Windows Areo Theme not working

[angrycomputingteacher]

Recently imaged a test laptop to Windows 7 Enterprise and joined it to the domain. When I use a student or staff account and login with it I get the grey classic theme. However, my admins accounts get the areo theme just fine.

 

Wondering if it's anything to do with not having access to the Control Panel enabled.

[burgemaster]

If I remember you have to give access to control panel but then limit which parts they have access too. For your issue I think they need "Microsoft.Personalization" in the allow list.

[Guest obsidianpillar]

If I remember you have to give access to control panel but then limit which parts they have access too. For your issue I think they need "Microsoft.Personalization" in the allow list.

 

You may well be correct, however in our environment Control Panel is blocked completely and the theme applies fine. In our Mandatory Profile it was configured using the "Aero Basic" theme, however we set Aero through Group Policy and a policy is set to block any access to Control Panel.

[jslate1980]

Unless you are blocking it, could you not run command prompt as administrator then type rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL desk.cpl,,2 to get access to personalisation. Had the same issue with one user who needed aero theme on to access affinity draw.

[angrycomputingteacher]

I have allowed Microsoft.Personalization. However, I still have the old theme. The profiles we are using for Students and Staff are local if that helps.

[3s-gtech]

Do you force the theme via Group Policy? We have to do this with GP settings and a registry switch as well - some machines really insist on the Aero theme (even though it works as admin) and you have to force it!

[sted]

does windows have a system rating displayed in system in control panel? if not run winsat formal wait and try that

[angrycomputingteacher]

I am enforcing the aero theme in Group Policy and it only applies to users on the Win7 computers. The only reason I think the admin's work is they are in a separate OU and are using roaming profiles and not local profiles.

[angrycomputingteacher]

It's saying that the Rating is 3.0 if that helps

[Guest obsidianpillar]

Create a Test User in AD that's part of the same OU as the one that your applying the policy to, as it's a new user it'll get a new profile created - see if the theme applies successfully. Otherwise check for any conflicting settings (using RSOP) or anything that could be processed under loopback.

 

Did I help you out sometime last year with regards to Desktop Redirection? I can't remember but if it's you, I take it it's a fairly new domain since we worked locally last time?

[angrycomputingteacher]

I created test users in the Win7 OU with the GPOs in and in my Teachers OU and have the same result. I'm thinking the GPOs are not applying and it's possibly something to do with the machine. Is there any way I could track if that particular GPO is actually applying on the machine?

[angrycomputingteacher]

Yes. You did help me with Desktop redirection. We are now in the progress of moving to a domain.

[Guest obsidianpillar]

I created test users in the Win7 OU with the GPOs in and in my Teachers OU and have the same result. I'm thinking the GPOs are not applying and it's possibly something to do with the machine. Is there any way I could track if that particular GPO is actually applying on the machine?

 

GPResult/RSOP is what you need to be running to find out if the policy is applying (rsop.msc) is the easiest to see and launch from a client PC.

[angrycomputingteacher]

I think I have figured out why it is not working. I was applying the theme force policy to the 'Windows 7' computers OU I had created. But I need to force the theme in the Students/Staff OU. How can I limit which computers a policy will apply on?

[3s-gtech]

WMI filters.

[angrycomputingteacher]

How would I go about configuring one of those?

[angrycomputingteacher]

So I've removed my control panel policy completely and it works. Now I need to go locking it down again.