Windows 7 themes service will not start!


Is your “themes service” not starting? If it’s not, some of your Windows 7 system files might be corrupt or your registry settings are wrong. If you need help to fix your themes service, read this tutorial.

Windows Could Not Start The Themes Service on Local Computer

Themes Service Could Not Start

There are many errors that you could possibly run into:
Windows could not start the Themes service on Local Computer.

Windows Could Not Start The Themes Service on Local Computer
Error 126: The specified module could not be found.

Windows Could Not Start The Themes Service on Local Computer

Error 2: The system cannot find the file specified.
Windows Could Not Start The Themes Service on Local Computer

Error 1313: A specified privilege does not exist.

Fix Themes Service via System Scan

To fix the themes service we will first do a system check and see if any of your system files are corrupt.

1. Open an elevated command prompt
2. Enter “sfc.exe /scannow” (without the quotes) and hit enter.

Windows 7 System Scan

Sfc.exe might require you to reboot.

Fix Themes Service via Registry

1. Open the registry and go to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Themes]
2. Select the registry folder “Themes” and click on “File” and then “Export”. Make sure “Selected Branch” is checked, enter a name and backup your registry keys.

3. Now that we have a backup, open up the notepad and insert the following text:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Themes]
“Start”=dword:00000002
“DisplayName”=”@%SystemRoot%\\System32\\themeservice.dll,-8192″
“ErrorControl”=dword:00000001
“Group”=”ProfSvc_Group”
“ImagePath”=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,\
74,00,25,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,73,\
00,76,00,63,00,68,00,6f,00,73,00,74,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,20,00,2d,00,\
6b,00,20,00,6e,00,65,00,74,00,73,00,76,00,63,00,73,00,00,00
“Type”=dword:00000020
“Description”=”@%SystemRoot%\\System32\\themeservice.dll,-8193″
“ObjectName”=”LocalSystem”
“RequiredPrivileges”=hex(7):53,00,65,00,41,00,73,00,73,00,69,00,67,00,6e,00,50,\
00,72,00,69,00,6d,00,61,00,72,00,79,00,54,00,6f,00,6b,00,65,00,6e,00,50,00,\
72,00,69,00,76,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,67,00,65,00,00,00,53,00,65,00,44,00,65,\
00,62,00,75,00,67,00,50,00,72,00,69,00,76,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,67,00,65,00,\
00,00,53,00,65,00,49,00,6d,00,70,00,65,00,72,00,73,00,6f,00,6e,00,61,00,74,\
00,65,00,50,00,72,00,69,00,76,00,69,00,6c,00,65,00,67,00,65,00,00,00,00,00
“FailureActions”=hex:80,51,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,14,00,00,\
00,01,00,00,00,60,ea,00,00,01,00,00,00,60,ea,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Themes\Parameters]
“ServiceDllUnloadOnStop”=dword:00000001
“ServiceMain”=”ThemeServiceMain”
“ServiceDll”=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,\
00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,\
74,00,68,00,65,00,6d,00,65,00,73,00,65,00,72,00,76,00,69,00,63,00,65,00,2e,\
00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00

4. Save it as a .reg file (simply add the extension .reg) and then execute it to add the keys to your registry. This will set the required registry keys that are needed to run the Windows 7 themes service. (only works on Windows 7!).

Optionally, you can also download our registry file and execute it:

Download Registry Tweak “Fix Themes Service”



Hopefully this will help you to solve the problem and start the themes service again. If you run into any other errors, feel free to leave a comment.


Or you might like these sexy wallpaper, tweaks and themes:

Tags: Written by oliversk Friday, March 19th, 2010

Was it helpful? Please bookmark it and spread the word

delicious   facebook   google   twitter  

You love Windows, Gaming and everything digital? Great, we too! We have thousands of great Windows 7 themes, registry tweaks, tutorials, so please use our search box if you look for anything specific. If you have some awesome desktop themes, tips or want to write for us, then drop us a mail: win7themes at googlemail.com

9 Responses to Windows 7 themes service will not start!

  1. Alex said:

    Im sorry.But this is Win 7..Why we have this problem?
    Sorry for my English.
    Dolgano-Neneckij region,Russia.
    Best Regards.

  2. sOliver said:

    Did you run into this problem? Well, personally I did not have this problem ..yet. I suppose you could have problems with it when your system files become corrupt and that can have many reasons:

    - viruses
    - hardware conflicts
    - cold-restarts
    - .. etc

    It’s not a very common problem, but I thought it might help some of you :)

  3. Amanda S. said:

    I tried every possible solution posted online to turn back on my WIndows 7 themes service… this system scan was the only thing that worked!!! THANK YOU!!!

  4. Aniket said:

    Hello i have Error 1053 , Can You Plz Help ???

  5. sOliver said:

    Error 1053: The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion

    Aniket, did you try the solution above? E.g. run sfc.exe. Should work.. if it doesn’t let me know.

  6. arshad said:

    Thanks a lot for this. I finally got the themes to work.

  7. Gunman said:

    Error 127 cannot find the prosedure to run the sevice or something
    the solutions above did not work for me

  8. zdenek said:

    well i tried to install windroid theme…and somehow between than and that .. my theme service stoped working and wont even let choose any of them ( aero ) … they look like if they were frozen

    option 1 done. didnt work
    option 2 done. didnt work
    option 3 done. didnt work

    What should i do now?

  9. Lars said:

    I cannot activate Aero, despite following the oterwise excellent tutorials on this site. All Aero themes are graeyed out. When running the Aero check in W7 it reports that a theme (the current I want to get rid of) does not support Aero. And when finished it saimply says that the problem couldn’t be fixed. .(

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>