Change Windows Background color in Windows 8
I recently installed Windows 8 and on thing which I always do on my Windows environment is to change the background color of the windows to a light gray.  However I cant figure out how to do this on Windows 8, can someone point me in the right direction please.
September 4th, 2012 2:17pm

I already tried that but in the previous version there was an option to change the color scheme, but in Windows 8 this seems to be lacking.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
September 5th, 2012 2:03am

Yes the desktop windows (Windows 8 Enterprise)
September 5th, 2012 2:13pm

Welcome to random feature removal. Advanced Appearance settings dialog is removed in Windows 8 under the false pretext that with Classic theme also gone, they were no longer required. Even if many of the settings were applicable for Aero-based themes, they don't care much customization now. It's Microsoft's way and no other.
  • Edited by xpclient Wednesday, September 05, 2012 4:30 PM
  • Proposed as answer by xpclient Wednesday, September 05, 2012 4:30 PM
  • Unproposed as answer by David WoltersModerator Tuesday, January 21, 2014 7:37 PM
  • Proposed as answer by Erdem Kargn 14 hours 54 minutes ago
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
September 5th, 2012 4:28pm

So this feature is completely removed there is no way get back, by enabling some features even?
September 6th, 2012 1:57am

It may be possible by editing the registry assuming they haven't broken that as well. I haven't checked. Use Procmon on Windows 7 to see which reg value and then try it on Windows 8.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
September 6th, 2012 3:21am

So this feature is completely removed there is no way get back, by enabling some features even?

Try customizing a High Contrast Display theme?


---

September 17th, 2012 7:37am

As far as I can tell many/most of the desktop settings are still read from the registry locations that would be updated by a desktop configuration tool if one existed.  I don't know how long that'll keep, nor whether Microsoft has already taken to hard-coding things they update in the desktop realm. 

But that almost everything (and certainly apps) still seem to read these settings probably says someone will come out with a tool (if they haven't already) to allow you to update your various settings.  Look to companies like Stardock to augment the Windows 8 desktop and give it enough style to be usable again.

I've made some headway in that direction by simply exporting certain parts of the registry from my Windows 7 system and importing them into Windows 8.  I've been able to make the title bars and caption buttons smaller that way, for example. 

Perhaps you can determine what's changed in the registry by Windows 7 to make the background color change you want, then make that same change in your Windows 8 registry to achieve your goal.

Good luck.

  

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
September 17th, 2012 11:12pm

When I first loaded Win 8 this was driving me nuts, too.

I like to set the background color of my windows to something other than white. It is much easier on the eyes.

So I did a little digging in the registry.

The settings are actually much nicer in Win 8 than in Win 7. I'm surprised no one has written a tool for this yet.

In windows 7 the colors are located in a rather obscure registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Appearance\New Schemes\Current Settings SaveAll\Sizes\0

from there the values are not named with user friendly names. It takes some experimenting to determine that Color #5 is the window background color.

Fortunately, in Win 8 it is much simpler. The colors are stored in this key.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors

and the values have nice user friendly names, so Window is the window background color and Window Text is the window text, etc.

These are string values and the color format is decimal RGB values for the color you want in RRR GGG BBB.

black = 0 0 0, white is 255 255 255, silver is 192 192 192 and what I use personally is 206 197 151.

The change does not take effect immediately. You need to restart windows first.

As always, when editing the registry directly you are on your own and should only do so if you are comfortable. I take no responsibility.

Hope this helps others,

Rick

October 16th, 2012 7:43pm

Thank you for that discovery, Rick.  I can think of a lot of things that can potentially be done to improve the usability of Windows 8 just by changing these colors.

Here are the defaults:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors]
"Window"="255 255 255"
"GradientInactiveTitle"="215 228 242"
"TitleText"="0 0 0"
"ButtonAlternateFace"="0 0 0"
"HotTrackingColor"="0 102 204"
"InactiveTitleText"="0 0 0"
"ActiveBorder"="180 180 180"
"ActiveTitle"="153 180 209"
"ButtonShadow"="160 160 160"
"InactiveTitle"="191 205 219"
"Menu"="240 240 240"
"ButtonDkShadow"="105 105 105"
"HilightText"="255 255 255"
"ButtonText"="0 0 0"
"GrayText"="109 109 109"
"InfoText"="0 0 0"
"MenuText"="0 0 0"
"MenuHilight"="51 153 255"
"Hilight"="51 153 255"
"Background"="0 0 0"
"AppWorkspace"="171 171 171"
"ButtonLight"="227 227 227"
"GradientActiveTitle"="185 209 234"
"WindowFrame"="100 100 100"
"InfoWindow"="255 255 225"
"MenuBar"="240 240 240"
"Scrollbar"="200 200 200"
"ButtonFace"="240 240 240"
"WindowText"="0 0 0"
"ButtonHilight"="255 255 255"
"InactiveBorder"="244 247 252"

Off to experiment!

 

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
October 17th, 2012 5:11pm

Well, it appears only SOME of those entries actually work, Rick.  Typical Microsoft.  Rather a mess under the covers.

