Office XP Pro 2003 UI - wtf?

So I get this new computer at work and something was really bugging me about it.  I couldn't get the desktop icons to have transparent backgrounds behind the shortcut text.  I spent like 2 hours trying to figure out wtf was wrong (I never did figure it out).  Needless to say, I must have changed some wierd graphical setting or something...honestly I don't really know what the hell happened..but somehow all of my Office XP Applications UI reverted back to some kind of old school look/theme and I can't figure out how to get it back to the newer XP-style look.  Here is a screenshot of my current Outlook...





This is the XP-style look I'm referring to...







Please help me...Thanks...

Right-click "My Computer" > Properties > Advanced > Performance > Settings > Visual Effects

jBuelna wrote:



Right-click "My Computer" > Properties > Advanced > Performance > Settings > Visual Effects

Yeah, tried that.  That was one of the 4 things I tried to relieve myself of the annoying desktop icons colored background text.  For that I remember I did 4 things...

1) go to the aforementioned panel, check "Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop".  Done.

2) right click desktop > Desktop tab > Customize Desktop > Web tab > make sure nothing is checked.  ( My screen shows no "Web" tab, so I didn't really complete this step).

3) right click desktop > Arrange Icons by > make sure "Lock web items to desktop" isn't checked.  Done.

4) I found some site that said to change some key in the registry.  I attempted to complete that step but my registry had no such key, so I couldn't proceed any further.

I also kept trying to mess with the "Themes" and "Appearance" settings in the Display Properties dialog in the control panel numerous times to see if I could get the desktop icons to turn transparent.  I believe it was during one occurance of me doing this that I noticed my Outlook (and other Office apps) had reverted to this 1997 style look...

ARGH!  So frustrating...

On Display Properties >> Settings, make sure that your color depth is 32 bit...  it looks like your display's set to 256 colors.

However, that doesn't really make sense either b/c you have true-color icons on your taskbar...

I have never seen Office 2003 do this, unless it were set to 256 colors.  If you could give a screenshot including the toolbar and menu at top, it may be helpful.

Also, be sure to restart if you haven't already

jdmturbomr2 wrote:

So I get this new computer at work and something was really bugging me about it.  I couldn't get the desktop icons to have transparent backgrounds behind the shortcut text.  I spent like 2 hours trying to figure out wtf was wrong (I never did figure it out).  Needless to say, I must have changed some wierd graphical setting or something...honestly I don't really know what the hell happened..but somehow all of my Office XP Applications UI reverted back to some kind of old school look/theme and I can't figure out how to get it back to the newer XP-style look.  Here is a screenshot of my current Outlook...

Please help me...Thanks...

I get this a lot.

When you close Outlook, it sometimes doesn't quit, this can be because of any number of By Design reasons. For me, it's because I run ActiveSync. Other reasons include changing the Close-button behaviour so it minimizes to the Tray instead of quitting completely.

So you end up with a UI-less Outlook session. If your video display mode ever changes, Outlook would adopt it and might not revert when restored.

There's a few other reasons too, but it's not a big deal. Just terminate the Outlook process via CAD (but not when Outlook is communicating with Exchange, obviously) and relaunch it to rectify the problem.

CannotResolveSymbol wrote:



On Display Properties >> Settings, make sure that your color depth is 32 bit...  it looks like your display's set to 256 colors.

However, that doesn't really make sense either b/c you have true-color icons on your taskbar...

I have never seen Office 2003 do this, unless it were set to 256 colors.  If you could give a screenshot including the toolbar and menu at top, it may be helpful.

Also, be sure to restart if you haven't already

Yeah, it's set at 32 bit.  I don't even have a 256 colors settings on this.  BTW it's a Dell Optiplex GX620 w/ an ATI Radeon X600 graphics card.  It's a work machine though, so the only conclusion I can think of is this is some kind of customized version of XP that they have "optimized" or something causing some wierd behavior.

Here is the screenshot you requested...

jdmturbomr2 wrote:

Yeah, it's set at 32 bit.  I don't even have a 256 colors settings on this.

