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.

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.

Error 126: The specified module could not be found.

Error 2: The system cannot find the file specified.

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.

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: troubleshooting Written by oliversk Friday, March 19th, 2010
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Im sorry.But this is Win 7..Why we have this problem?
Sorry for my English.
Dolgano-Neneckij region,Russia.
Best Regards.
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 :)
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!!!
Hello i have Error 1053 , Can You Plz Help ???
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.
Thanks a lot for this. I finally got the themes to work.
Error 127 cannot find the prosedure to run the sevice or something
the solutions above did not work for me
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?
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. .(