Hi all,
a friend has a Packard Bell computer. It has the ugly purple skin installed
which makes toolbars in Internet explorer and Outlook Express, look , er
awful and make the text harder to read. I looked at it and thought "oh yeah
no problem I'll just get rid of that awful purple skin.". Well I could not
find any options to allow the removal of this skin! Crazy! ... How? Who?

I found a program from Packard Bell which apparently removes the plug ugly
purple skin he
http://support.packardbell.com/uk/it...923040000#show

So clearly I'm not alone. But what perplexes me is Microsoft have allowed
this 'wonderful' skinning feature, but they don't seem to have any help
files on how to 1 - install skins, and 2 remove the damn thing.

I have no reason to believe that the Packard Bell skin remover wont work but
does anyone know what the windows way of managing these skins is?

MS didn't create this third party app, so why would you expect them to help?
MS /allows/ Norton, McAfee, Avast, AVG etc. as anti-virus programs, but they
don't offer support for those programs, or how to remove them.
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


"123Jim" wrote in message
...
Hi all,
a friend has a Packard Bell computer. It has the ugly purple skin
installed which makes toolbars in Internet explorer and Outlook Express,
look , er awful and make the text harder to read. I looked at it and
thought "oh yeah no problem I'll just get rid of that awful purple skin.".
Well I could not find any options to allow the removal of this skin!
Crazy! ... How? Who?

I found a program from Packard Bell which apparently removes the plug ugly
purple skin he
http://support.packardbell.com/uk/it...923040000#show

So clearly I'm not alone. But what perplexes me is Microsoft have allowed
this 'wonderful' skinning feature, but they don't seem to have any help
files on how to 1 - install skins, and 2 remove the damn thing.

I have no reason to believe that the Packard Bell skin remover wont work
but does anyone know what the windows way of managing these skins is?

MS didn't create this third party app, so why would you expect them to help?
MS /allows/ Norton, McAfee, Avast, AVG etc. as anti-virus programs, but they
don't offer support for those programs, or how to remove them.
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA


"123Jim" wrote in message
...
Hi all,
a friend has a Packard Bell computer. It has the ugly purple skin
installed which makes toolbars in Internet explorer and Outlook Express,
look , er awful and make the text harder to read. I looked at it and
thought "oh yeah no problem I'll just get rid of that awful purple skin.".
Well I could not find any options to allow the removal of this skin!
Crazy! ... How? Who?

I found a program from Packard Bell which apparently removes the plug ugly
purple skin he
http://support.packardbell.com/uk/it...923040000#show

So clearly I'm not alone. But what perplexes me is Microsoft have allowed
this 'wonderful' skinning feature, but they don't seem to have any help
files on how to 1 - install skins, and 2 remove the damn thing.

I have no reason to believe that the Packard Bell skin remover wont work
but does anyone know what the windows way of managing these skins is?

Never heard of it.

123Jim wrote:
Hi all,
a friend has a Packard Bell computer. It has the ugly purple skin
installed
which makes toolbars in Internet explorer and Outlook Express, look , er
awful and make the text harder to read. I looked at it and thought "oh
yeah
no problem I'll just get rid of that awful purple skin.". Well I could not
find any options to allow the removal of this skin! Crazy! ... How? Who?

I found a program from Packard Bell which apparently removes the plug ugly
purple skin he
http://support.packardbell.com/uk/it...923040000#show

So clearly I'm not alone. But what perplexes me is Microsoft have allowed
this 'wonderful' skinning feature, but they don't seem to have any help
files on how to 1 - install skins, and 2 remove the damn thing.

I have no reason to believe that the Packard Bell skin remover wont work
but
does anyone know what the windows way of managing these skins is?

Never heard of it.

123Jim wrote:
Hi all,
a friend has a Packard Bell computer. It has the ugly purple skin
installed
which makes toolbars in Internet explorer and Outlook Express, look , er
awful and make the text harder to read. I looked at it and thought "oh
yeah
no problem I'll just get rid of that awful purple skin.". Well I could not
find any options to allow the removal of this skin! Crazy! ... How? Who?

I found a program from Packard Bell which apparently removes the plug ugly
purple skin he
http://support.packardbell.com/uk/it...923040000#show

So clearly I'm not alone. But what perplexes me is Microsoft have allowed
this 'wonderful' skinning feature, but they don't seem to have any help
files on how to 1 - install skins, and 2 remove the damn thing.

I have no reason to believe that the Packard Bell skin remover wont work
but
does anyone know what the windows way of managing these skins is?

"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
MS didn't create this third party app, so why would you expect them to
help? MS /allows/ Norton, McAfee, Avast, AVG etc. as anti-virus programs,
but they don't offer support for those programs, or how to remove them.
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA

Fair point, however they might at least provide an article about it on their
web site. Something along the lines of: "You may find Outlook express
toolbar is inexplicably ugly and difficult to read, well guess what .. it's
an unsupported hack, but fear not, just do ..... something ..... to be free
of this irritation"

"Bruce Hagen" wrote in message
...
MS didn't create this third party app, so why would you expect them to
help? MS /allows/ Norton, McAfee, Avast, AVG etc. as anti-virus programs,
but they don't offer support for those programs, or how to remove them.
--

Bruce Hagen
MS-MVP Outlook Express
Imperial Beach, CA

Fair point, however they might at least provide an article about it on their
web site. Something along the lines of: "You may find Outlook express
toolbar is inexplicably ugly and difficult to read, well guess what .. it's
an unsupported hack, but fear not, just do ..... something ..... to be free
of this irritation"

