Question

I am running Vista Ultimate with an NVidia 7900 GT video card. I was experimenting with the built-in slideshow controls and made the mistake of changing the theme to Glass. From that point on, I get a black screen for my slideshow and I can neither see nor find any controls that allow me to return back to the default theme. The only way out of it is to hit the ESCAPE key. Unfortunately, the tool remembers the choice for subsequent slideshows. How do I reset the Slideshow theme settings to defaults?

Answer

You may reset the default Slideshow Theme using the following steps:

Method 1

Click Start, type the following command-line and press ENTER:

reg add "hkcu\software\microsoft\windows photo gallery\slideshow\themes" /v ActiveTheme /d "" /f

Method 2

• Click Start, type regedit.exe and press ENTER
• Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Photo Gallery\Slideshow\Themes

• Double-click ActiveTheme value, delete the existing data and click OK
• Exit Registry Editor

When you run a Slideshow now, the default theme will be used.

Related link

Are the Slideshow Theme controls missing? Here is a registry tweak to access the Theme controls:

[Windows Vista] Slideshow Themes and the WinSAT score