Home > IT Answers > Microsoft Windows > Uxtheme.dll missing on boot
Brebeck
0 pts.
 Uxtheme.dll missing on boot
Desktops, Graphical User Interfaces, Hardware, Help Desk, Registry, Tech support, Windows client administration and maintenance, Windows XP
We have several users with Dell laptops running Windows XP, SP2. Every once in awhile, the laptops boot to a blank screen with an error that explorer.exe cannot start because uxtheme.dll is missing. We usually instruct the user how to use the Task Manager to connect to the VPN, and we copy uxtheme.dll to the machine, then start explorer.exe through the Run box. (We have one particular user who gets the error once a month or so.) My research says the error is connected with WinXP SP2. Has anybody else encountered this?

Software/Hardware used:
ASKED: May 17, 2005  9:12 AM
UPDATED: November 9, 2009  6:32 PM
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Answer Wiki:
uxtheme.dll handles the desktop & ui themes in WinXP. People patch it (with PatchXP or StarPatch, among others) to enable use of non-microsoft themes.. I suspect this is what your users have done and that the system detected the changed uxtheme and rolled it back to the known good, signed microsoft version.
Last Wiki Answer Submitted:  May 18, 2005  5:07 pm  by  DDekreon   0 pts.
All Answer Wiki Contributors:  DDekreon   0 pts.
To see all answers submitted to the Answer Wiki: View Answer History.


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i have the same problem
can anybody help me

Shane16
 10 pts.
 

i found some good amount of information on misbehavior of uxtheme.dll on belchfire.net. one of the reasons it says is that windows itself stores various copies of uxtheme.dll in your system. so best way to avoid usage of different uxtheme.dll by windows, rename all other uxtheme.dll present in your system in various folders as uxtheme.dl_ and keep only one working dll. the link is: http://themes.belchfire.net/index.php?showtopic=9001

Jaideep Khanduja
 8,200 pts.
 

im getting the error message that i need to reinstall uxtheme.dll but i cnt download it to reinstall because it needs it to open explorer.exe. i dont want a new theme anymore i jus wana revert to the original blue theme how do i solve this problem. btw im usin sp3 on xp.

Flavaman
 10 pts.
 

What is the exact error message ?
When do you get the message ?
Have you installed/uninstalled something recently ?

More details are needed.

carlosdl
 63,580 pts.