Here's what I found has any effect, and even then only in some apps and not others:

 

AppWorkspace            Background of older MDI apps and no document open
ButtonFace              buttons in legacy apps, column divider in Regedit
ButtonHilight           Edges of things in legacy apps
ButtonShadow            Edges of things and dividers in legacy apps, highlights in buttons when active
ButtonText              Tabs in legacy apps, menus in legacy apps when active
GrayText                Menus in legacy apps when inactive
Hilight                 Background of selected text and items
HilightText             Text in selected text and items
InfoText                Tooltip Text in older apps
InfoWindow              Tooltip Background in older apps
Menu                    Bottom edge of menu bar in regedit
MenuText                Active menu when hovering in legacy apps
Window                  Edit box background, active pane background in apps, some influence on buttons in legacy apps
WindowText              Edit box text, active pane text in apps, folders in File Explorer

 

I couldn't see any effects from changing these values:

 

Background
ButtonAlternateFace
ButtonDkShadow
ButtonLight
GradientActiveTitle
GradientInactiveTitle
HotTrackingColor
InactiveBorder
InactiveTitle
InactiveTitleText
MenuBar
MenuHilight
Scrollbar
TitleText
WindowFrame

However, it opened my mind to the possibility of exporting stuff from under Windows 7's HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Appearance\New Schemes\Current Settings SaveAll\Sizes\0 key and seeing if any of that affects the Windows 8 desktop.  More experimentation...

 

October 17th, 2012 6:46pm

Brilliant. I can't wait to tell a user who wants to change their background to simply hack into the registry and modify 20 entries with esoteric RGB values, but only for half the options they want to - because it doesn't work for the other half. Yes, they could do that easily in the previous Windows 7 GUI, but that was then - and this is the new, improved Windows 8 methodology. Ye-haw!

What a complete fail for Windows 8.

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
October 17th, 2012 9:10pm

All the rest was a waste of time.  More and more stuff is being hard-coded and oversimplified, just as one would predict with the demise of the configuration dialogs.

The only thing that seems to change the rest of the UI elements' colors is [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM], which is adjusted by right-clicking the desktop, choosing Personalize, then changing the Color via the several controls listed there.  You can't do things like define what color inactive window borders are at all, nor invoke any sort of transparency.

 

October 17th, 2012 10:06pm

Hi Noel,

Thanks for doing some more research on this.

I wonder if the other colors would have an effect if you could turn off the "automatic" color setting you see in the personalization control panel?

My understanding is a lot of the colors are being determined by the colors in your wallpaper.

I don't see an obvious registry setting that jumps out at me.

Rick

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
October 17th, 2012 10:21pm

You can't do things like define what color inactive window borders are at all, nor invoke any sort of transparency

Have you tried starting from a High Contrast theme yet?   ; }

 

---

October 18th, 2012 12:43am

Unfortunately, Robert, that seems to turn off what remains of Aero entirely, much like using a Basic theme used to do in Windows 7, and that brings additional unwanted baggage.

Do you have a specific suggestion or success story that would make further investigation worthwhile?  If so, please share!  :-)

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
October 18th, 2012 12:52pm

Do you have a specific suggestion or success story that would make further investigation worthwhile?

No.  I was just observing that using the customization of a HC theme could answer the original request, changing the background color, without resorting to registry changes.   Also, I was wondering if changes made that way would have the same effect as the registry changes which have been proposed here?


---


October 18th, 2012 2:06pm

The configurability from the UI leaves a lot to be desired, as I mentioned.  I tried selecting all the different High Contrast themes.  I don't see a lot of promise.

The one biggest thing I need to reiterate is that what's left of Aero is becoming quite fixed in function - for example one can't avoid having non-current windows be anything but a very bright gray.  They're so bright I find my mental focus being drawn away from what I'm working on.  This was handled much better in Aero prior to Windows 8 RTM by the level of transparency being higher in the non-current window UI elements.  It's knowing that even the option to select that form of operation has been actively removed that gets my goat.

 

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
October 18th, 2012 4:07pm

I tried selecting all the different High Contrast themes.

Just one would let you start customizing it.   E.g. via Windows colors.   I'm on W7 so I'll have to check more closely when I get back on W8 but my impression was that the HC Windows colors dialog was similar to W7's  Advanced appearance settings...  I specifically remember seeing an item for Inactive title there but just assumed that you would be given a palette there, not just shades of grey.

 

---

October 18th, 2012 8:36pm

Okay, you've prompted me to do more experimentation (never a bad thing), and I DO see that it leads to a different set of configuration options.

Unfortunately, still only a few things are configurable via the altered color and appearance dialog - but not all that's needed.  I see, for example, that the close buttons are now blue, not red, and no way to set that.  Note that the common controls both gained some style and lost some (e.g., scroll bar thumbs have lines in them, but nothing has any depth)...

This shows a fairly quick attempt to turn a high-contrast theme into something usable.  I need to experiment some more to see if registry tweaking on top of this can help at all.  I don't hold a lot of hope for it though.  Note that it screws up the appearance of this site in IE10.

 

   

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
October 18th, 2012 10:00pm

Heh, by keeping the above dialog open while switching to an Aero theme I even managed to invoke some kind of broken transparency mode where the Taskbar and window title bars are completely transparent with artifacts.  After that, fooling with things further ended up netting (accidentally) some combination of both modes with no transparency (even in the Taskbar) but which doesn't look as bad as what's shown above and actually seems better than the pure Aero theme.  This is actually the most usable "theme" I've managed.

There may be potential here yet.  I have to examine the differences in saved registry exports to see how all this stuff is happening.

 

October 18th, 2012 10:49pm

Nah, on additional experimentation every road leads to a dead end.

