin Lite and much more built-out than it.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      rubentuben8 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      ARaclen earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Year In
      jojodbn earned a badge
      One Year In
    • One Month Later
      jojodbn earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      jojodbn earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      531
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      231
    3. 3
      +Edouard
      130
    4. 4
      ATLien_0
      88
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      83
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!