Vista Desktop/Menu/Windows Aren't Displaying Properly

[Mana]

I installed Vista a few weeks ago on my new computer and the desktop and menus have displayed correctly until I started up my computer yesterday. Vista did a disk integrity check when I booted up, and then once I got into Windows none of the menus were displaying correctly. Specifically, this is what they look like.. As you can see from the settings, it isn't set to be in basic mode, but it still is displaying in basic mode, albeit with clearer fonts than if I actually had it set to basic mode.

My suspicion is that Vista has inexplicitly stopped using hardware acceleration for the Desktop, but I'm not sure how to correct this. I was using the ATi Crysis Hotfix Drivers, and tried installing the recently released 7.12 drivers, unfortunately that did not fix the problem. Under both drivers with this problem I can still play games such as Oblivion and Crysis fine.

My hardware is as follows:

-Intel Q6600 at 3 GHz
-Radeon 3870
-Abit IP35-e
-4 GB (4 * 1 GB) PC-8500 Crucial Ballistix

The only other notable thing is that the last time Windows was displaying everything correctly, I did use JkDefrag version 3.32 to defrag my harddrives before shutting down.

Does anyone have any idea as to how to fix this? Thanks in advance.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Right click the desktop=>Properties=>Window Color and Appearance

Then switch the scheme back to Aero. Also check your settings under Computer Properties=>Advanced system settings=>Performance Settings.

Make sure that Desktop Composition is on as well as Use Vistual Styles on Windows and Buttons

 

[Mana]

Hey Chrono, sorry for the late reply, but I wasn't able to get to my computer over the holidays.

I tried what you said, and in Right Click on Desktop > Personalize > Window Colour and Appearance, there isn't an Aero Scheme. Only schemes for "Windows Standard", "Windows Classic", "High Contrast White", High Contrast Black", High Contrast #2", and "High Contrast #1".

Additionally, Right Click on Desktop > Personalize > Theme and all it gives me for a choice is "Modified Theme" and "Browse"; it's currently set to "Modified Theme". From what I know there should also be "Windows Classic" and "Windows Vista" options in there for the theme. As a note, I did grab the "Windows Classic" and "Windows Vista" themes off of my friend, but neither of them worked at restoring aero.

I also tried the Desktop Composition suggestion, and it's on, as my screenshot above shows, all of those options are checked and it still doesn't work.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how to fix it? It seems like Aero has just completely disappeared. This happened after a restart, the only thing I know that was notable about it was that I plugged in a USB Memory Stick as I was logging in.

So yeah, help would be appreciated, I can live without Aero but I do like the interface. Thanks in advance.

 

[MrChad]

N/M

 

[VinDSL]

Um...

Sorry for being rudimentary, but Aero requires 32-bit color.

Maybe that setting got borked somehow, when you rebooted.

Have you checked your display settings? Kinda looks like 16-bit to me...

 

[Mana]

Originally posted by: VinDSL
Um...

Sorry for being rudimentary, but Aero requires 32-bit color.

Maybe that setting got borked somehow, when you rebooted.

Have you checked your display settings? Kinda looks like 16-bit to me...

It's ok, I've checked that as well, and it's 32-bit.

 

[boomerang]

Originally posted by: Mana
I installed Vista a few weeks ago on my new computer and the desktop and menus have displayed correctly until I started up my computer yesterday. Vista did a disk integrity check when I booted up, and then once I got into Windows none of the menus were displaying correctly.

This would be a red flag for me. Why is it running an integrity check? Hmmm,
might be worth looking into.

First thing I'd do is run the HD makers diagnostic on that drive.

The only other notable thing is that the last time Windows was displaying everything correctly, I did use JkDefrag version 3.32 to defrag my harddrives before shutting down.

The other red flag. Here's your problem. The fix, well I don't know.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Have you checked to see if all of the relevant services necessary for Aero and theme support are running correctly?

 

[stash]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Have you checked to see if all of the relevant services necessary for Aero and theme support are running correctly?

+1 Specifically, the Themes service in services.msc.

 

[Mana]

Thanks again for the replies. I checked it and the themes service is running. At this point I'm thinking I may just have to reformat, sigh :|

 

[bsobel]

The other red flag. Here's your problem. The fix, well I don't know.

JK uses the FSCTL_MOVEFILE device io control, if that is borked so is defrag. JK doesn't do anything else 'special', it just has its only logic as to where things gets moved. If defrag corrupted the file system, I'd be looking at overclocking, bad mem, bad hd, bad cables etc (unless power went out mid defrag, which should usally be ok, but I recall some annoying corner cases)

Bill

 

[Mana]

Originally posted by: bsobel

The other red flag. Here's your problem. The fix, well I don't know.

JK uses the FSCTL_MOVEFILE device io control, if that is borked so is defrag. JK doesn't do anything else 'special', it just has its only logic as to where things gets moved. If defrag corrupted the file system, I'd be looking at overclocking, bad mem, bad hd, bad cables etc (unless power went out mid defrag, which should usally be ok, but I recall some annoying corner cases)

Bill

Ah, I see.

Well, in the end, there's also some other issues in addition to this, so I'm going to reformat. However, thanks for the help everyone.