0

Recently I encountered an odd problem with Visual Studio. Both in the 2008 and 2010 editions where certain images, colors and gradients in the

UI fail to load.

After various reinstalls of the program and related components, and some long phone calls with Microsoft technical support, I opened WordPad

one day, and realized that this problem is not tied to visual studio at all.

WordPad and MSPaint have the same problem. I don't know what is responsible for the UI in the three programs, but it appears that images

and gradients are missing from the interface, causing the same sort of effects in all three.

I have screenshots of all three programs:

http://wilhall.com/vs.png (Visual Studio 2010)

http://wilhall.com/wp.png (WordPad)

http://wilhall.com/msp.png (MSPaint)

From previous testing, I have determined that:

-The issue is not linked to my graphics card

-The issue is not caused by my computer's color depth settings

If anyone has any ideas, I'm willing to try them and post back - I know that this problem could be solved by simply reinstalling Windows, but I

would like to figure out the issue in case of future problems.

WilHall
  • 121
  • 1
  • 5
  • This usually boils down to two things - bad video cable, corrupt video drivers. – GregD Apr 04 '11 at 13:52
  • It certainly won't be a bad cable, as this wouldn't affect screen shots (as long as you don't use a camera to take them). – Sven Apr 04 '11 at 14:05

1 Answers1

0

It turns out that using WindowBlinds to customize windows pre-win7 breaks theme files so that even after reverting to the default theme, you end up with a broken theme after one of the early 2011 windows updates. This only effects windows Aero themed applications.

To fix this, simply change your theme to windows basic, and back.

WilHall
  • 121
  • 1
  • 5