The registry key that caused the title bars, et. al. to become completely transparent was this one:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM]
"ColorizationGlassAttribute"=dword:00000002

It's becoming ever more clear (pardon the pun) to me that there has simply been functionality removed from C:\Windows\Resources\Themes\aero\aero.msstyles for blurring the background of title bars and making it partially transparent, as well as for giving buttons visual styles.  Notably aero.msstyles in the RTM is a little smaller than the one in Win8RP, and replacing it with the Win8RP file not surprisingly breaks the entire system (the screen just goes black).

Microsoft should be nice and provide an alternate aero.msstyles file that can bring back just the significant drop shadow around windows?  You still have the configuration option available for it, but the effect is so puny as to be nonexistent...  Hell, I'd even pay extra for a "plus pack" to do it.

 

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
October 19th, 2012 12:43am

I just found this thread by accident.

For the past month, I have been wasting a lot of time trying to tweak the theme files but not getting results.  First, like what others here have said, only one or two parameters worked.

On boot up, the selected theme file is not obeyed.  But on Hibernate and switching on again, sometimes the theme file is obeyed (for those few parameters).

The color configuration in that dialog shown above looks like a half done job.  Just windows border and taskbar?  Windows 95 was better.

For the last 12 years, I have always selected Classic Windows, the one that is same as Windows 2000. The windows adornments occupy the least space, and it provides the fastest way to pick out the active window - bright dark blue against gray for all others.  For the past month I have wasted enormous time from hitting Alt-F4 on the wrong windows because the shade of gray between the active and inactive are hardly distinguishable.

How are themes supposed to work in Windows 8?  Has anyone developed a Classic Windows theme yet?

October 19th, 2012 2:40am

I'm with you on wanting to minimize the chrome - and I've found a couple of ways to accomplish that.

But the ability to visually differentiate between windows has been very nearly destroyed in Windows 8.  There's virtually no drop shadow on the current window, and none at all on the other windows.  Those were essential for visually differentiating overlapping windows.  Windows 8 fanboys seem blind to this, probably because they only ever ran one thing at a time maximized anyway.  Oh, if only life were that simple.

Near as I can tell from all my research, aero.msstyles (really a DLL under the covers) and some parts of the DWM were involved in rendering the full Aero Glass theme, and none of the hacks I've been able to find have done more than just make the drop shadow a little better and replace some of the buttons - at the expense of creating a Frankenstein's monster of an OS that won't pass an SFC check and won't upgrade properly in the future - not worth it.

One would have to program a new .msstyles DLL to get back all but transparency.  Apparently a shader that Microsoft had created for doing the blurring and which was working right up through the RP is now completely gone in the RTM build.

 

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
October 19th, 2012 9:14pm

Hi Noel

I just bought your configure windows 8 ebook, and will now begin reading it. If I like it I will send you a reader recommendation.

Thanks,

Violet Weed aka 'tante waileka'

November 21st, 2012 4:56pm

For us desktop users Win8 needs to provide the options that already existed regarding customization of themes/menus (classic).

White background ruins my eyesight and the high contrast are 10xtimes worse.

So rather stick to an older version than starting to have health issues from using this OS

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
November 22nd, 2012 5:06pm

Thank you, Tante.

 

November 22nd, 2012 7:15pm

When I first loaded Win 8 this was driving me nuts, too.

I like to set the background color of my windows to something other than white. It is much easier on the eyes.

So I did a little digging in the registry.

The settings are actually much nicer in Win 8 than in Win 7. I'm surprised no one has written a tool for this yet.

In windows 7 the colors are located in a rather obscure registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Appearance\New Schemes\Current Settings SaveAll\Sizes\0

from there the values are not named with user friendly names. It takes some experimenting to determine that Color #5 is the window background color.

Fortunately, in Win 8 it is much simpler. The colors are stored in this key.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors

and the values have nice user friendly names, so Window is the window background color and Window Text is the window text, etc.

These are string values and the color format is decimal RGB values for the color you want in RRR GGG BBB.

black = 0 0 0, white is 255 255 255, silver is 192 192 192 and what I use personally is 206 197 151.

The change does not take effect immediately. You need to restart windows first.

As always, when editing the registry directly you are on your own and should only do so if you are comfortable. I take no responsibility.

Hope this helps others,

Rick

OMG  Rick, you are The Man.

Windows 7 has nice 'white' background with black text, and that's so eye friendly; while win8 has too bright irritating white!!!!!!!!

Here is one pic: http://i46.tinypic.com/2sbvkly.jpg

I need some help/advice on Windows about irritating WINDOW size-POSITION, AUTOMATICALY SORTING FILES, COPY TO-MOVE FILE HISTORY DELETE, TO MUCH CLICKS ON PREVIOUS SIMPLE TASKS(ex.shutdown)....After all, new Start corner isn't that bad!

My e-mail: ljubo.gr@hotmail.com

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
November 27th, 2012 3:53pm

I hate that  white background in excel, outlook, visual studio - and it can't be changed now! I was able to change it to gray using this regedit method (window node). It works when I log in. But after I logout (e.g. by screen saver or Win+L) and login again, it's reset to white again. I'm sorry, but how stupid can you be to remove such feature? White hurts my eyes, I'm used to gray background!

Michal

December 19th, 2012 10:32am

Not "how stupid can you be" but "how devious"!

They hobbled Aero on purpose.  The removal of perfectly good visual styles and configurability was actively done by changing the programming, yet enough of it remains that there can be no possible argument that it was done to save resources.  They even tried to do it a little at a time, by changing each of the preview versions (Developer Preview, Customer Preview, Release Preview, RTM) incrementally, removing a bit more of the "ease of use" with each version.

