Problems changing the theme

I'm attempting to change the theme of my computer to one that i personally
create, and each time i try it doesn't work. Each time i change it, it
automatically reverts to the "windows classic" theme, even though it has the
name of the custom theme selected. I even got a program that changes the
entire theme for you called window blinds, but the problem is teh same time,
each time i apply a skin, it reverts to windows classic.

what is the problem, and how do i solve it? thank you.

update: I realized that changing the appearance manually changes the windows
classic theme, not the windows xp theme which i thought it would.

However, my problem is still the same. When i try to use a new theme using
windowsblinds, it reverts to windows classic time and time again.

i too am having this problem... though for me, i am able to change the text,
ie font, size, color. for some reason, i cannot get the color of the title
bars etc to change. it is very odd that it will only let me do half of this.
if anyone could give us some help, i would really appreciate it!