Recently, a number of Windows 10 users getting an error on their computers that state, “Windows can’t find one of the files in this theme”. According to the affected users, this error occurs at random times even when they didn’t make any changes to their computer’s theme prior to getting the error. If you are one of these users, read on as this post will help you resolve this problem.
If you click on the Yes button of the dialog box where the error is displayed, it won’t fix the problem as you will still get the same error from time to time. This kind of error could be caused by the executable file named “SettingSyncHost.exe”. It is possible that this executable file is unable to sync your theme all over your computer. On the other hand, it could also be due to some problems with the active theme. To resolve this issue, you can try to change the active theme, or disable the custom screensaver or disable theme syncing on your computer, as well as run a System File Checker or run the DISM tool. For more instructions, follow the options given below.
Option 1 – Try to change the active theme
The first thing you can do to fix the error is to change the active theme of your computer since the SettingSyncHost.exe file might not be able to properly sync the theme on the computer.
- Go to Settings and click on Personalization.
- Next, click on Themes and scroll down to apply a theme, and change the theme of the operating system.
- After that, tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box and type “%windir%ResourcesThemes” in the field, and then tap Enter to open the folder where the theme files are located.
- Once you’re done, right-click and select delete for the active theme to remove the theme and its resources. This should fix the root cause of the problem. If not you can try to create a new Windows 10 theme and save it.
Option 2 – Try to disable the custom screensaver
The custom screensaver is a part of the mechanism of the lock screen. Although they were needed in the earlier Windows versions to prevent the discoloration of CRT monitor screens, they are no longer needed in the current version of Windows. Thus, you can try to disable it as it could be the one that’s causing the problem.
- Click on the Start button and go to Settings > Personalization > Lock screen.
- Here, scroll down and click on the Screen Saver settings.
- After that, select the “Screen saver to (None)” option from the drop-down menu. This will disable the custom screensaver.
Option 3 – Try to disable theme syncing on your computer
You could also try to disable the theme sync feature to fix the problem. This has worked out for some users. To do so, follow these steps:
- Click on the Start button and go to Settings > Account > Sync your settings.
- From there, toggle off Themes in the individual sync settings column. This will disable the Theme syncing.
- Restart your computer and see if the problem is now fixed.
Option 4 – Run the DISM tool
The next thing you can do is run the DISM tool. This tool is known to repair potentially corrupted files in your system as having them could also system issues like the “Windows can’t find one of the files in this theme” error. To repair these corrupted system files, you can run the DISM commands:
- Tap the Win + X keys and click on the “Command Prompt (Admin)” option.
- After that, input each one of the commands listed below sequentially to execute them:
- Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
- Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
- Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
- Once you’ve executed the commands given above, restart your computer and check if the problem is now fixed.
Option 5 – Run the System File Checker
System File Checker or SFC is a built-in command utility that helps in restoring corrupted files as well as missing files. It replaces bad and corrupted system files to good system files that might be the cause why you’re getting the “Windows can’t find one of the files in this theme” error. To run the SFC command, follow the steps given below.
- Type “cmd” in the Start search and then right-click on the appropriate search result.
- Next, select “Run as administrator” to open Command Prompt with admin privileges.
- After opening Command Prompt, type in sfc /scannow
The command will start a system scan which will take a few whiles before it finishes. Once it’s done, you could get the following results:
- Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
- Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
- Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.
- Now restart your computer and see if the problem is fixed or not.