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I've lost the windows in my XP

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gravitywell

Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2002
Location
Cumberland, MD
Precursor: I'm sorry for any typos...I canot see what I am typing.

I used to run StyleXP until it expired. When I uninstalled, it literally took all of my physical windows. There is only a black void left. All of my (sorry, )
I've tried to change my theme from the normal windows menu (by hunting and guess clicking on totally black menus). to no avail. I can change my desktop image...but everything else is still black.

Can someone please help me out? I need to re-establish my windows?
 
Thank you for your replies. I just reinstalled windows (soft, non-format) and I still have the eternal darkness =(

This is really messed up. I can't actually even back anything up...I can just see the icon for the files, not actual names.


How can I get into safe mode with XP Pro? Would safe mode help at all? Or will it just be a low-res blackness?

Thank you again
 
Hit F8 when your rig is booting up to get into safe mode, might help might not. TBH I would just format. BTW that is why i hate those skinning programs. They are trash.
 
I just had a silly idea....could someone link me directly to the download.exe for StyleXP? Maybe if I can reinstall it, I can at least salvage something?

Just a thought.
 
when that happened to me I managed to log out and log in as administrator and the windows were fine. But anytime I went back to my usual username it was the black void (good description).

Anyway a short while after that I formatted anyhow, but that is a really debilitating bug for any software to have... It happened to me also after I uninstalled.
 
I fixed a similar issue in safe mode. I was using a non-standard theme and it didn't take. I simply got into safe mode, which gave me my desktop back. Changed the theme back to windows default or 2000 style and it was all good. You might try this.
 
Like was said earlier Safemode (f8 @ boot) is a good idea.

You could try creating a new user account? That'll get you a new "profile" in XP, and might save you the reformat?

could you post up some screenshots, I'm curious to see what the black void looks like :D
 
Hey guys, sorry for the delay...I ended up reformatting. Reinstalling Stylexp didn't change anything.

The above picture is exactly what I was looking at. :bang head

Thank you again for your advice and help....add StyleXP to your list of things to never install.
 
If you do not want to lose everything in a clean install use the restore install option in Windows XP setup. When you boot up using the XP CD choose "Restore Console"
 
All it looks like is that the color of the menu bars was changed to black. And with black text on those same menu bars you get the pictured effect. I honestly don't think Style XP ruined or did anything to smash your install. Just crappy luck on that one.

Sorry I haven't been on in a while. I'm sure there's a way to change that without being able to see the menus. I wish I wasn't at work right now.

Hope everything worked out for you.
 
Numbstruck said:
All it looks like is that the color of the menu bars was changed to black. And with black text on those same menu bars you get the pictured effect. I honestly don't think Style XP ruined or did anything to smash your install. Just crappy luck on that one.

I agree, that's what it looks like to me. That's probably something I would have tried to look at before formatting. Sorry man, hope you got it all worked out.
 
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