Tweak Colorization Settings for Titlebar, Taskbar and Start Menu in Windows 10
When Microsoft released Windows 10 to public on July 29, 2015, the build number was 10240 and it featured White titlebars in program windows. To disable the White titlebars and enable colorized titlebars in Windows 10, we posted following tutorial:
[Tip] Get Rid of White Titlebars in Windows 10
With the release of the recent Windows 10 November Update (also known as build 10586 or Threshold 2), Microsoft has allowed users to enable colored titlebars.
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Microsoft has now added titlebars to the group of Start Menu, Taskbar and Action Center and when you enable “Show color on Start, taskbar, action center, and title bar” option in “Settings -> Personalization -> Colors“, Windows 10 enables colors on Start Menu, Taskbar, Action Center as well as titlebars in program windows.
That’s a good addition but in my opinion, Microsoft should have provided a separate option to enable or disable colors on titlebars. Now if you want to enable colors on Taskbar and Start Menu, it’ll also enable colors on titlebars even if you don’t want. Also if you want to enable colors on titlebars, it’ll also enable colors on Taskbar and Start Menu.
So there is no way to have colors on titlebars only without having colorized Taskbar and Start Menu and vice versa.
But there is a Registry tweak to customize this behavior and have colors on desired element. With the help of this tweak, you can get:
- Colorized Taskbar, Start Menu, Action Center and White Titlebar
- Colorized Titlebar and Dark Taskbar, Start Menu, Action Center
- Colorized Taskbar, Titlebar and Dark Start Menu, Action Center
- Colorized Taskbar, White Titlebar and Dark Start Menu, Action Center
If you want to tweak colorization settings of Taskbar, Start Menu, Action Center and titlebars in Windows 10, check out following steps:
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Table of Contents
Using this method you can have colorized Taskbar, Start Menu and Action Center without colorized titlebar which was the default setting in Windows 10 RTM build 10240.
1. First of all enable “Show color on Start, taskbar, action center, and title bar” option in “Settings -> Personalization -> Colors” page to apply colorization feature.
2. Now press WIN+R keys together to launch RUN dialog box, type regedit in RUN and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.
3. Now go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\DWM
4. In right-side pane, look for ColorPrevalence DWORD. Its value would be set to 1 as you have enabled colors option in Settings page.
This DWORD is responsible to enable or disable colors on titlebars only. So if you want to disable colors in titlebars, double-click on the ColorPrevalence DWORD and change its value to 0
5. Now you’ll see colors on Taskbar, Start Menu and Action Center only and titlebars will not be colorized. You’ll have White titlebars back.
If you want only colorized titlebar but don’t want colorized Taskbar, Start Menu and Action Center, following method will help you in getting colored titlebar only. Using this method will allow you to have colored titlebars and dark black Taskbar, Start Menu and Action Center:
1. Disable “Show color on Start, taskbar, action center, and title bar” option in “Settings -> Personalization -> Colors” page to disable colorization feature. It’ll make Taskbar, Start Menu and Action Center dark black and titlebar will become White.
2. Now open Registry Editor and go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\DWM
3. In right-side pane, look for ColorPrevalence DWORD. Its value would be set to 0 as you have disabled colors option in Settings page.
As we told above, this DWORD is responsible to enable or disable colors on titlebars only and you want to enable colors in titlebars only, double-click on the ColorPrevalence DWORD and change its value to 1
Now you’ll see colors on titlebar only. Taskbar, Start Menu and Action Center will remain dark black.
You can use this trick in combination of above mentioned tweaks. With the help of this tweak, you can have dark black Start Menu and Action Center but the Taskbar will be colorized.
So if you use this tweak and any of above mentioned 2 tweaks, you can have following combinations of colorized elements:
- Colorized Titlebar and Taskbar but dark black Start Menu and Action Center
- White Titlebar, colorized Taskbar and dark black Start Menu and Action Center
1. Enable “Show color on Start, taskbar, action center, and title bar” option in “Settings -> Personalization -> Colors” page to apply colorization feature.
2. Open Registry Editor and go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize
3. In right-side pane, look for ColorPrevalence DWORD. Its value would be set to 1 as you have enabled colors option in Settings page.
This DWORD is responsible to enable or disable colors on Taskbar, Start Menu and Action Center.
If you want to show colors in Taskbar but no colors in Start Menu and Action Center, double-click on the ColorPrevalence DWORD and change its value to 2
4. Restart Explorer using Task Manager as shown in following tutorial:
Windows 8 and Later Allow You to Restart Explorer Using Task Manager
Now you’ll see colorized Taskbar and dark Start Menu and Action Center.
PS: If you want to restore default behavior, open Settings and turn on or off “Show color on Start, taskbar, action center, and title bar” option. It’ll reset Registry settings and will have default colorization settings.
NOTE: If you are not familiar with Registry editing tasks, we are also providing ready-made Registry script to do the task automatically. Download following ZIP file, extract it and run .REG file. It’ll ask for confirmation, accept it:
Registry Tweaks for Windows 10 Colorization Settings
Also Check:
[Windows 10 Tip] Get Colors on Titlebars of Inactive (Background) Program Windows
Is there any way to keep the Taskbar and the start menu black and all the other elements colored ?
^^ You can try Colorized titlebar tweak and keep colors option disabled in Settings.
You can also try Aero Lite theme:
https://www.askvg.com/tip-get-rid-of-white-titlebars-in-windows-10/
VG, the 3rd key under personalize i.e. special color is used for the accent color?
If so, how do I change accent color to custom i.e. not from the bunch that the settings app provide?
^^ It stores hexadecimal code of the selected accent color in reverse order. In the screenshot, the value is set to cc6a29 which means the exact color code is 296acc. You can replace it with any desired color but in reverse order.
When i enable “Show color on Start, taskbar, action center, and title bar” option in “Settings -> Personalization -> Colors”, nothing changes.. Start and taskbar get coloured but Titlebar still remains white..
I also can’t use third party themes although i installed ux for win 10
I am using Windows 10 pro insider preview build 10565 32bits.
^^ It seems the files were not patched properly in your computer thats why you are unable to get colors in titlebar and use 3rd party themes.
Is there a way to set the color from gray with white lettering back to white with black lettering on the W10 (TH2) start menu, the right clicked menu is what I’m referring to not the main start up menu. Its a lot harder to read with this silly gray background.
All windows from 95 to win 7 have had separate adjustments all in one set of drop downs. Color, type and size of font and background and window color. This is one more of how stupid is windows 8 – 10! I had to get a new laptop and now I have ordered a new copy of win7 for it. I hope in the future Microsoft comes up with a new windows that the owner can adjust instead of this do it our way or risk tweaking in regedit.
In W10’s Personalization > Colors, if I try to set Custom Color to a light grey I get a “This color is not supported” error message and the color choice is blocked. None of the allowed grey shades that I want are allowed. Is there a Registry setting (or some other means) that will defeat this ban?
Another question. Is there a way to add a borderline around the task bar? (I just managed to get a light grey taskbar – fixing what I asked about in my prior question – by using the Colors light/dark switch.) Without a borderline, the bar has little distinction from what is above it.
And is there a way to get borderlines around the taskbar items (or better yet a 3-D button effect – yeh, yeh, I know; lots of luck on the 3-D one)?
^^ I’m afraid you can’t.