123Jim wrote:
a friend has a Packard Bell computer. It has the ugly purple skin
installed which makes toolbars in Internet explorer and Outlook
Express, look , er awful and make the text harder to read. I looked
at it and thought "oh yeah no problem I'll just get rid of that
awful purple skin.". Well I could not find any options to allow the
removal of this skin! Crazy! ... How? Who?
I found a program from Packard Bell which apparently removes the
plug ugly purple skin he
http://support.packardbell.com/uk/it...923040000#show

So clearly I'm not alone. But what perplexes me is Microsoft have
allowed this 'wonderful' skinning feature, but they don't seem to
have any help files on how to 1 - install skins, and 2 remove the
damn thing.
I have no reason to believe that the Packard Bell skin remover wont
work but does anyone know what the windows way of managing these
skins is?

Bruce Hagen wrote:
MS didn't create this third party app, so why would you expect them
to help? MS /allows/ Norton, McAfee, Avast, AVG etc. as anti-virus
programs, but they don't offer support for those programs, or how
to remove them.

123Jim wrote:
Fair point, however they might at least provide an article about it
on their web site. Something along the lines of: "You may find
Outlook express toolbar is inexplicably ugly and difficult to read,
well guess what .. it's an unsupported hack, but fear not, just
do ..... something ..... to be free of this irritation"


It is not inexplicable... The explanation is that someone installed the
purple skin.

The web page you found pretty much tells you everything you need to know...
http://support.packardbell.com/uk/it...923040000#show
"After downloading the file, doubleclick it in order to remove the skin.
After running this patch, you will have to restart Internet Explorer to see
the result."

Other people customize all sorts of things all the time. The original
manufacturer of these products have *no responsibility* to anyone to tell
the end-consumer how they can undo the customizations of others. First -
they may not know it is being done. Second - even if they do know - who are
they to make the judgement call about the asthetics (if it was dongerous,
okay - but aesthetics...?)

It seems to me that those who installed the skin realized that not everyone
might enjoy their choice and provided a removal method. Technically -
you're probably lucky they decided to do that. ;-)

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

123Jim wrote:
a friend has a Packard Bell computer. It has the ugly purple skin
installed which makes toolbars in Internet explorer and Outlook
Express, look , er awful and make the text harder to read. I looked
at it and thought "oh yeah no problem I'll just get rid of that
awful purple skin.". Well I could not find any options to allow the
removal of this skin! Crazy! ... How? Who?
I found a program from Packard Bell which apparently removes the
plug ugly purple skin he
http://support.packardbell.com/uk/it...923040000#show

So clearly I'm not alone. But what perplexes me is Microsoft have
allowed this 'wonderful' skinning feature, but they don't seem to
have any help files on how to 1 - install skins, and 2 remove the
damn thing.
I have no reason to believe that the Packard Bell skin remover wont
work but does anyone know what the windows way of managing these
skins is?

Bruce Hagen wrote:
MS didn't create this third party app, so why would you expect them
to help? MS /allows/ Norton, McAfee, Avast, AVG etc. as anti-virus
programs, but they don't offer support for those programs, or how
to remove them.

123Jim wrote:
Fair point, however they might at least provide an article about it
on their web site. Something along the lines of: "You may find
Outlook express toolbar is inexplicably ugly and difficult to read,
well guess what .. it's an unsupported hack, but fear not, just
do ..... something ..... to be free of this irritation"


It is not inexplicable... The explanation is that someone installed the
purple skin.

The web page you found pretty much tells you everything you need to know...
http://support.packardbell.com/uk/it...923040000#show
"After downloading the file, doubleclick it in order to remove the skin.
After running this patch, you will have to restart Internet Explorer to see
the result."

Other people customize all sorts of things all the time. The original
manufacturer of these products have *no responsibility* to anyone to tell
the end-consumer how they can undo the customizations of others. First -
they may not know it is being done. Second - even if they do know - who are
they to make the judgement call about the asthetics (if it was dongerous,
okay - but aesthetics...?)

It seems to me that those who installed the skin realized that not everyone
might enjoy their choice and provided a removal method. Technically -
you're probably lucky they decided to do that. ;-)

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

"123Jim" wrote in message
...
Hi all,
a friend has a Packard Bell computer. It has the ugly purple skin
installed which makes toolbars in Internet explorer and Outlook Express,
look , er awful and make the text harder to read. I looked at it and
thought "oh yeah no problem I'll just get rid of that awful purple skin.".
Well I could not find any options to allow the removal of this skin!
Crazy! ... How? Who?

I found a program from Packard Bell which apparently removes the plug ugly
purple skin he
http://support.packardbell.com/uk/it...923040000#show

So clearly I'm not alone. But what perplexes me is Microsoft have allowed
this 'wonderful' skinning feature, but they don't seem to have any help
files on how to 1 - install skins, and 2 remove the damn thing.

I have no reason to believe that the Packard Bell skin remover wont work
but does anyone know what the windows way of managing these skins is?



Does changing the Windows theme remove the skin? Have you looked in
Accessories, Control Panel, etc., for any PB built-in program for changing
the skins? (Have you read the manual or tried PB Help?) If not, go for it,
run the PB tool. You do have the PB recovery disk/partition, right?

SC Tom