Windows 7 Custom shell broke the original

[zirkoni]

Some time ago I tried the bbLean shell for Windows:

Here's my bbLean desktop:
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I think it's a nice shell replacement but I still prefer using the original Windows 7 shell.
When I switched back to the original shell I noticed that some of the system tray boxes don't have the border around them anymore.

(This is what I mean)
Volume control still has the border around it:
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But the network tray for example doesn't:
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It's a minor annoyance but if there's an easy way to fix it I'd like to know. I did an
sfc /scannow but it didn't find any errors and system restore is out of the question.
I'd also like to add that only my user account is affected even though bbLean was used on another account.
My OS is Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit.

 

[Josephur]

Its hard to tell without dissecting bbLean what all it changed on the system. Did Windows not create a System Restore point when you installed bbLean?

 

[zirkoni]

bbLean doesn't really require installing anything. It comes in a zip archive you extract and then just run the executable. But if you set bbLean as your default shell (which I did) it makes some changes in the registry:

It only changes one line in the registry to use bb as the shell instead of explorer

I'm not sure if Windows made a restore point when I set bbLean as my default shell but even if it did that restore point is gone now, overwritten by newer restore points. And I wouldn't want to use a restore point anyway because I have had problems with it before.

 

[Josephur]

Well it may be a registry setting, and its going to be very hard to track that down. The only way I could even fathom having a chance in finding out how its happening is watching every single registry read when explorer.exe launches using something like Process Monitor (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645), and comparing the settings read from your system to a known good system.

Did you already try using "sfc /scannow" to see if all your system files are intact? Try that first...

 

[zirkoni]

Did you already try using "sfc /scannow" to see if all your system files are intact? Try that first...

Yes, I already tried that and it didn't find any errors.

 

[Pauli]

From what I have understood, it's not really installed. It should be removable easily; make a search with "bbLean" and delete everything there. BUT DO MAKE a restoration point before, in case something goes wrong. And be sure you act as an administrator.

 

[zirkoni]

It should be removable easily

All traces of bbLean have already been removed from the system. The problem is that some of the system tray boxes (or whatever you call them) don't have the window border around them anymore. It's only a minor visual annoyance, everything still works fine.