This is precisely what has many desktop users miffed at Microsoft!

Microsoft seems to think that making it less pleasant to use the desktop means it will be more likely you'll want to find Metro/Modern solutions (in their App Store of course) for everything you do.  As if such apps could possibly replace what you do on the desktop.

 

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
December 19th, 2012 11:30am

They are incredibly stupid, not devious. They just cause headache to desktop users. And now I have to watch stupid white everywhere and my eyes are more tired when working all the day... And it's really pity, because W8 works great, very fast. 

I like the Metro tabs and I like my WM7 phone, but to work in Metro? Really? I can't even imagine using that Messaging app, it's terrible waste of time.

And I also think usually Microsoft customers like they can adjust most of the features, to adjust their desktop/working place - those who don't, use Apple... 

Michal

December 20th, 2012 9:44am

Maybe it can be said to be "stupid" to try to herd people into spending more money instead of giving them the best possible functionality, but if the argument is just whether Microsoft are being "stupid" technically or "stupid" business-wise, then we're truly in bad times either way, wouldn't you say?

 

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
December 20th, 2012 4:16pm

Definitely ... being afraid of missing another train called Tablets they've decided for even worse - let's kill our strongest desktop market totally ... And it's really pity, because as I said, W8 is great in speed, working with it is a pleasure... 

Michal

December 20th, 2012 5:11pm

i downloaded a patched theme called dark 8 that has a dark gray window background, patching isnt that hard nor has it messed my stuff up, so i could refer you to a link if you are interested. this feature lack was driving me nuts as well

and that goes for anyone reading this thread as well

  • Edited by Daemon8 Wednesday, January 02, 2013 2:58 AM
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
January 2nd, 2013 2:57am

Daemon8, please put up a screenshot or a link to images showing that theme.  I'd like to see it.

 

January 2nd, 2013 5:00am

So how do you actually implement the changes to reflect the changing colors options.  I need a step by step walk through.  I would like to change the white
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
January 15th, 2013 8:43pm

Hi, my screen, which is an ASUS PA248Q is extremely bright even when set to its minimum level of brightness.
The white backgrounds are hurting my eyes very much and I can't work for a long time because of it. I tried the regedit workaround but as Noel pointed out, it doesn't work with the window backgrounds (Edit box background, active pane background in apps, some influence on buttons in legacy apps).
For me it's definitely ruining my experience and I wonder why not more people had not protested, ergonomically spleaking this is a terrible thing.
If nothing is done to fix it I will probably have to revert to Windows 7, which is a shame.



January 31st, 2013 4:04pm

Does anyone know how to get around or delete what I see in this key?  That is SystemProtectedUserData?

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SystemProtectedUserData\S-1-5-21-2815722600-42913553-908455757-1001\AnyoneRead\Colors]

This key clearly blocks all subsequent attempts to change the color scheme on Win 8.  Changing the color of the window background has zero effect in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\DefaultColors\HighContrast.

Imagine looking at College courses or your bank statement with these ridiculous shades of bright white burning your eyes!
 
This Win 8 operating system clearly is and should be renamed "The System From Hell"  If you do not believe me just look at the ridiculous Spire on the roll up window covering the login page.  Then go and look at this Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=5zn8MRKOskw  and other similar ones regarding the Venus Project and United Nations Agenda 21.  My personal opinion is that the psychopath / sociopath criminals are closer and more powerful than we know.

I am re-plugging my Win XPpro sp3 disk, looking into Linux and maybe selling my Win 8 disk to the first dummy that steps up!

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
February 26th, 2013 10:18pm

Here is how you control background (and other dialogs, etc) color in Windows 8

Go to the Desktop
Right Click on a blank area and Select Personalize
Scroll down to High Contrast Themes and Select High Contrast White.  Note: Everything will become annoyingly bright.
Click on the Color item at the bottom of the window or type 'Color and Appearance' in the search box at the upper right.
Customize to your heart's content.

Apparently, these options are only available if you select the high contrast themes.

Post back if you have questions.

Sterling
SterlingSupport.net

May 26th, 2013 5:58pm

Here is how you control background (and other dialogs, etc) color in Windows 8

Go to the Desktop
Right Click on a blank area and Select Personalize
Scroll down to High Contrast Themes and Select High Contrast White.  Note: Everything will become annoyingly bright.
Click on the Color item at the bottom of the window or type 'Color and Appearance' in the search box at the upper right.
Customize to your heart's content.

Apparently, these options are only available if you select the high contrast themes.

Post back if you have questions.

Sterling
SterlingSuppo

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
May 28th, 2013 7:56am

Hi Guys.
I found solution by reading this thread.
The idea to update windows background color in registry was correct, but the location was wrong. You may want to use this value in order to change window background color:
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-2704394503-4225220067-2356620788-1009\Control Panel\Colors\Window
This will not change color in windows explorer though. This works only for windows such source code (.cs file) in VS, MS Word, right side in registry, etc.
The numbers in your actual registry path will look different.
Don't forget to reboot PC.
Enjoy.
June 3rd, 2013 4:52pm

Right click on your desktop, Personalize, and then Color. Change it from there. Hope this helps!

Result:

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
June 3rd, 2013 10:58pm

Hi Andrew,

This is the same answer I proposed back in Oct. As you point out it works with some windows and not with others.

