How to bring back Windows XP SP3 (Vista Style) icons?

Question

I have MS Windows XP Service Pack 3 installed on my system. It had vista style icons before.

Now some icons have reverted back to their usual SP2 looks. I tried the inbuilt "tweakui" utility to try to rebuild icons, but that doesn't seem to help.

Is there any way I can get my vista style icons without reinstalling windows or installing Vista Transformation Pack?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I believe you have changed from XP to Classic Theme. This can be changed in the Display section of the control Panel, on the Appearance tab.

Answer 2

OK....You made me have to go do some searching with this question.....

There is NO XP sp3. There is an sp3 for OFFICE XP, but not the OS. My guess is that you downloaded the "Vista icons" and have lost the download, or the path to the desktop icons, but you didn't get it with a service pack 3 download, because it doesn't exist. The only possible sp3 download for the XP OS, would be a third party download, which would be a bogus service pack and it is probably malicious.

Switching to "Classic Theme" doesn't change your desktop icons, it only changes the windows style. Icons will remain the same.

Answer 3

Ok...how do you have service pack 3 when it hasn't been released...it has been pushed back now for a bit...Microsoft has gone public with a tentative date for its third service pack for Windows XP. And that date —
the latter half of 2007 — is considerably later than many company watchers were expecting.
Or did you use a preview os update?
Can't help you on the icon thing though!

Answer 4

SP3 isn't supported by Microsoft because they did not launch it yet. What you've put in is an unoficial launch! you should rebuild the icon cache to retsore them to default. in simple terms delete IconCache.db from /files and Settings/Username/community Settings/software documents (or in simple terms search for for it). After rebooting all icons must be reverted to the default state. In case they don't set up an auxiliary application, like TweakUI to rebuild the icon cache.