I downloaded the multi-patcher program so that i could install some themes. All it seems to have done is stripped my xp style down so it looks more like something from the early 90's.

When i do download the themes, i never really know what to do, and everything i have tried so far has failed. Ive copy and pasted them into the C:/windows/resources/themes folder but that seems to do nothing.

Some help would be very much appreciated. I have looked around in this section for similar topics, but none have helped me, so i thought i would ask, sorry if this sort of problem is very very tedious to you guys. thanks.

So long as you rebooted after applying the patch, all should be good. What you do then to load up a theme is drill down into it's folder in C:\Windows\Resources\Themes and double-click the .theme or .msstyle file. That will load it up in Display Preferences with a preview. If the preview looks right, just click Apply and that's it.

If the preview doesn't look right, like it's all black or missing anything, don't apply the theme. That means the patch didn't work.

ah ok, i havent rebooted my computer yet after re-installing the patch. Ill do that now, and see what happens. thanks.

ok it works now thanks. Although i have another question. How come only a few of the themes seem to work properly?

Many of the themes i try and download, are either not in a zipped folder, or they are but they disappear after being downloaded?

All the themes on Belchfire work. Not sure what you're doing wrong. What I do is save the zip file to my Desktop. Then I extract to my Desktop. That way I can then see the files and folders and move them into C:\Windows\Resources\Themes myself.

Sometimes what happens is the author of the file zips it up with absolute paths rather than relative paths. So if you just extract it directly into C:\Windows\Resources\Themes, it won't show up.

So if you extract to the Desktop first, you can check the paths first, then move. If it has a .theme file, that goes in C:\Windows\Resources\Themes. If it has a .msstyles file, and everything else, goes into it's own folder in C:\Windows\Resources\Themes.

I have my self tried it every way possible and i still cant git the log on themes to work help me

Logons can be a bit tricky to do manually. I recommend using a program to change and manage logons. There are some good free ones. Two I recommend are LogonStudio or Logon Loader, both for XP and both are free.

Hi, I've done everything you've suggested step by step, but I'm still unable to apply the themes. As you've stated, when I double click the .theme file and the preview window pops up, it's all black and missing elements.

(I've tried applying different themes and the same thing happens).

Note: not too sure if this is relevant or not, but I have successfully applied themes in the past using the multi-patcher, but this was probably over a year ago. I think I deleted the multi-patcher after i successfully applied my first theme, so when I decided to apply a new theme, I re-installed multi-patcher, rebooted, downloaded the theme etc... Unfortunately I was met with a heap of problems. The first attempt left my desktop, taksbar, etc completely black making it impossible to navigate my comp by sight. Don't ask me how, but I was able to work by memory and change the theme to windows xp classic.

Now I'm stuck with this classic theme and don't know what to do.

Any suggestions for this poor girl who's less than tech savvy? lol