It is what I've learned to live with.

Rick

June 3rd, 2013 11:23pm

Hi Geeky,

I don't mean to appear rude, but did you actually read this thread/topic?

What we've been trying to do is way beyond what the "personalize/color" dialog allows.

We want to be able to controls specific colors for parts of the window like earlier versions of windows.

If you know of a trick to get the "personalize/color" dialog to allow us to do that - it would be great!

Thanks,

Rick

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
June 3rd, 2013 11:25pm

Ah, I see, read it wrong. Thanks for letting me know!
June 3rd, 2013 11:40pm

Having waded through this thread in sun glasses (my new laptop is win 8) I was wondering if anyone has looked at customising the css files ?

there seems to be an interesting selection in this and other locations in windows

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\ASP.NETWebAdminFiles

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
July 20th, 2013 12:38pm

There are products in the wings that allow you to alter Windows' requirements for Themes (i.e., that they be supplied by Microsoft and only Microsoft).

There is also a product almost ready for release called Aero Glass for Win8 that will offer you the ability not only to resurrect the translucent glass effect but also to modify the theme settings, and ultimately to be able to load alternate themes that give you control over all the colors.

Microsoft clearly doesn't want us doing these things.

Why?

Because they WANT the desktop to suck, so we'll be encouraged to try to find Metro/Modern replacements for the things we already have - as though just the look and feel is all that we care about when selecting applications. 

Hint, Microsoft:  There actually HAVE to be Metro/Modern applications that do the job.  And the environment has to work well enough to support real work.  You're being WAY too aggressive in trying to hobble your desktop support in the hopes that people will magically be able to find Metro/Modern solutions for the things they need. 

I know it's hard for people with sub-100 IQs to understand, but you actually have to have the new environment rich with good choices before trying to force people off the old one.  Otherwise you just come off as incompetent.

It's also not true that the Metro/Modern environment actually can be as productive as the desktop.  Not everyone maximizes their window when they run their one application!

  

July 20th, 2013 3:12pm

Thanks.  This works well once I restart.

One issue that I noticed is that whenever I put my computer to sleep, when I wake it up the background color goes back to WHITE.  The registry settings haven't changed, but it appears that it is not being read coming back from sleep.  If I restart, the color settings in the registry are read again and the color is set to what I changed it to.  

Have you encountered this?  Do you have any idea of how to make this more permanent (e.g., waking from sleep)?

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
August 5th, 2013 6:52pm

  • Proposed as answer by Mamoonkhan Thursday, June 19, 2014 6:33 PM
August 10th, 2013 2:45pm

my windows 8 explorer
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
August 10th, 2013 2:51pm

here Is my windows 8 explorer color,,, blurred even..........

you should see my dark glass transpaRENT THEME.....

August 10th, 2013 2:53pm

How 'ave you done that then?
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
August 11th, 2013 7:34am

the high contrast is drastic overkill..   How do I adjust the colors for a low vision person ?
September 7th, 2013 3:24pm

Yes, we have tried that, but the High Contrast theme is almost unusable..  I need to be able to adjust window backgrounds and foregrounds fonts, font size etc.  The customer needs large light letters on a darkish window background..  black on white is unusable  *** email me a solution, I need it now
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
September 7th, 2013 3:39pm

Robert, I need to be able to fine tune colors for this customer   *** this is for mainly the desktop, Visual Studio, dialogs and all........   ***

* Please update this in Windows 8.1 or and update

September 7th, 2013 3:42pm

Yes Michal..  I have a lower vision relative who cannot even use the black on bright white..  for me it is like looking at a bright white sky..  where are my sunglasses..  ?
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
September 7th, 2013 3:54pm

Aero Glass for Windows 8 is released.  With some online sleuthing for "secret" registry parameters, you will find it offers the ability to disable Windows' signature verification so alternate themes can be loaded.  Of course, do this at your own risk, but it does offer a way to completely revamp your desktop look and feel.

http://glass8.berlios.de/

   

September 7th, 2013 4:22pm

Rick, 

This is great!  Thank you so much for putting it together!!

Talasi

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
September 9th, 2013 7:24pm

Cheers for this thread, it gave me the clues to get the window color working in all situations for Windows 8 & 8.1.

My preferred window color RGB is ec,ee,df.

1. It's fairly easy to get it set for the current user initially via the registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors, "Window"="236 238 223".

Then save it to a .deskthemepack file via Control Panel | Personalisation. This file is just  a CAB file containing Win7 style .theme text file and a desktop background jpg.

2. The bigger hassle is getting the color to stick after resuming from sleep or screen lock. I could only get this to work by writing to HKLM. So only suitable for a machine that's primarily for personal use.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\DefaultColors\Standard
"Window"=dword:00dfeeec

Note that for some reason, Microsoft made the colors BGR rather than RGB. Just to make it hard to find I guess?

  • Proposed as answer by Nikolai S Tuesday, December 30, 2014 1:40 AM
October 28th, 2013 9:39pm

One year topic and still the same issues. Neither of solutions really helps. Sometimes white blinds me, sometimes black text is written on dark-grey background, menu colors are not configurable without high-contrast (even worse theme). The most ridiculous - in a lot of windows different components are painted with different colors (as an example just open regedit and compare tree area with value area).

Looks like this is official MS politics to make UI worse and worse. I hadn't significant problems in Win-98, then more and more of them were appearing - editing registry, setting-up buggy utilities, recompiling DLLs, now don't know what to do at all.

