FS 2004 Sliders won't move

This might help someone in the future.

I am a moderate fan of Microsoft's Flight Simulator 2004, even more a fan of Flight Sim X.
Unfortunately, I don't have the right machine to play it. For all practical purposes, I only play 2004 because that's all my laptop will support for a good gameplay experience.

Recently though, I happened to notice that Runway centerlines couldn't be seen, taxiway markings etc where obscure, and graphics quality in general had gone down. When I opened the graphics settings page, I find that I can't move any of the sliders to a custom level (in order to experiment)

Turns out this happens when Windows Blinds tries to skin FS9. All you have to do is to add FS9 to Windows Blinds' exception list and you are on your way.