[HELP!] Corrupt Windows 10 user profile by using an old theme!

[MatthewPatel]

So basically the title says it all, I managed to corrupt my Windows 10 user profile by trying to apply a theme that was made for a prior version to 1803 (etc... 1709...).


The theme resulted in black screen, with flashing cursor.
My keyboard kept turning numlock(1) on/off. I wasn't able to do anything at that point.
Nothing worked, not even the recovery menu, everything turned completely black.

I was able to recover my log on screen, by removing the theme using Windows 7 in dualboot options... thank god for that. I still backed it all up, just incase I need to re-use that corrupt theme to sort the issue out.

After that I got into something called logon loop. Which basically doesn't let you log in onto your profile because your theme is actually corrupt.

I managed to create a new user profile by replacing utilman.exe -> cmd.exe and use "net user" to bypass my original user.

Got onto Windows 10, everything works fine as it should.

My question is, is there a reg key, or some option that can help me remove that theme onset that I put on my original administrator profile. Or I'ma have to backup this and make a double with pre-saved settings?


Thanks in advance https://www.tenforums.com/images/smilies/002.png

[Nimbi]

You can try booting into safe mode and removing th theme and mods. But if you can't boot into safe mode the your only option is to boot into recovery and perform a factory reset. Simply put your experience what we refer to as Bricking your system. There's not much you can really do to get out of that besides safe mode and factory resets.

This is why you have to pay close attention to your build when applying custom msstyle themes.

I'm sorry if this isn't much help. If you manage to get your workstation back up let us know what build you are on and what theme you tried to runa nd we'll see if there is a version for your speciific build.

[MatthewPatel]

No, wait. I managed to fix Windows 10, by using my dualboot Windows 7 Enterprise copy. It's all fine except my old user profile. I'm asking you is there a way to fix the old corrupt user profile? Because I can't seem to access it, whenever I try to log on that specific profile with a messed up theme it goes back to logon. I did mess around and tried replacing/deleting the theme, but nothing seemed to work. It's like the theme messed up some of the explorer bits for that profile so Windows can't boot on it. I have everything working, as I stated. I'm asking if there's a way to fix the messed up theme on the old user profile. Because the preset seems to have messed up the explorer setup, and I generally can't log onto my old Windows 10 account. Other user profiles I created work just fine.

[Nimbi]

No, wait. I managed to fix Windows 10, by using my dualboot Windows 7 Enterprise copy. It's all fine except my old user profile. I'm asking you is there a way to fix the old corrupt user profile? Because I can't seem to access it, whenever I try to log on that specific profile with a messed up theme it goes back to logon. I did mess around and tried replacing/deleting the theme, but nothing seemed to work. It's like the theme messed up some of the explorer bits for that profile so Windows can't boot on it. I have everything working, as I stated. I'm asking if there's a way to fix the messed up theme on the old user profile. Because the preset seems to have messed up the explorer setup, and I generally can't log onto my old Windows 10 account. Other user profiles I created work just fine.

The only way to fix it if removing the theme didn't work, is to run a fresh install of windows 10 over the messed up install. Unfortunately if it's that far gone there's no way to save it without restoring a backup made from before you applied the modifications to that OS. If you made a backup then you can resotre it from the Recovery boot menu. But if there's no backup your only fix is to reinstall over it and start fresh.

[MatthewPatel]

Running those commands such as sfc /scannow and -restorehealth, didn't fix the issue. As Windows 10 works fine, the only thing that it changed, is remove my DWM Aeroglass. But besides that, it's pretty much the same. Which implies that it's something to do with the .theme itself. I have an idea. I'll send you the exact theme I used, I was messing around with it in notepad++. I think I accidentally applied a windows 8/8.1 .theme file provided in the rar, instead of the 10. theme file. Which might have caused some sort of setting to go out of place. I wonder is it possible to reverse it by messing around with the msstyles. This is the exact theme I tried to use:

Longhorn Office 2010 Edition For Windows 8\8.1\10 by LuanTeles on DeviantArt (https://www.deviantart.com/luanteles/art/Longhorn-Office-2010-Edition-For-Windows-8-8-1-10-565879188)

[MatthewPatel]

Could it be the fact it has that topshell multicolor thingy showing up the details pane. Maybe the .theme has a string line which has to do something with that. If so, it could maybe cause the issue?

[Nimbi]

Running those commands such as sfc /scannow and -restorehealth, didn't fix the issue. As Windows 10 works fine, the only thing that it changed, is remove my DWM Aeroglass. But besides that, it's pretty much the same. Which implies that it's something to do with the .theme itself. I have an idea. I'll send you the exact theme I used, I was messing around with it in notepad++. I think I accidentally applied a windows 8/8.1 .theme file provided in the rar, instead of the 10. theme file. Which might have caused some sort of setting to go out of place. I wonder is it possible to reverse it by messing around with the msstyles. This is the exact theme I tried to use:

Longhorn Office 2010 Edition For Windows 8\8.1\10 by LuanTeles on DeviantArt (https://www.deviantart.com/luanteles/art/Longhorn-Office-2010-Edition-For-Windows-8-8-1-10-565879188)


Could it be the fact it has that topshell multicolor thingy showing up the details pane. Maybe the .theme has a string line which has to do something with that. If so, it could maybe cause the issue?


Ok so your issue is that this them doesn't support all version of Windows 10. The comments are something you should always pay attention to on DeviantArt. There were people who asked if it had support for other versions fo 10 and the creator stated it literally only supported RS1. RS1 themes don't work on RS2-RS5. It was a different shellstyle among other things. This theme simply wasn't made for your version of 10. Also If your running the UxThemeSigmnatureBypass method then sfc ./scannow won't fix anything as it does't remove that. sfc ./scannow only removes system mods [such as UxThemePatcher, AeroGlass, e.g.]

If you can't boot into recovery from startup and restore to a previous rerstore point then your only fix is to run a fresh install of windows 10 over your current one. Unfortuanetely there is no other way to fix this without using system restore.