Old relative needed the accessibility options configured for poor eyesight. Now they have had both their cataracts done and have near perfect vision again. But can you turn Vista back to being a normal configuration with accessibility disabled? No you can't? Where is the option in the Accessibility Control Panel that says turn this cr*p off?

I've manually unticked everything, put the screen back to 1024x768x32 bit colour and chose a Vista theme, but alas Vista insists on having a solid colour background. You can sit all day long changing to a Vista landscape or a normal photo and Vista fails to make the change.

Is there something obvious I'm missing here or is this yet another feature of Vista that never got finished before it RTM'd?

Thanks.

Computer Specs please, with as much detail as possible.

__________________
AMD X2 BLACK EDITION 3.2GHz SAMURAI COOLER::GA-M51 MB-HEATPIPE CHIPSET COOLER::3GB XMS2 PC6400 RAM::GEFORCE 8800 GTS 320MB 575/900MHz::160GB BARRACUDA RAID 0::SOUNDBLASTER AUDIGY::LITE-ON DVD RAMDRIVE/PIONEER DVD::HIPER MODULAR 530W PSU::THERMALTAKE ARMOUR Jr CASE::RAZER COPPERHEAD MOUSE::VISTA HOME PREMIUM SP1

AMD 4600+, ASUStek A8-N32-SLI, 4GB, 300GB mirrored SATA 2 RAID, NVIDIA 7600 512MB, 550W PSU, etc. Basically, a well spec'd Vista Home Premium build.

This isn't a hardware problem. It was running Vista perfectly with Aero and all the nice eye candy until the Accessibility option was turned on. All I'm looking for is the button that says, "Turn this junk off and put it back the way you found it months ago!".

Thanks.

Judging by what you've already written, I guess you've already found the 'Ease of Access' centre in the control panel? Your going to have to go through it all again and return it back to it's basic settings. If this is failing to work for some reason, you could try creating another user account to sign in with and deleting the old one.
Regarding the desktop, check the settings found via 'Personalize' when you right-click on the desktop. If you look under 'Display settings' or 'Themes' you may find the answer there.
You could also try 'System Restore' if all else fails.

__________________
AMD X2 BLACK EDITION 3.2GHz SAMURAI COOLER::GA-M51 MB-HEATPIPE CHIPSET COOLER::3GB XMS2 PC6400 RAM::GEFORCE 8800 GTS 320MB 575/900MHz::160GB BARRACUDA RAID 0::SOUNDBLASTER AUDIGY::LITE-ON DVD RAMDRIVE/PIONEER DVD::HIPER MODULAR 530W PSU::THERMALTAKE ARMOUR Jr CASE::RAZER COPPERHEAD MOUSE::VISTA HOME PREMIUM SP1

Tried all you've suggested except the system restore. Not really an option with the accessibility options being switched on for 12 months! System restore, even if it is available to go back that far, will likely break even more things and then there is 12 months of updates to fix!

Sounds like this is yet another unfinished feature of Vista!!! Microsoft obviously think that once your disabled, you're disabled for life. That must be why we don't have a kill switch in the same way we have all the different turn "on" options.

Thanks for confirming Vista accessibility is broken.

You could always do a fresh install? Also have you tried the service pack?
Anyway... I'm going to keep my eye on this issue as there must be a way to restore the settings and I'd like to know just for peace of mind... So if I find anything thats helpfull I'll post it, sorry I couldn't be more of a help than that.

__________________
AMD X2 BLACK EDITION 3.2GHz SAMURAI COOLER::GA-M51 MB-HEATPIPE CHIPSET COOLER::3GB XMS2 PC6400 RAM::GEFORCE 8800 GTS 320MB 575/900MHz::160GB BARRACUDA RAID 0::SOUNDBLASTER AUDIGY::LITE-ON DVD RAMDRIVE/PIONEER DVD::HIPER MODULAR 530W PSU::THERMALTAKE ARMOUR Jr CASE::RAZER COPPERHEAD MOUSE::VISTA HOME PREMIUM SP1

I didn't think the service pack was on public release yet. Isn't it coming down via Windows Update in March? They are trying to fix all the issues surround its deployment from what I've read.

I'm not going to go through a rebuild when the only thing affecting the computer is "eye candy" related.

I'll post back if I find anything of interest regarding this issue.

Thanks again for all your assistance.


Regards

John

The issues you describe are driver related. Users are finding that they have to re-install 'some' drivers after the installation of the service pack although this doesn't affect everyone. You can get a copy of the service pack via certain links in this forum or choose to run the RC release. The RC release will place some writing on the desktop(saying 'Evaluation Copy') but I've got a cure for that so if you decide to get it let me know and I'll mail the cure to you.

Lastly, whenever I install a service pack I do it in a particular way... Fresh install of the OS, then service pack, then drivers and then your good to go! It's not critical to do it this way but IMHO the best way especially how this service pack is rewriting the Kernal.

__________________
AMD X2 BLACK EDITION 3.2GHz SAMURAI COOLER::GA-M51 MB-HEATPIPE CHIPSET COOLER::3GB XMS2 PC6400 RAM::GEFORCE 8800 GTS 320MB 575/900MHz::160GB BARRACUDA RAID 0::SOUNDBLASTER AUDIGY::LITE-ON DVD RAMDRIVE/PIONEER DVD::HIPER MODULAR 530W PSU::THERMALTAKE ARMOUR Jr CASE::RAZER COPPERHEAD MOUSE::VISTA HOME PREMIUM SP1

That's certain a good practice, but a little time consuming . I think I'd rather take my chance with SP1 when it is made public, but plan for having to reinstall if it all goes badly wrong.

Thanks again.

Hi all,

The solution for me was to change the vista theme.
You can do that if you,
Right click on desktop -> Personalize -> Theme.
There, mine was set to "Modified Theme". Change it to "Windows Vista", restart and you should be OK.

Hope this will prevent you from re-installing the whole OS.

Cheers.