Changing windows Xp appearance or theme programatically

The company I work for has windows xp installed and under group policy, I am not able to change 开发者_Go百科the desktop appearnce or themes. Because admin has disabled the appearance and themes tab via group policy registry. I am looking for an application or Vb.net form which is able to switch the appearance and themes under limited access xp account. Your help would be higly appreciated..

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Just a hunch, but maybe you shouldn't be doing that if your company policy forbids it... it would also mean bypassing security features, which the higher-ups are probably not going to like.

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An application run under your account has the same rights as you do, so what you can't change the application can't change either.

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It's possible by editing the registry keys where your Windows theme settings are stored. This article at NeoWin seems to describe how to do it - I have done it before, but I can't remember the specifics of how it's done.

After you've modified the registry, log off and back on again to see the new changes.

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I don't recommend it. I work in IT and many times we have to specifically lock the ability to modify the theme due to certain applications actually failing with themes. This is not a situation where they CAN cause problems -- this is known application failures as a direct result of certain themes.

That being said, I agree with the other poster that management frowns upon bypassing any security settings. You may possibly be violating documented policies that could get you disciplined.

Just looking out for you. If IT discovers users making registry mods the consequences are severe in my organization.