Member Avatar for FlashCreations

Hello,
I installed the Vista Transformation pack a few weeks ago and I have decided to remove it and replace it with a nicer looking theme that Lifehacker wrote about. I restored my computer back to before the installation, but for some reason there are still parks of the pack left. I now realized that it was a bad idea to install the pack in the first place, but I need a way to completely restore my computer. Here are some of the major issues:

  • My Start Button is Not Wide Enough to show the text 'Start'
  • When Deleting, Copying, etc. a file the Vista File Operation Animation Comes Up (And Does not match my new theme at all)
  • When Browsing My Documents Windows Explorer has a Vista Like Circle Wait Animation up in the Right-hand corner (This might involve Some Explorer Tweaks! I know!)
  • All of my icons are now Vista Icons

And there are other little bits of the transformation pack that are still here that I would like to rid of. I realize I made a horrible mistake and please do not lecture me on my mistake. I understand now with the look of XP. If anyone has a solution to one of my specific problems or if you have a way of completely getting rid of the Transformation Pack please post it, your help is greatly appreciated! (I am also very good about giving people who reply reputation points!!!)

By the way: I am considering doing a non-destructive XP reinstall to simply reinstall XP, but if there are easier/better ways, please inform me of them!!! Thanks!!!

EDIT: Here is a sample of two of the major issues:
[IMG][/IMG]

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by gerbil

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A short, focused checklist to remove leftover bits of a transformation pack (builds on what and found).

Transformation packs often change protected resources, add shell hooks and shell extensions, and leave per-user caches behind. Since running the System File Checker restored core system files in this thread, concentrate on caches, shell extensions and autostart hooks next — these are the usual places that keep old icons, the copy animation, or a changed Start button around. See Microsoft’s System File Checker overview for how SFC replaces protected files. (learn.microsoft.com)

Rebuild the user icon cache (XP stores it per-user) so Explorer stops showing old icons. In XP the quick sequence is to stop Explorer, remove the per-user IconCache.db, then restart Explorer; for example:

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
attrib -h "%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\IconCache.db"
del "%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\IconCache.db"
start explorer.exe

That forces Windows to recreate the cache and usually clears stale icons. Detailed XP steps are documented here. (trishtech.com)

Check for altered shell/startup hooks and wrong shell values. Query the Winlogon keys to confirm defaults (Shell should be Explorer.exe; Userinit should point to userinit.exe with the trailing comma). Example queries:

reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v Shell
reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v Userinit

If values are not defaults, correct them (make a registry backup first). Use Autoruns (Sysinternals) to scan the Winlogon/Explorer/Logon locations and disable any non-Microsoft or suspicious entries that the pack may have added. (learn.microsoft.com)

If Explorer behaviour (copy UI, animations, Start-button graphics) still looks “patched,” look for shell extensions or third-party Explorer add-ons and disable them (NirSoft ShellExView makes this easy — hide Microsoft entries and disable unknown items, then restart Explorer). Also check Add/Remove Programs and Program Files for the pack’s folder/uninstaller and remove it if present. If all else fails, a repair (in-place) install of XP will reinstall system files while keeping user data and programs and is the usual last-resort option. (nirsoft.net)

Useful links:

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for gerbil

System Restore is limited in the amount of system file repair it can do .
If you have different icons in explorer then your shell32.dll has likely been modified along with some other changes to make the File Protection System ignore it. To restore that file you would have to copy in a fresh file both to system32 and the dllcache, plus fix any reg mods.
If WFPS has been modified then my guess is that sfc would not fix that issue, it certainly would not fix WFPS. And shell32.dll is not the only source of icons for explorer, which itself contains icons.
You could of course slave the drive and copy in replacements to system32 and dllcache, cos shell32.dll is used all the time [under winlogon.exe]. But that would not repair WFPS.
The other changes I have not a clue about, except that if the Start button has been modded then explorer.exe itself has been changed... so I am thinking that you will need to do a lot of careful, time-consuming excisions and replacements [once you track them all down], else a Windows Repair.
With the latter you won't lose any data or personal settings, you may need to reinstall a few apps, or none if you are lucky, you will have to dl all the Windows Security Updates again. It'a a price to pay....
This link will give you an idea of what is involved to mod that Start button alone, but keep in mind that this mod adds a new explorer.exe and uses a reg change to get winlogon pointed at it:
But it is something for you to check on your sys... this particular way of modding the used shell [explorer.exe] does not interfere with WFPS, and it may be the sort of path that your Vista scheme followed with all its changes.
Good luck.