Looks like UI stuff was not even tested with non-default settings. Do MS developers use this by themselves and looking at that white spotlights?

No penny to MS until this is fixed.

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
October 29th, 2013 9:16am

One year topic and still the same issues.

Looks like this is official MS politics to make UI worse and worse.

It's starting to sink in.

Everything they do is on purpose.

I honestly don't know what's worse - devious manipulativeness or incompetence.

   

October 29th, 2013 2:11pm

I've resigned myself to live with a slightly dark gray theme/title-bar/taskbar. Doesnt look too bad and you can read the titlebar text. Ultimately I think sooner or later there will be 3rd part hacks that will modify/replace whatever theme dlls/files are responsible for this. Not holding my breath for MS to do anything about it.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
November 3rd, 2013 12:16pm

That one really hits home. I'm indeed another unsatisfied Windows user, and feel left out big time. That whole metro thing makes my working station feel like a cheap copy of an iphone. Dear Microsoft, if I wanted a gadget, I would have bought one!

And now give me back the dark background without feeling like I'm in a bad 80ies disco. I wonder why they added those contrast themes in the first place, did anybody actually use them?

November 11th, 2013 11:31am

If you mean the colour of the taskbar and the window borders you can change it. Just click win+w meaning the windows button holded and then press w. Then type'change colour' and click the 2nd option and change the colour and intensity. Thats it mate but colour of background is random......kinda. My cousin's background is maroon and mine is blue.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
November 11th, 2013 4:17pm

I contacted Windows Support to see if they could provide a solution. The answer I was given made me laugh...

Hi, thanks for visiting Answer Desk. I'm Dennis A.


You:
10:47:15 PM  hi


Dennis A:
10:47:22 PM  Welcome to Microsoft Answer Desk! I'm Dennis A How can I help?


You:
10:47:44 PM  hi dennis, i'm having trouble personalizing my theme for windows 8


Dennis A:
10:47:57 PM  why is that?


You:
10:48:46 PM  I like using a dark theme for my windows and it looks nice, but when I have the window dark the title text of the window remains black, and so I can't read the title of the window
is there a way to change the color of the title text?


Dennis A:
10:49:27 PM  yes
when you click personalize,
\go  go to change color scheme


You:
10:52:12 PM  ok
then what?


Dennis A:
10:53:41 PM  then change the color until you can see the fonts


You:
10:54:09 PM  that didn't answer my question though
I asked if I could change the color of the title text and you said yes


Dennis A:
10:54:32 PM  I got confused
sorry


You:
10:54:38 PM  o ok
so is there a way to change the color of the title texts of my windows?

Dennis A:
10:55:56 PM  oh okay Windows
now I get it
no
that is the default
it is your background that you will need to change
(i am referring to your theme)

November 29th, 2013 7:11am

You *could* go with a 3rd party tool that restores Aero Glass and the ability to load alternate themes. There are even themes now that look just like Windows 7 that run on Windows 8+, if that's what you like. And you can do things like load alternate graphics to restore title bar glow behind text with dark backgrounds and color choices.

 

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
November 29th, 2013 4:37pm

From http://reboot.pro/topic/17390-windows-8/

Posted <abbr class="published" itemprop="commentTime" title="2012-09-23T10:27:51+00:00">23 September 2012 - 10:27 AM</abbr>

How to: Enable Aero Glass Transparency in Windows 8 Final

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PK_j-Iz8WM

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsDWM]

"Composition"=dword:00000001

"ColorizationColor"=dword:af4ca0fe

"ColorizationColorBalance"=dword:0000004e

"ColorizationAfterglow"=dword:af4ca0fe

"ColorizationAfterglowBalance"=dword:0000000a

"ColorizationblurBalance"=dword:00000012

"EnableWindowColorization"=dword:00000001

"ColorizationGlassAttribute"=dword:00000001

"EnableAeroPeek"=dword:00000001

"AlwaysHibernateThumbnails"=dword:00000001
December 10th, 2013 11:48pm

hello Dj41510

can u tell me where i can get that theme

????????

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
December 15th, 2013 9:16pm

 
Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Personalization

Under "High Contrast Themes (4)" 

Select High Contrast #2

Select "Color" High Contrast 




December 30th, 2013 3:20am

this is not a solution. this is a weird workaround. in windows 95/98/ME/XP i was able to change this color into the control panel. 
in Vista/Seven the GLOW maintains visibility of it.

in Eight, you simply forgot to code the color change of titles (complementary colour?) and without the aero glow thing, the title vanish in dark title colors. 

try to test your software more often.

bye.


  • Edited by khronos_one Sunday, January 05, 2014 8:21 PM
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
January 5th, 2014 8:21pm

You should try to understand that not everyone who responds to you is with Microsoft, khronos_one.  Your wording implies you think you're talking to them here.  Most of us are just peon users like you.

You should look into the Aero Glass tool mentioned up thread.  With suitable theme atlas resources you can put a nice glow back behind most title text.  Ribbon windows are an exception - for that you need a theme replacement-enabling hack.  But the good news is that File Explorer is the one big application that's ribbon-enabled, and it puts the path near the top of the window, so you really don't need to see the titles much.

  

January 5th, 2014 9:56pm

You can make all the changes you want if you FIRST select a "High Contrast" theme.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
January 11th, 2014 12:31am

So to clarify - we have to hack unsupported registry entries and set things to High Contrast in Windows 8 just to get a background that kind of works like we had in previous versions?

