hey you won't get previews any way you patch unless you use grims one method, so not getting previews has nothing to do with dhjohns or anyone else way of patching the system.
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I'm aware that you won't get previews with patching methods other than UxStyle and theme signature bypass. Can you explain how the blank personalization pane has "nothing to do" with the other patching methods. Because these other methods all patch system files while Mr Grim's does not, is that what you mean?
from what i understand unless you move your files and change the files to point to the new location you will not get the previews. in other words you do have to edit some files in notepad to change where they look for the theme files as well as move the theme files to the folder mentioned in grims thread as well as use his sig bypass.
But it does not involve changing system files, so thats the big difference for me :)
The reason for the black squares is because the patched RTM files are not fully working with TH2, there is no way this going to change as long as these patching methods continue to use old RTM files, the reason Uxstyle doesn't have this problem has nothing to do with the location the themes are in, it's because your not using the patched RTM files, there is nothing else to it.