>> Yes, but every time you click an icon or open a window hundreds of
>> registry accesses happen. Trying to isolate just those related to the
>> theme change is the hard part...
>
> "Compare before and after" is not the same as "track every access".

OK. But that still doesn't detract from the actual problem: whether you 
track every individual access, or just the before and after images, the 
problem is that you can't just grab a bunch of registry changes, apply 
them to another machine, and expect it to do the same thing. It's not 
that simple.

Every time I log onto a new machine, it takes me about 20 minutes to 
turn off all the annoying Explorer shell stuff I don't want. (The hiding 
of files and file extensions, the retarded Start menu, the tray 
auto-hide, etc.) The dream was that I could track down the actual 
registry changes that underlie each of these configurations, and write 
an automated script that would instantly turn off all the stupid 
settings and give me a usable desktop on any machine.

To some extent, I was able to do this. But theming never, ever worked. 
There are *far* too many registry keys involved. When you change theme, 
there are DLLs literally setting the number of pixels for the thickness 
of a window title bar, the number of pixels to allocate for button 
corners, and so forth. Way, way too much stuff to script, or even 
comprehend. Separating the significant registry changes from the 
insignificant ones proved just too hard.

(I still secretly dream that somewhere, there's some COM object you can 
invoke which just *does* it all for you... But since I'm no longer using 
Windows XP, I guess it doesn't even matter any more.)

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