XP wont accept performance changes/style appearance

I don't know if all of the following events are related, but I went to logon to my XP Pro machine at home, and it was frozen at my wife's desktop wallpaper, with no icons visible. Three finger salute wouldn't even get things going.

I cold rebooted, logged on to my user name, and found that programs seemed to be running slowly, and the UI appearance had changed. Instead of the usual XP rounded corners, colored task bar, etc, I was back to grey- a la win2k etc. When I tried to switch to wife's user logon, couldn't do it.

Ran Live Update on Symantec antivirus & ran full system scan - no viruses. Ran AdAware, no spyware noted.

Next, went to user accounts & selected change way users log on and off, disabling fast user switching, since it wasn't working anyway. Rebooted, logged on, and tried to enable fast user switching again. Error message that offline file access (or something like that) was enabled and that fast user switching couldn't be enabled with the offline file access working. Disabled offline file access, and enabled fast user switching. That started to work.

Next, I tried changing System Properties | Advanced | Performance | Settings, I still cannot retrieve the standard XP appearance. Whether I opt for best appearance, let Windows choose, or best performance, I am still stuck in the classic appearance.

Aside from the aesthetic, I am worried that something else (virus,trojan, whatever) is going on with the system. Is all the stuff with fast user switching a red herring? I don't know. Everything was working this morning when I went off to work, and things are weird now that I am back home after work.

Any help would be grandly appreciated.

Eric

 

By the way, it appears that XP Themes is not installed anywhere!!! Searched *.theme, & found luna.theme, custom.theme, and Windows Classic.theme, but no Windows XP.theme. Should there be one? Is it something that I can download?

 

try running a repair from your windows xp cd or download/buy plus for xp

 

Luna theme is the default Windows XP theme.

 

Right-click on your desktop, select properties, then select Windows XP theme, then apply.

 

I tried right clicking on desktop & selecting xp theme, but windows classic was only choice in drop down box. After several hours of banging my head against the wall, I turned the computer off in frustration and exhaustion.

Not to be defeated, I came back 20 minutes later and behold, xp theme was now available. Darned computer righted itself while shut off? Who the heck knows.

Thanks for the tips.