That's just mind-numbingly stupid. Really.

January 11th, 2014 2:23am

Well you can always use uxstyle that doesn't alter registry and a custom theme for getting the white text.

There are themes for 8 and 8.1 that have a white text if you like to use dark frames at Deviantart under Customization/Skins/Windows 8 Utilities/ Visual Styles..

If you want light frames you use your normal theme!

That's what I do from the beginning without any problem..

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/YYp09cD.jpg[/IMG]

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
January 17th, 2014 7:19pm

Just to follow-up for folks who would prefer to load an alternate theme, there's now a program available that will make run-time modifications to your system to avert the signature check.

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/170945-uxtheme-signature-bypass/

The advantage to this method is that it will not affect the integrity of your system files - your system will still pass an SFC check.  That could matter for future updates.

 

February 12th, 2014 4:01pm

Hello,

I hope I'm not oversimplifying this and that this is what you were looking for but did you go to control panel / personalize? I found options to change just about any color including text and background.

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 1st, 2014 3:08am

I found options to change just about any color including text and background.

On Windows 8?  Show us, please.

 

March 1st, 2014 4:33pm

So to clarify - we have to hack unsupported registry entries and set things to High Contrast in Windows 8 just to get a background that kind of works like we had in previous versions?

That's just mind-numbingly stupid. Really.


I'm using a modified theme with a theme patcher, no need for registry hacks and high contrast themes:

http://uxstyle.com/ + http://x0lis.deviantart.com/art/Windows-8-1-White-Titlebar-Dark-theme-423021868

By the way, this bug is still present in Windows 8.1 Update 1 (April update).

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 11th, 2014 3:37pm

Theme patchers often make changes inside system files.  That's a bad idea for obvious reasons.

Does your theme patcher break system protection? In other words, can your system pass an SFC /VERIFYONLY test?

If not, then you may want to consider other means to alter your UI experience.

 

March 11th, 2014 4:40pm

I found options to change just about any color including text and background.

On Windows 8?  Show us, please.

 

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
March 20th, 2014 2:09am

You have not read  the thread, right?
April 14th, 2014 7:35am

After all the tips and tweaks I got over the years for XP, which I had setup absolutely perfect I now have a chance to give back a little something.

The answer seems to be in the theme itself.

C:\%UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Themes

Open with Notepad and be sure this code is present:

[VisualStyles]
Path=%SystemRoot%\Resources\Themes\Aero\AeroLite.msstyles
ColorStyle=NormalColor
Size=NormalSize
AutoColorization=0
ColorizationColor=0X7F000000           (not sure what this does)
VisualStyleVersion=10
HighContrast=1                                 (this is the answer)

Now scroll down to [Control Panel\Colors] and change to your liking.

Unfortunately in High Contrast mode there can be no Start Screen or Lock Screen image or color. Now we have to find a way around that.

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
May 13th, 2014 2:51pm


Now scroll down to [Control Panel\Colors] and change to your liking.


Thank you very much Jana_2003, I want to add something more;

1. Open C:\%UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Themes

2. Open with Notepad which themes you use

3. Find [Control Panel\Cursors] and add ;

[Control Panel\Colors]

Window 128 128 128

and--> file and --->save . First chance your theme to another and then chance it back to your theme.

For more color scheme like window 128 128 128 , visit http://www.debbiesthemes.com/utilities/color_scheme.html. I am also trying to find the best.

May 27th, 2014 9:06pm

Which method did you use to apply the transparency in your screenshots? I have been trying for the past few days with no luck. I read your post and obviously saw your screenshots that prove it works but unfortunately there are so many methods posted above your post that it is hard to figure out which you used that worked. Thanks in advance. It looks really good!
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
July 11th, 2014 6:42am

If you're asking me, that's the donationware package Aero Glass for Win 8.1:

http://www.glass8.eu/

There's a (big) forum thread where the author introduces it here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/170850-aero-glass-for-win81-125/

 

 

So far I've found it perfectly stable, and a welcome usability enhancement to the desktop.

 

July 11th, 2014 2:35pm

Here is the registry key value I changed from 255 255 255 to 100 100 100. Restart the system All Set.

After Restart : Light background applies across windows, E.g. Run, Notepad etc.

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
August 27th, 2014 8:57am

The problem with that, Srigopal, is that not everything is affected by those settings.

And so you end up with brilliant white stuff next to gray stuff, which doesn't help with readability at all.  The core issue is that the THEME implementation is basically just fixed, and (without hacking) you can't load or create a new one.

I don't understand how Microsoft can think that removing configurability from the user interface could help any part of their operating system to be more popular with customers.  It's pretty clear to me the engineers have been instructed to fail.

 

August 27th, 2014 4:02pm

how to get this?

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
August 30th, 2014 7:27am

None of those methods can change Windows Explorer white background in Windows 8 :(

Need help...

October 1st, 2014 6:59am

Hibernation - resume - loss of colour- workaround/solution

Hi, here's what I've found which appears to offer a way to keep the background colours for most programs (explorer excluded of course!!). Comments welcome as I'm no expert, and forgive me if I completely wrong.

1. Set a background colour

As we know:

To set a background colour, you need to change the RGB values here: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors

& here: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\Colors.

If some theme colors are changed then Microsoft Office programs may need to be restarted to get them. For example, the Word styles don't always take the new colors until Word is restarted.

Restore background colours after resume from hibernate

This frustrated me for a long time. A number have commented on the loss of background colour after resuming from hibernation and I've seen no solution so far. So..

