Sadly, UXtheme patches seem to have no effect for me
Are you using special Windows 7 themes with the UXTheme patch then? Note, you often need to replace some files, like explorer.exe and some dll files.
I've managed to get different themes working, but the gain just isn't worth the trouble. If you want to look into something really interesting, look up Dream Scene for Windows 7. It'll allow you to play a movie as background picture!