UltraUxThemePatcher - Recover From Black/Grey Screen - Windows 8 / 10

Running into a brick wall here.

I came across this post after trying to update to Windows 10, only to find that the install media wouldn't allow me to due to having modified system files, but uninstalling UltraUXThemePatcher resulted in the "blank screen" issue.

Thankfully I had set a restore point, and was able to revert to that and, after finding this post, I thought I had it sorted but, after disabling Fast Boot, rebooting, applying a stock theme (and deleting the extra themes I had installed), rebooting, then uninstalling the theme patcher, I'm still getting the blank screen. Any ideas?

I made an account just to tell you how much I appreciate you making this. It saved me a lot of effort and heart ache, and it was super easy to follow.

Thank you kind sir

I tried everything and did it all right and I still end up with a grey screen

Did you ever figure it out?

Airwin said:

I had this problem too but I solved it with 2 mouseclicks. My laptop booted to the login screen fine but after entering my password my screen just turned black and I couldn't do anything. How I solved it:
I clicked on ease of acces and then clicked high contrast. This loaded the high contrast windows theme and thus unloaded the malfunctioning theme. All my stuff loaded fine and I was able to change my theme back to my normal windows theme.

I hope this helps if you are facing the same problem as I were.

Greetings,

Erwin

Thanks for posting. The "Ease of Access" selection was available from the Login Screen?

OriginalGabriel said:

Running into a brick wall here.

I came across this post after trying to update to Windows 10, only to find that the install media wouldn't allow me to due to having modified system files, but uninstalling UltraUXThemePatcher resulted in the "blank screen" issue.

Thankfully I had set a restore point, and was able to revert to that and, after finding this post, I thought I had it sorted but, after disabling Fast Boot, rebooting, applying a stock theme (and deleting the extra themes I had installed), rebooting, then uninstalling the theme patcher, I'm still getting the blank screen. Any ideas?

Woah, did I read that correctly? You are trying to upgrade to Windows 10? If so, what OS are you running prior to the upgrade? And can you still get back to a system restore point?

I'll be honest, I think you'll be far better off doing a clean install of Win10, period. I'll still try and help though. Just answer my questions above and we'll go from there.

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In an effort to help guide your attempts, here's some tips that might actually help.

I'm going to assume you are on Windows 7 or 8. The biggest problems that come from using 3rd party themes is also using any of these:

- fast startup
- hibernation mode
- sleep mode

Resuming from hibernation or sleep mode is just as bad as allowing fast startup (which is almost the exact same thing). You shouldn't need to disable hibernation and sleep technically, because those only activate when the system idles, but to be extra safe, disable all of these. Even though these things are almost all the same thing, disabling one doesn't mean they are all disabled. You need to disable each mode individually. Hibernation and sleep mode can be disabled in your power settings. You should be able to do the same with fast startup in Win7 and Win8 from the Control Panel, but sometimes it doesn't work for some people, so that's why my OP contains the REG file and the command line method for disabling Fast Startup.

Assuming you are able to still use system restore, try this:

- apply restore point, get your system running again

- disable fast startup, sleep mode, hibernate mode

- power down (don't restart)

- power on

========================
If you can still boot into Windows ...
========================

- apply default theme (the normal default, not any of the other stock themes)

- power down (don't restart)

- power on

========================
If you can still boot into Windows ...
========================

- start uninstalling system modifying software one at a time

- power down, then power on after each one

- save UltraUxThemePatcher for last

If you can, each time you are able to successfully boot back into Windows, make another system image (or restore point i guess).

Here's some software for 3rd party themes you may be running (other than UltraUxThemePatcher) that need to be uninstalled, or at least need to not run on system startup, especially if you are trying to do a Windows 10 upgrade, which again I do NOT recommend when combined with 3rd party theme support software. Install fresh, but anyways:

- UxStyle
- Old New Explorer (this won't be in control panel ... just run the install exe and click uninstall)
- Theme Resource Changer
- Theme Signature Bypass
- Aero for Glass
- System Transparency
- StartIsBack++
- Classic Shell (start menu mod like StartIsBack++)

OriginalGabriel said:

...after disabling Fast Boot, rebooting, applying a stock theme (and deleting the extra themes I had installed) ...

This probably didn't happen in your situation, but just in case, be careful that you are not deleting any of the aero stuff (aero folder and aero.theme, theme1.theme, theme2.theme). You shouldn't be able to delete these anyway, but just in case Windows let you do that for some reason, that would definitely cause issues since those are the stock windows theme files.

You actually should be ok to just leave those themes in place. Just don't actually switch to those themes, especially after you've successfully uninstalled the theme support software (listed above). The modified system files should only be stuff that UltraUxThemePatcher modify anyways. Most other theme software just modifies system resources in memory.

Hope this helps.

TheImage said:

I made an account just to tell you how much I appreciate you making this. It saved me a lot of effort and heart ache, and it was super easy to follow.

Thank you kind sir

Glad it worked for you, and thanks for the feed back

BallpointPen said:

I tried everything and did it all right and I still end up with a grey screen

I'm afraid that's not enough information. I'm afraid I can't help unless you give me more info:

- What version of Windows?
- What theme software are you running?
- What are you actually trying to do?
- What is the actual result?

I need details...

Everything on here I tried, and it didn't work. After doing a lot of research, I found a solution.
1. Boot into Recovery Mode.
2. Go to Troubleshooting > Advanced Settings > Command prompt
3. Type in- sfc /scannow / offbootdir=(systemdrive):\ /offwindir=(systemdrive):\windows
Note- Replace (systemdrive) with the letter you found for your system drive earlier.
4. Wait for your system to find the corrupt files and get rid of it.
5. Boot into safe mode.