Black Menu and Favorites bar in IE8

  • Thread starter Thread starter craigmill@sky.com
  • Start date Start date
Hopefully you uninstalled Stardock, yes?



L. V. Bekeris wrote:

> I had the same problem with black menu and favorate bar. After I followed

> PA

> Bear's suggestion and installed Stardock program, the problem was solved

> and

> the improvement was terrific.

>

>> Yes, I assumed that was the case.

>>

>> Try something for us. Open IE8 to this page:

>> http://www.fiddlertool.com/ua.aspx. Highlight/select all of the red text

>> at the top of the page and copy it to your keyboard. (Also scroll down to

>> see if an issue has been detected and a possible resolution offered.)

>> Open

>> a reply to this post & paste the contents of your clipboard into your

>> reply.

>>

>>

>> craigmill@sky.com wrote:

>>> Rob, PA Bear, just to clarify - I bought the notebook with XPhome

>>> installed.

>>> I only wanted a small portable pc with Internet/email via WiFi along

>>> with Word and Excel, so I have only have a base XP operating system

>>> plus officeXP.

>>>

>>> Raymond
 
PA Bear - is this what you were looking for?





Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; .NET

CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; .NET CLR 3.5.21022; .NET CLR

3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729)





Your browser sent the following headers:

Connection: Keep-Alive

Content-Length: 0

Accept: image/gif, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, image/pjpeg, application/x-

shockwave-flash, application/x-ms-application, application/x-ms-xbap,

application/vnd.ms-xpsdocument, application/xaml+xml, application/

vnd.ms-excel, application/vnd.ms-powerpoint, application/msword, */*

Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate

Accept-Language: en-gb

Host: www.fiddlertool.com

User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/

4.0; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; .NET CLR

3.5.21022; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729)

X-Original-URL: /ua.aspx
 
Sorry missed this additional bit of info!



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ASPNET's HTTPBrowserCapabilities object reports that, based on the

User-Agent, your Browser has the following capabilities:



Type = IE8

Name = IE

Version = 8.0

Major Version = 8

Minor Version = 0

Platform = WinXP

Is Beta = False

Is Crawler = False

Is AOL = False

Is Win16 = False

Is Win32 = True

Supports Frames = True

Supports Tables = True

Supports Cookies = True

Supports VBScript = True

Supports JavaScript = True

Supports Java Applets = True

Supports ActiveX Controls = True
 
Yes. But it was a red herring: Your User Agent string has nothing to do

with the "black toolbars" issue.



craigmill@sky.com wrote:

> PA Bear - is this what you were looking for?

>

>

> Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; .NET

> CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; .NET CLR 3.5.21022; .NET CLR

> 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 3.5.30729)
 
From what I can see this problem has been around since at least

September 2008 and most people have concluded that it has something to

do with the themes chosen. (Apparently this mostly happens to people who

use the "Windows Classic" or "Windows Standard" themes.



It doesn't happen in safe mode which indicates that the problem is in

one of the processes or files that normal Windows uses. So I checked my

theme and it said "Windows Classic (modified)". Changed it to Windows

Classic, started IE8 and the black bars where still there. Checked

themes selection again and once more it showed a modified "Windows

Classic" again.



I searched and searched until I found what I think is the best

permanent solution. It's not my idea but came from someone named

*ikke1*.



Here's the procedure: Click start, control panel, administrative tools,

services. That brings up the "Services" list. Scroll down to "themes",

single click it. Click the "stop" option, double click "themes" which

opens the properties window. Change "automatic" to "manual".



If you use 3rd party themes and you have the problem click the

dependancies tab and check if anything uses this service. If your's

does, then this may not work for you. In that case just set it back to

start and change back to "automatic".



Here's *ikke1*'s post (near the bottom):



'http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r23676931-IE-Permanent-fix-for-IE8-black-bar-in-XP'

(http://tinyurl.com/yhjwck6)



I can't register or join all of the forums this problem is asked about,

so if it works for you please spread the word and give credit to

*ikke1*.



Mark





--

mark1950m
 
I have applied this "fix" and will let you know how I get on!



Many thanks for your input.
 
[What fix?]



Craigmill wrote:

> I have applied this "fix" and will let you know how I get on!

>

> Many thanks for your input.
 
PA Bear - the work around fix identified by Ikke1 and posted by Mark



Click start, control panel, administrative tools, services. That

brings up the "Services" list. Scroll down to "themes",

single click it. Click the "stop" option, double click "themes" which

opens the properties window. Change "automatic" to "manual".



Raymond
 
Hi Craig,



Thanks very much.... I did not think to look in running services.

I expect that it will still start with windows startup (as it should) but it

won't re-appear with a desktop refresh or a refresh of the Themes service.

Right click on the Desktop and select Refresh to manually refresh the

current theme.



Now... we just have to find out why it cant read/write one of the values

from the registry (and translates an empty value as 0=color black)



What account is the Themes service running under? Your User Account I bet,

not as Administrator.

At windows startup it would be using Administrator Privileges.





Regards.



"Craigmill" wrote in message

news:116d4bea-6340-4e32-9710-b19e5662e48e@c16g2000yqd.googlegroups.com...

> PA Bear - the work around fix identified by Ikke1 and posted by Mark

>

> Click start, control panel, administrative tools, services. That

> brings up the "Services" list. Scroll down to "themes",

> single click it. Click the "stop" option, double click "themes" which

> opens the properties window. Change "automatic" to "manual".

>

> Raymond

>
 
Rob - not to sure what you are asking for - I am the sole user of my

pc and therefore I am the administrator by default.



I would be more than happy to provide you with any information you are

looking for - just give me step by step instructions.



FYI - I have now rebooted about 30 times with no black bars! So far so

good!



Raymond
 
Hi Raymond, (Craig... )



No don't worry.... the last bit of information about the running Theme

service was enough of a hint for me. I am writing what I think is the solid

test case and the fix all fix as we speak... I have not had the issue myself

(except when I tweak a desktop theme), but I am now in a position (I think)

to make it happen at will and also to fix it at will. Just part of the

Software development process.



Regards.



"Craigmill" wrote in message

news:9f43c8ec-c43d-4c59-aa23-7eeadd042aac@b7g2000yqd.googlegroups.com...

> Rob - not to sure what you are asking for - I am the sole user of my

> pc and therefore I am the administrator by default.

>

> I would be more than happy to provide you with any information you are

> looking for - just give me step by step instructions.

>

> FYI - I have now rebooted about 30 times with no black bars! So far so

> good!

>

> Raymond

>

>
 
Update - I must have rebooted my netbook at least 50 times over the

last week with the appended work around and so far so good - no black

bars!!!!!!!



Raymond



Click start, control panel, administrative tools, services. That

brings up the "Services" list. Scroll down to "themes",

single click it. Click the "stop" option, double click "themes" which

opens the properties window. Change "automatic" to "manual".
 
Very good Raymond, I'm experiencing success also.



Thanks ikke1 whoever you are !!!!



Mark





Craigmill;1759777 Wrote:

> Update - I must have rebooted my netbook at least 50 times over the

> last week with the appended work around and so far so good - no black

> bars!!!!!!!

>

> Raymond

>

> Click start, control panel, administrative tools, services. That

> brings up the "Services" list. Scroll down to "themes",

> single click it. Click the "stop" option, double click "themes" which

> opens the properties window. Change "automatic" to "manual".





--

mark1950m
 
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