Unable to Use Themes/Shell Properly...

Hello, I am running an Intel Celeron 2.6 Ghz, 256 MB RAM computer.

About a few months ago, I was using TopThemesXP Manager to theme my computer. After a few weeks, I removed TopThemsXP because I could no longer skin my applications, or taskbar. It just remained normal.

Even a few days back I tried again with programs like Windows Blind, Style XP, and TopThemesXP again, with no luck.

I was wondering what the issue was with skinning Windows XP Home.

Feedback would be greatly appreciated,


Thanks!!

 

there's a dll which you can change which will then let you use Visual Styles themes, it's all free too. all you need to do is run the Uxtheme Multi-patcher, then you can use any theme that ends with *.msstyles
here's the dll patcher -
http://www.softpedia.com//progDownload/UXTheme-MultiPatcher-Download-2369.html

you need to run it, then it will ask you to reboot so the new dll can be loaded into memory, then you can use any msstyle/visual styles theme. windows might complain when you run the patcher, but that's OK.

here are the themes you can use -
http://browse.deviantart.com/customization/skins/windows/visualstyle/?order=9&alltime=yes
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showforum=36

btw, it doesn't use any extra resources because it uses the native windows themer, it just changes that dll so you can use themes which aren't signed by MS.

 

if themes aren't working and you can only use the old looking windows themes then you need to check the theme service is running. someone else will have to show you where that is because i don't use windows.

you can change your icons with this program -
http://www.cursorarts.com/ca_aifw.html

you can get icons from here -
http://browse.deviantart.com/customization/icons/os/win/?order=9&alltime=yes
http://www.iconaholic.com/downloads.html