Once you can see your background colour in programs such as Wordpad, and probably your start menu search box, save the theme.


Here's my way to overcome the irritating loss of background colour on resume from hibernate.

Create 2 copies of your preferred theme, with the background colour set in the registry entries as above. (Those are 'normal' Windows theme, no theme tools like Windows Blinds or anything like that).

Now write a simple script (Autohotkey for example) which is run on logon. (That's assuming you get a logon prompt on resume from hibernate, else you'll have try to do sthg clever with task scheduler or find a test for displayed background colour, for example to trigger the script).

That script simply swaps the theme- but it's the SAME theme.

That restores the background colour. (Just tried it..except I've not done the script yet).

Of course all that still leaves explorer whiter than white.. so hey, ditch it, and use XYplorer or Directory Opus or whatever you prefer... (configurable, tabbed...)


Throw in Aeroglass and y'z shadow to add shadows - and I'd have added an image except this requires a URL to do, not an upload, so imagine two partly overlaid instances of Wordpad, Aero frames, shadow where one overlies the other, and pale yellow backgrounds.

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
December 15th, 2014 6:15pm

PROBLEM SOLVED!

Many thanks to David J Gibson who posted the solution above.

I have a 64-bit regular Windows 8.1.

The workaround is as follows:

1) Edit the registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors, "Window"="170 170 170"

Reboot. This step #1 is unreliable and stops working for no reason even without a log off or screen saver. I am not even sure that this step is necessary. Step #2 below seems to be the permanent solution.

2) Edit the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\DefaultColors\Standard
 "Window"=dword:00999999

Rebooting is not necessary. After you apply your unsaved or saved theme that contains step #1, the next time it fails, it will fall back on step #2 for good.

Now I have a nice gray background color in most program windows such as Word, Notepad, simple webpages, etc. The background is still white in Windows Explorer, but that is not a serious problem for me.

UPDATE:

I also tried software applications called WindowBlinds and Xplorer2, which allow you to use various background colors or patterns in Windows Explorer (actually, Xplorer2 is a replacement for Windows Explorer). Both are shareware.

I do not recommend these applications and suggest that you stick with the white background of Windows Explorer in your Windows 7 or 8 (make the Explorer window smaller to reduce eye irritation). The detailed explanation is as follows:

WindowBlinds: it seriously messes with Windows system processes and destabilizes Windows 8.1 64-bit (which I have). For example, the WindowBlinds executable process is by default set to the highest priority ("real time," same as the "NT Kernel & System" process), which is an extremely risky strategy. My work involves serious multitasking, and with WindowBlinds, my computer crashes every other day (either freezes or throws a blue screen event). It should be noted that I have a pretty powerful PC: 8 GB of RAM, a big SSD system drive, and Intel Core i7-3770 CPU. Under 64-bit Windows 8.1, I have never experienced a system crash either before or after I tried WindowBlinds.

Xplorer2: It is advertised as a replacement for Windows Explorer. This option is better than WindowBlinds because it does not affect stability of the operating system. Nonetheless, Xplorer2 crashes every few days (for example, when I launch the Control Panel) and has to be restarted (and the executable process has to be terminated using the Task Manager). This is tolerable but a bit annoying. Another reason I wanted to test Xplorer2 is that the search option in Windows Explorer fails to find files when your search term is inside a file name (not at the beginning). Eventually, I figured out that you need to insert an asterisk before a search term, if you want to search inside file names in Windows Explorer.

Conclusion: I haven't found a viable option to change the white background color in Windows Explorer. Nevertheless, it is easy to permanently change the background color in most other applications (MS Word, Notepad, etc.) in Windows 8. See the beginning of my post.

  • Edited by Nikolai S Friday, January 30, 2015 9:06 PM Update
December 30th, 2014 1:51am

Hi Rick,

Thanks for this info about the registry.  I'm pretty new to Windows8.1 and I really miss the ability to change the window color, more than anything.  I've always had my window set to a pale yellow - much easier on the eyes.  Now to find a registry backup (or will the system restore point work?) and then do the registry edit.

Thanks a lot!

Kriss

Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
April 6th, 2015 7:07pm

<snip>

The workaround is as follows:

1) Edit the registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors, "Window"="170 170 170"

Reboot. This step #1 is unreliable and stops working for no reason even without a log off or screen saver. I am not even sure that this step is necessary. Step #2 below seems to be the permanent solution.

2) Edit the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\DefaultColors\Standard
 "Window"=dword:00999999

Rebooting is not necessary. After you apply your unsaved or saved theme that contains step #1, the next time it fails, it will fall back on step #2 for good.

Now I have a nice gray background color in most program windows such as Word, Notepad, simple webpages, etc. The background is still white in Windows Explorer, but that is not a serious problem for me.

<snip>


Nikolai, thank you SO MUCH for posting this information.

Just to let everyone know, I renamed the entire key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\DefaultColors\Standard

to "Standard-Old" and I have noticed no ill effects from this change.

This "fixes" the issue of the window Background color set in the Theme and set in the Registry from reseting every time you log off and sleep windows.

You could probably delete the key entirely.

Thanks again everyone.

J




May 7th, 2015 2:39pm

No need for all that registry editing.  Go to the start screen, the press Windows Key + i, then click/tap Personalize
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
May 24th, 2015 2:24am

This topic is archived. No further replies will be accepted.

Other recent topics Other recent topics