You do, it's just hidden from you in the Display Control panel for the benefit of less savvy users. 256-colors is a VESA standard along with 640x480x16

jdmturbomr2 wrote:

so the only conclusion I can think of is this is some kind of customized version of XP that they have "optimized" or something causing some wierd behavior.

Read my post, I get it too. It's caused under certain circumstances when the Outlook process doesn't quit after the last window was closed.

W3bbo wrote:



I get this a lot.

When you close Outlook, it sometimes doesn't quit, this can be because of any number of By Design reasons. For me, it's because I run ActiveSync. Other reasons include changing the Close-button behaviour so it minimizes to the Tray instead of quitting completely.

So you end up with a UI-less Outlook session. If your video display mode ever changes, Outlook would adopt it and might not revert when restored.

There's a few other reasons too, but it's not a big deal. Just terminate the Outlook process via CAD (but not when Outlook is communicating with Exchange, obviously) and relaunch it to rectify the problem.

Well I do have my outlook set to minimize to the system tray...but I have restarted my computer (forgot to mention that in the last post) and I did what you said anyway -- terminate outlook via CAD and restart the app -- but it still looks the same [C].  BTW did I mention that ALL of my Office XP programs look like this, not just Outlook.  Firefox and everything else looks fine...it's just the Office stuff...

Is windows itself running with themes? You might want to ensure the Themes service is running (unless you're running W2K3 Server, in which DON'T turn it on)

JosephSpaur - MSFT wrote:

Is windows itself running with themes? You might want to ensure the Themes service is running (unless you're running W2K3 Server, in which DON'T turn it on)

I just checked and yes, the Themes service is running.  It's start up type is set to "Automatic".

Only idea I can think of right now is to change to the Windows XP style, click apply, then change back to the Windows Classic style.

CannotResolveSymbol wrote:



Only idea I can think of right now is to change to the Windows XP style, click apply, then change back to the Windows Classic style.

Yeah, I tried that, sorry I must have forgot to mention that.  That was like the first thing I instinctively tried.  Also, I went to Outlook's Help menu and searched "Themes" and I remember finding some entry about how outlook/office will try and match whatever Theme you set...so I'm not sure if this has something to do with this or not.  Maybe I'll try switched back to XP style, terminating outlook via CAD, and then restarting Outlook, but I have a sneaky suspicion that won't work.  Man this is so wierd.   Got a meeting at 4...will check back in later...

[edit]: Yeah tried that...didn't work.  For some reason it's like Office XP is rendering everything in 256 colors.  I don't know why though, or how to fix it.  Maybe there is some wierd setting somewhere...bah...I need to get back to work :

this guy sounds like he was having the same problem as me...
link

bump - still can't figure this out - office stuck in 256 colors/desktop icons non-transparent...if anyone has any insight plz post   thanks

Could that multiple monitor utility (or whatever it is that is adding a button to your titlebars) be causing some sort of problem?

PS: You're running Office/Outlook 2003, not Office/Outlook XP

DCMonkey wrote:

Could that multiple monitor utility (or whatever it is that is adding a button to your titlebars) be causing some sort of problem?

PS: You're running Office/Outlook 2003, not Office/Outlook XP

It's called MultiMon.  I suppose it could, hell, anything is worth a shot at this point.  I'll try disabling it and replicating some of the previously suggested remedies...

Shows you how little I know about MS products...I was using the terms synonimously, my bad, I forgot they were actually seperate releases.  Thanks.

I faced the same problem long back.. dont remember how it got rectified.. did you try system restore?

krishnakumarhere wrote:

I faced the same problem long back.. dont remember how it got rectified.. did you try system restore?

Nope not yet, there are 2 reasons..
1) I had to put in special requests for software from our IT dept. that were just recently installed and I can't remember when this problem first started happening.  I would really rather not have to re-do those installations if I don't have to but it looks like it's coming to that as I have not found a better remedy.
2) I don't have freaking admin rights of my PC so I can't preform a system restore myself--I have to go through the IT dept. to do it which is just a hassle.  It's retarded I know.  The company I work for is very bureaucratic in that regard, but in their defense, we deal with very sensitive information so they have to extra careful.

[edit:] oops -- double post -- might as well take this opportunity to say thanks to everyone for the suggestions.  I really appreciate it.