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apr8

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IE 8.0 shows black menu, favorites, command, status bars

My menu, favorites, command and status bars in IE 8.0 are all black and I can't see the text for each icon.  The icons are showing, and drop downs work if I click, but this colour scheme is not helpful.  Everything else works.  Help please.
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John
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I think IE uses the Windows colour scheme. Change your windows colour scheme (even temporarily) to see if that clears your problem.

If not, go into IE -> Tools -> Internet Options -> Advanced and do a Reset. This resets favourites, passwords and such like so make sure you have a record of things. Reset is a standard way to clear IE issues. ... Thinkpads_User
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Houssam Ballout
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Dr. Klahn

Is it possible that a hostile browser helper object has infested IE?
Don't use the Classic theme for Windows.

If using a theming utility (e.g., WindowBlinds), configure it to exclude Internet Explorer.  These tools often screw up several apps because they don't really know how to modify the theme inside those apps.
>>> Don't use the Classic theme for Windows.

That is not helpful, because the Classic Theme works wonderfully well and is bomb-proof.

... Thinkpads_User
To thinkpads_user:

The Classic theme is not bomb-proof, plus it may not be the default configuration but a modified one.  It is the theme that some users is active when the black bars problem appears.  Sometimes switching away from the Classic theme (to apply a different theme) and switch back to the Classic theme fixes the black bars problem, sometimes not.  No theme is bomb-proof as its implementation depends on how the application inherits or employs that theme for its GUI objects.  I haven't kept track of which version of IE the user is reporting the black bars problem but it seems to be a defect in IE8.

http://iecustomizer.com/Resources/Articles/BlackToolbars.aspx
See "Replication" section.
>>> The Classic theme is not bomb-proof,

It has never once ever cause a problem or a crash on any machine of mine or any I have ever built. So some other OS corruption probably causes the issue. For me, it is truly bomb-proof. This is true in IE6, 7, 8, and 9 (beta). YMMV.
 ... Thinkpads_User
How'd we get from a video artifact (black bars) to a crash (of the OS or app)?