Desktop Themes Crashes When JPEG Filter is Used

This article was previously published under Q172191

SYMPTOMS

When using Desktop Themes from the Microsoft Windows NT Server or Workstation 4.0 Resource Kit, Desktop Themes may crash and generate a Dr. Watson log with any of the following symptoms:

Exception number: c0000005 (access violation)

Exception: access violation (Oxc0000005)

Error in themes.exe

Desktop Themes closes without warning

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Microsoft Office 97 installs a JPEG filter that is incompatible with the initial release of Desktop Themes included in the Windows NT 4.0 Resource Kit. This incompatibility does not occur with Microsoft Office 97 on machines that do not have the Desktop Themes included in the resource kit installed.

The only complete resolution is to obtain the Desktop Themes patch file.

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RESOLUTION

The Microsoft Windows NT Resource Kit team has developed a patch to address this problem for all Windows NT platforms. This patch is available for free download at the following ftp site:

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/reskit/nt40/ (ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/reskit/nt40/)

NOTE: You must have the original Windows NT 4.0 Desktop Themes program installed in order for the patch to work properly.

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WORKAROUND

To work around this issue without the patch, use the following steps:

Open Desktop Themes.
Click Save As, then "Original Settings.Theme"(without quotation marks) to save your current settings as a theme and then click OK

When you save or change the current theme settings, the Settings check boxes become available. You now also have a desktop theme with a bitmap (.BMP) wallpaper.
click to clear the desktop theme wallpaper option before changing desktop themes, and then set your theme as normal and click OK.
To change the desktop theme again, open the Desktop Themes program in the Control Panel and then select the "Original Settings" theme. This theme has a .BMP wallpaper and should not cause Desktop Themes to crash. After changing the theme selection, you can once again disable the Wallpaper check box before choosing a theme that has a JPEG wallpaper.

If you wish to use the wallpapers without the patch, use another program to convert the appropriate .JPG file into a .BMP file, and then change the display background setting to the new .BMP file.

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