commented: Thanks for Helping with my XP Issues!!! +1
Member Avatar for FlashCreations

Thanks for the Tip!! I found another way also. Go to the run prompt and type Sfc /Scannow !! It restores all the file back to normal and fixes all my file!! Yay!!

Member Avatar for Bob_180_Bob

"If WFPS has been modified then my guess is that sfc would not fix that issue, it certainly would not fix WFPS"

"Thanks for the Tip!! I found another way also. Go to the run prompt and type Sfc /Scannow !! It restores all the file back to normal and fixes all my file!! Yay!!"

Hi Gerbil,
It goes to show that even an expert like you can be wrong sometimes (when it comes to unpredictable Windows), well at least once, well maybe not wrong, just mistaken.
I may not always be right but I am never wrong. Once I thought I was wrong but I was mistaken.

Member Avatar for gerbil

Have I trodden on your toes somehow, Bob?
Did I ever say anything to you that called for that attitude of yours?
"then my guess" is not the wording of choice of an "expert".
I bought my first computer just over two years ago and loaded XP-SP2 onto it. That was the beginning of my exposure to the gubbins of Windows. I had used it before, but only a guest to play games on someone else's machine. I have never used an earlier version as I often mention in my posts concerning those. So I don't don the mantle of "expert". Never have pretended to. I'm a puddleduck, jus having fun learning. If you were to search back to may and june of 2005 you would see that I was in here asking the most basic of questions of one of the then room experts, catweazle.

Member Avatar for Bob_180_Bob

Sorry if you misunderstood me, I feel that, in relation to me, you are an expert. It was unusual to see you have not been correct. Every time you have posted before it has been a correct recommendation (even if not the one to fix it there and then) under the circumstances.
I would never put dispersions on you in any regard. If I ever found a posting of yours with incorrect information (I doubt I ever will) I would suggest that you could be in error.
I have only been working with computers since I got my first Commodore 32 where you had to do all the programing (in basic0 yourself to get anything to work. Later they came out with a 5 1/2" floppy with, I think, 750kb of memory and you could do so much with that.
So, sorry again, if you felt I was having a go at you, keep up the good work helping people. You are one of a few ready and able people that constantly assist people in need.

Member Avatar for gerbil

Oww... did I pick up the wrong end of the stick! Perhaps because I am aware of how little I really do know about Windows... I'm not intimidated by that, it's just how things are in this world. I should be bothered, though, about how i let an annoying day influence my attitude to something else entirely. Anyway, if I explain a lil, maybe you will understand why I took exception to being tagged an expert, a wrong one at that.
I admit to using this room as a learning tool; my computer rarely gives cause for alarm, hardware or software wise, and I have long been of the opinion that if you wish to learn about something then have a go at fixing it when it is broken - that focusses the mind in a way that just reading will not do. So I use these threads quite often to learn an aspect, often getting pointed at a new topic which I try to carefully research [it's a dangerous place for truth, is the web], and I am careful of the trust of the thread owner, the guinea pig. But I make mistakes.
Mistakes?! Oh, gawd, you are hereby banned from researching my past. It embarasses me. But I did learn to carefully choose my information sources on the web.
As an aside... I think in that post I gave to WFPS too high a pedestal, assuming that it would pick up changes to protected files. Seems that it does not, noticing only if they get deleted or replaced. So that Vista Transformn pack was really pretty simple stuff if it allowed sfc to remove it. There are various ways to get around sfc and I just assumed that it would employ them. Nup. Amongst perhaps other things it seems to have simply replaced some icons etc in protected files. Hope it wasn't expensive.

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