I go to Properties of the desktop to tweak it as I like. I use the “Windows Classic” choice, change background and menu colors and a couple other things. This all works well.
Every now and then when I boot, it has reverted back to the default, and none of these changes show up. I have not kept track of the frequency, but guess maybe once every three or four weeks.
Any idea what the heck makes it do this?
Just a Microsoft hidden elf who does not like me to make changes from their idea of what is right?
I’ve seen this on some machines, without ever confirming an actual source of the problem. One theory is downloads attempt to change your settings and screw things up, but I can’t confirm that. Since you’re using XP, you’ve probably had the system for a while and had plenty of opportunities for XP to mess up internally. If you can’t reload XP, check for viruses (pay for something or expect more viruses), clean your registry (same warning or do it by hand), bump up your security level, and stay off the porn sites.
I get machines coming through my door DAILY with viruses that sailed right through brand new paid AV applications which we then clean up 95% of with those 4 applications. Most of the time they are fine with just a pass of malwarebytes.
AVG is getting a little heavy on resources lately and I don’t like that there is no longer an option to close it but that is true of the big paid names as well.
I am becoming more and more a fan of Security essentials every day.
Not arguing with you. I just wanted the OP to be cautious about downloading just anything labeled as anti-virus software, or using a pirate copy. I should have mentioned taking the machine to a computer store as solution.
I would throw Avira’s AntiVir into the list of good free AV software. AVG used to be good but has gone downhill quickly in my opinion.
It is possible that some corruption of your local account is occurring and Windows is loading the settings from the default user account. You could try copying your account into the default profile account using the menus in computer properties and see if that fixes things (note you can’t copy the account currently logged in).
I would also try disabling the themes service and see what difference that makes, with themes disabled Windows shouldn’t be able to re-activate it’s bells and whistles.
Open My Computer, browse to the C: drive and open Documents and Settings. You should see the folders for each user account. If you see multiple folders for your account (i.e KlondikeGeoff, KlondikeGeoff.0000, KlondikeGeoff.0001) then silent profile corruption is occurring. This may be caused by an application that does not release file/registry handles on logoff/shutdown. The User Profile Hive Cleanup service can force handle cleanup on logoff, and may help.
