Advanced appearance settings to make all backgrounds gray

Discussion in 'Windows 10' started by windows.seven, Feb 25, 2019.

  1. windows.seven

    windows.seven MDL Member

    Sep 14, 2011
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    Right since XP days I always access Windows Advanced Appearance settings and change the windows color from white to light gray. The white is too bright for my liking. This setting used to change the backgrounds of all apps and was very useful.
    It did not work the same way in Win7 I think, but was good enough.
    Now in Win10 there is no such setting. I have changed the BG colors in Registry keys HKEY_CURRENT_USER>Control Panel>Colors and Desktop>Colors.
    This did change some background colors but not all. For example in Libreoffice or in browsers or in Thunderbird folder pane the color is still white.
    Is there a simple setting to change all the BG colors to custom color?
     
  2. sid_16

    sid_16 MDL Giveaway Organiser

    Oct 15, 2011
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    #2 sid_16, Feb 25, 2019
    Last edited: Feb 25, 2019
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  3. windows.seven

    windows.seven MDL Member

    Sep 14, 2011
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    I don't want the background to be black. Just need a light grey everywhere. This was possible in XP and Win7. Any chance of having this in Win 10?
     
  4. AveYo

    AveYo MDL Expert

    Feb 10, 2009
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  5. AveYo

    AveYo MDL Expert

    Feb 10, 2009
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    there is none without hacking the theme engine. Or losing contrast when highlighting menus which is undesirable
    using openshell and adjusting taskbar color and transparency independently might mask it a bit
     
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  6. windows.seven

    windows.seven MDL Member

    Sep 14, 2011
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    I think I will keep it as it is. Much better than White and much better than Black High Contrast. I have searched the net a lot for this but there were no answers anywhere, even on Microsoft support. Really happy to get this theme.
     
  7. er557

    er557 MDL Member

    Apr 20, 2013
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    You may alter ANY theme you saved in classic personalization panel(google it), to have the window background like in windows xp, themes are located in your user profile, roaming, microsoft, windows, themes folder.
    rename extension to txt and edit the theme to include at the end these lines


    [Control Panel\Colors]
    Window=255 229 204

    then rename back to .theme and simply click on the theme in personalization.
    You also need to have theme siganture bypass installed to support 3rd party themes,
    virtualcustoms.net/showthread.php/72751-Aero-Glass-for-Windows-10-RS1
    but not neccessary if you only edit built in aero themes.
    The three numbers represent the color you choose from rgb color chart, such as those closer to the bottom, more whitish, in this chart it has the corresponding numbers
    rapidtables.com/web/color/RGB_Color.html
     
  8. windows.seven

    windows.seven MDL Member

    Sep 14, 2011
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    I did edit this value in the registry. However it does not change backgrounds of all apps. Many were still in white. The whiteless high contrast theme seems to be much better
     
  9. nytjbsefv

    nytjbsefv MDL Novice

    Mar 24, 2018
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    #10 nytjbsefv, Mar 1, 2019
    Last edited: Mar 1, 2019
    tnx
     
  10. windows.seven

    windows.seven MDL Member

    Sep 14, 2011
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    Unfortunately, I am back to where I was. With the high contrast theme, Libreoffice Calc does not show cell background colors. Couldn't find a solution for this. Made a theme with the Colors section copied from Whiteless theme. Have to work with what best is available. No other option it seems.