Shell32 Sound Problem

Hey, whenever i try to install a new theme and replace my shell32.dll file then the sound on my computer dosn''t work... at all. I have seen some people on other forums that cant use windows media player but i cant even hear the start up noises or youtube videos or games or anything.
I'm running vista home premium 32 bit and have a creative sound blaster something sound card. I used to vista glazz to patch the files so i cold use the custom themes, I'm not sure if that would make a difference though. Does anyone know whats wrong? Thanks in advance.

 

It's probably not registering the shell sound services under the proper registry entry, resulting in the system being unable to find the sound services when it looks for them in the registry.

This is from an XP-based website, so I don't know if the registry for _Vista is still the same; however, open the registry editor and look for the following keys:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Apps, and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\Schemes\Eventlabels

And check to see if (a) they still exist, or (b) what they have listed underneath them.

 

what am i looking for under them? the first one has several folders onder it and the second one dosnt exist

 

I just tried to change it again and still the same thing, no sound and nothing looks different

 

Me and the guy here seem to be the only people in the world having this problem... does anybody know what might be wrong?

 

When you alter your copy of shell32.dll, is it getting properly re-registered after it's been tinkered with?

 

sorry, i dont understand. after i copy the new version of shell32 nothing happens at all, i dont see the topshell that was supposed to be added and i dont hear any sound whatsoever. How would i know if it is getting properly re-registered?
I might see if i can find a program which can open dll files and then just import changes from the new shell32.dll into a copy of the original and see if that works.

 

Nothing should happen if all you're doing is copying in an unauthorized version of a sensitive system dll ("unauthorized" as in not written/signed by Microsoft, not as in "illegal" - don't worry, I'm not barking up that tree).

In general, for a dll to be woven into the system properly, it has to be "registered" with the OS using regsvr32.exe. That would, generally, be done by opening a command prompt with administrative privileges and executing the command "regsvr32 dllname.dll" (omitting quotation marks, and where 'dllname.dll' is the name/extension of the dll to register, in your case, that would be system32.dll). The requirement for administrative privileges is discussed here.

However, you'd better make sure you know what you're doing before you start monkeying around with system dlls. Try reading through some of the hits on this google search having to do with registering dlls under _Vista.

As always, don't do it if you're not sure what you're doing, or don't understand it; otherwise, you've been warned.

 

Thanks, ill research it, then if i feel comfortable i'll try registering it like you said.