Gray screen with cursor after applying 3rd party theme

[Jens Tornsten]

I've used third party themes for a very long time. Now i decided to try a new one. This one gave me a gray screen though. If i press CTRL+ALT+DELETE or any other Windows keyboard shortcut nothing happens. Safe mode gives me a black screen. I was able to delete the theme file using ubuntu but i still got the gray screen. I've booted from a bootable usb and i ran "sfc /scannow" but it failed. Even restoring from a restore point failed.

I don't even know what to do anymore. I have access to my files through ubuntu so i could just save them to a usb drive for now and restore the computer. But first i wanna know if anyone else knows what to do.

 

[androbourne]

I'm guessing you installed it using a tool right? Can't you just go in through ubuntu and delete the tool's folder from the C drive? It would force the tool from starting and applying the theme.

Using 3rd party themes are known to cause issues like this, they make changes to the registry and can corrupt systems... and it makes it worse whenMicrosoft patches something that changes that regisry entry and then bam. Issues like this happens. Just an FYI for the future.

Only real safe theme changers are things like "blinds" which is just a program that applies a skin. It doesn't change anything in the registry.

 

[Jens Tornsten]

I'm guessing you installed it using a tool right? Can't you just go in through ubuntu and delete the tool's folder from the C drive? It would force the tool from starting and applying the theme.

Using 3rd party themes are known to cause issues like this, they make changes to the registry and can corrupt systems... and it makes it worse whenMicrosoft patches something that changes that regisry entry and then bam. Issues like this happens. Just an FYI for the future.

Only real safe theme changers are things like "blinds" which is just a program that applies a skin. It doesn't change anything in the registry.

Do you mean the tool that patches for third party themes?

 

[androbourne]

Yes. You can also google that tool and find out where it stores the custom themes by default and delete the theme it's self out of the default folder.

What we are trying to do here is force windows to see there is no theme and apply the default windows theme instead.

But before you carry on. Have you tried to boot into safe mode? Safe mode generally turns off all themes and areo settings by design. You maybe able to get into safe mode and remove it more cleanly then just deleting it out manually.

 

[Jens Tornsten]

Yes. You can also google that tool and find out where it stores the custom themes by default and delete the theme it's self out of the default folder..

Thanks, ill try that!

Have you tried to boot into safe mode?

Yes, in the first post i said this "Safe mode gives me a black screen."

 

[androbourne]

Yeah missed that.

Well go ahead and try to manually then.

Also what tool did you use for the 3rd party theme?

 

[Jens Tornsten]

Yeah missed that.

Well go ahead and try to manually then.

Also what tool did you use for the 3rd party theme?

I used UltraUXThemePatcher. I've googled but i just can't seem to find where it's stored. It's folder in Program Files (x86) only contains an uninstall.exe.

 

[androbourne]

If you google the tool name. You can see about 4 links down, a site explaining issues with Microsoft Creators update and quite a few themes... This is most likely what caused your issues.

http://www.cleodesktop.com/2015/11/install-uxthemepatcher-for-windows-10.html

and eh... it even says this on their website.

https://www.syssel.net/hoefs/software_uxtheme.php?lang=en

"Note: This application make changes to your system files, this can lead to unexpected problems or total breakdown of Windows!"

But that fun aside.

Lets keep at it.

I was able to find this on the forums. Please read it in detail and give it a try.

https://www.tenforums.com/customization/76077-ultrauxthemepatcher-recover-black-grey-screen-windows-8-10-a.html

 

[Jens Tornsten]

If you google the tool name. You can see about 4 links down, a site explaining issues with Microsoft Creators update and quite a few themes... This is most likely what caused your issues.

http://www.cleodesktop.com/2015/11/install-uxthemepatcher-for-windows-10.html

and eh... it even says this on their website.

https://www.syssel.net/hoefs/software_uxtheme.php?lang=en

"Note: This application make changes to your system files, this can lead to unexpected problems or total breakdown of Windows!"

But that fun aside.

Lets keep at it.

I was able to find this on the forums. Please read it in detail and give it a try.

https://www.tenforums.com/customization/76077-ultrauxthemepatcher-recover-black-grey-screen-windows-8-10-a.html

I know creators update doesn't work at all with third party themes. Because of that, i downloaded the anniversary update iso file and installed that one instead of the creators update.

I read the steps to fix this but the problem is, i deleted the theme files so i don't know their name and to follow the instructions i need the name of the files and the folder.... i feel like an idiot.

 

[androbourne]

Can't you just relookup the theme used and download it to find out the name? or perform another system restore to before deleting the theme so you can see it?

 

[Jens Tornsten]

Can't you just relookup the theme used and download it to find out the name? or perform another system restore to before deleting the theme so you can see it?

The answer to both questions are no. Ever since i switched to Windows 10 i really missed the Windows 7 look so i downloaded a third party theme that makes everything looks like in Windows 7. The theme was really bad and didn't look like Windows 7 that much though, but there were tons of different Windows 7 Themes for Windows 10. So i tried many different ones until this happend.

Thanks for your help but as nothing seems to work i might just reinstall windows.

 

[androbourne]

Looking at how long that post was to resolve the issue. Reinstalling might not be a bad call.

You should still be able to backup your data though. You could clone it to an external drive and copy the data off once the new installation is completed. (or copy it from Linux over to another drive). etc...

 

[Jens Tornsten]

Looking at how long that post was to resolve the issue. Reinstalling might not be a bad call.

You should still be able to backup your data though. You could clone it to an external drive and copy the data off once the new installation is completed. (or copy it from Linux over to another drive). etc...

I am uploading my files to google drive through Linux now.

 

[androbourne]

Nice, good luck man. Sorry about having to reload but at least its not a total loss.