I downloaded a theme, and then set it (It was the theme with Gandalf from Lord of the Rings) and it gave me an error when I restarted, and didn't even load Litestep. No programs were loaded when I went to Ctrl+ALt+Del. I tried booting in safe mode, still didn't work. so then I tried my windows startup disk and using MS Dos, and re-install windows, but for some reason, it wouldn't let me run setup on my windows ME cd. I also remembered to use drive E instead of D (because when u run the setup disk, it moves all cd drives back one letter). Nothing works, or even starts up, so what should I do? should I reboot the system and format the drive?
READ THE MANUAL! I SPECIFICALLY wrote in there "DO NOT REINSTALL WINDOWS AT ANY TIME". There is just a problem with the them. Find out what your error is and write it down. Edit your step.rc and set it back to Simplicity so you get a shell. Then fix the error in the other theme. ggg...I swear nobody reads anything anymore.
I can't edit step.rc! I can't do anything! I cannot open ANY FILE!
Boot off your little boot floppy and type "edit c:\windows\system.ini" (Without the quotes). Its all written in the docs.
I think Windows ME should have been relegated to the dustbin ages ago. I installed it on my machine about 2 years ago and kept if for like three days, and then got rid of it - I knew it was going to be screwy - I can't believe people still use it :-)
Well, if it's WinME, then maybe he really ought to install Windows all over again. (Ten to one, he's had a ton of problems with Windows before hearing of LiteStep. If he hasn't, he's probably never installed a third-party hardware or software product.) I'd recommend an upgrade to Win2K/XP or a downgrade to Win98SE. That alone will solve loads of Windows problems besides LS woes.
Red Eyez: As for the more immediate problem of getting your system to boot, the instant the "Starting Windows..." message appears, hammer the [F8] key until a boot menu appears. (or was that [F5]? I can't remember if it was changed for WinME.) Then boot to command prompt, and follow DevilBoi's instructions.
They really do work if you follow them, and don't follow them blindly. Have patience and keep your wits about you.
If you press ctrl+alt+del to get the taskmanager you should be able to start new programs with that (new activity or something like that (my windows is in swedish so I don't know exactly)). Then run lscp.exe or lsts.exe and change the theme. Maybe you have to run litestep.exe after that too. This works in win2k but it should work in winme too.
gieron: WinME is a DOS-kernel Windows, like 98 and 95, while Win2K is an NT-kernel, like NT4 and XP. WinME doesn't have a task manager. All it has is a "Close Program" box, with only 3 options: End Program, Shut Down (without prompting, btw), and Cancel. There's no way to start new tasks from the Close Program box. It's the one window that, if you have to invoke it, means you'd better shut down cleanly while you still can.
Arrgh, sorry about that then. I haven't used the 9x versions for years now. Do you really mean that there is no way to execute programs in 9x without having explorer or litestep or something similar running? In any case I agree with you; he should upgrade to 2k/XP.
when you boot up hit f8 and boot to a dos prompt, manually edit your c:\windows\system.ini and change the shell=c:\litestep\litestep.exe line to read shell=explorer.exe
then download a shell swapper so you never have to worry about breaking it and doing that again, (carapace, from
http://www.lowdimension.net is good), then read the documentation and tweak away to your hearts content.