lab

Your suggestion of the Kellys-Korner tweak was excellent (which is a good thing, because I had already verified most of the other checkpoints). I read through the tweaks and tried one a bit closer to the described condition - #256 on the right side: "Effects Options are Greyed Out - Appearance" It employs the same strategy as you so clearly explained for #214. Thanks!

Indeed, I have rebooted and troble-shot many times. Could a registry link, dll, or ActiveX Control associated with the Effects menu have gotten deleted or damaged?

Display Properties menu, Appearance tab: the Effects button not working after running ccleaner. I am able to invoke the Advanced button on this tab. I am running winXP Pro-SP2 and ccleaner v1.27, with the defaults checked for cleaner and issues.