Blacked out menu bar in IE 8

[TedK]

I have a problem in IE 8 which has just started over the last few days in that when I connect online, the three bars at the top of IE and web pages, the Menu bar,Command bar and Robo Form bar, are all blacked out. The bars are all solid black, except for the icons on the Robo Form bar and the Command bar, the rest of the page is as normal and not affected at all. I have been able to change the font colour for the Menu bar, but not the bar background colour, black.
Any ideas please! I use XP SP3.

[Fusion]

Try this potential fix:

Right click an empty space on your Desktop -> Properties -> Themes.
Note your current Theme, then in the drop down menu, click on a different Theme, but don't apply. Now return to and click your current theme and click apply.

[TedK]

Gosh! That worked a treat, all is back to normal. Many thanks [img]/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img].

[Fusion]

Pleased to help [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[TedK]

Hi Fusion,
While your fix has worked fine I now find that I have to re apply it most times that I connect to the net. Any thoughts of a perminate fix? Do you know why this happens at all? I cant find any reference of this fault anywhere at all.

[Fusion]

I've read that the problem is perhaps a Windows Theme problem rather than an IE8 one.

Some folks with your symptoms have had success with the way you tried, while others haven't including yourself.

This alternative fix has helped some so it's worth a try: From this link -->> Kellys Korner - Restore Themes Functionality <<-- Scroll down to 187 - Restore Themes Functionality -> Click -> Download the file and run.

Close down IE8, then restart hopefully with your problem over.

[TedK]

Thanks again Fusion, have just done your latest suggestion so I will give it a go for a few days and let you know what happens. Thanks again.

[Palohijo]

Here is what has worked for me so far after 10 restarts. I am using Google so I can't advise on any other browser. Go to start, run, type in "msconfig", click on startup. Uncheck the box labled "GoogleQuickSearchBox". Then restart. As I said, it has worked for me and hopefully for you.

Palohijo

[nasum]

Hi_This also happened to me, but after i uninstalled one of my spyware programs 'Spyware Terminator' everything seemed ok again. It may have something to do with your firewall or Active X or Add-ons. Unfortunately, its happened this morning again & i'm now using 'Spyware Doctor'. CRIKEY!!!