# Windows XP help

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-help/209576>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 25, 2003, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-help/209576 "2003-10-25T23:50:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2003, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-help/209576/1 "2003-10-25T23:50:42Z")

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While I was gone for a couple of days, someone got onto a user account… and now he’s complaining to me that everything is black (He’s pretty much right… dialog boxes, taskbar, basically everything but icons is black) What’s going on, and how do I fix it

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**Author:** ![Caught\_Work](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/919ad9/32.png) [@Caught\_Work](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caught_Work)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2003, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-help/209576/2 "2003-10-26T00:14:51Z")

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Someone has set the ‘appearance’ to all black.  
Right click on the desktop.  
Select Proprties (if you can see it, last entry on the inline window.  
Appearance (4th tab over).  
Color Scheme (or ALT C).  
Select a different colour theme.  
OK.