(Desktop) Change Inactive Window Colour

chessdragon136

New Member
Messages
6
Afternoon,

Does anyone know if it is possible to change the Inactive Window Colour? What I mean by that is when a window is not selected, the colour changes to that grey.. See the image below where the left window is inactive and the right active..

Inactive.png

I have tried playing in the registry (Current User / Control Panel / Colours) But have not had any luck..

Any help appreciated.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
Bumping, I have the exact same question and would like to see this answered.
 

My Computer

System One

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I'd like to see this get affected by the 'window color' property as well. Lighter or darker version of the color, doesn't matter. Just hate that it goes white.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 64-Bit, Ubuntu 13.04 64-Bit
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    PC/Desktop
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    Custom Built
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    Intel Core i7 950 @ 3ghz
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Well, I'm looking for the same stuff myself and didn't found anything anywhere yet.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
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    HP Envy DV6 7250
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    Intel i7-3630QM
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    HP, Intel HM77 Express Chipset
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    16GB
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    Intel HD4000 + Nvidia Geforce 630M
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    IDT HD Audio
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    15.6' built-in + Samsung S22D300 + 17.3' LG Phillips
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    multiple resolutions
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    Samsung SSD 250GB + Hitachi HDD 750GB
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    That's basically it.
The only way to do this is through the registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\Colors
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

Unfortunately these are in hex values and you'll have to reboot to make the changes.

The good news is the Registry keys are the same in Windows 7 and 8. So you can customize the advanced appearance settings in 7 and open the Registry Editor and make a back-up of the above mentioned registry keys. You can do this by right-clicking on each key and selectExport option. This will create .REG files. Import these .REG files into Windows 8 Registry Editor and restart Windows 8 desktop.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Professional
    System Manufacturer/Model
    MSI
    CPU
    Intel Celeron 2.4 GH
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVidia GeForce 9800GT
The only way to do this is through the registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\Colors
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

Unfortunately these are in hex values and you'll have to reboot to make the changes.

The good news is the Registry keys are the same in Windows 7 and 8. So you can customize the advanced appearance settings in 7 and open the Registry Editor and make a back-up of the above mentioned registry keys. You can do this by right-clicking on each key and selectExport option. This will create .REG files. Import these .REG files into Windows 8 Registry Editor and restart Windows 8 desktop.

Thanks for the post.

Have you tested this yet to confirm?

Some say that the registry entries don't change anything.
"Control Panel\Colors" is also included in the custom *.theme file you create but doesn't change all colors (edit with notepad and see the Win7 theme file). And here they are not in hex.
Code:
[Control Panel\Colors]
TitleText=255 255 255
InactiveTitleText=255 255 255
This works and makes the title text of a program window white. It doesn't work for Explorer windows though.

But maybe we also need something like:
Code:
[Control Panel\Desktop\Colors]
...

...according to what you show in the registry there.

To see more about the theme color options see this:
http://www.eightforums.com/customiz...-ui-change-title-text-color-4.html#post152178
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy DV6 7250
    CPU
    Intel i7-3630QM
    Motherboard
    HP, Intel HM77 Express Chipset
    Memory
    16GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD4000 + Nvidia Geforce 630M
    Sound Card
    IDT HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6' built-in + Samsung S22D300 + 17.3' LG Phillips
    Screen Resolution
    multiple resolutions
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 250GB + Hitachi HDD 750GB
    PSU
    120W adapter
    Case
    small
    Cooling
    laptop cooling pad
    Keyboard
    Backlit built-in + big one in USB
    Mouse
    SteelSeries Sensei
    Internet Speed
    slow and steady
    Browser
    Chromium, Pale Moon, Firefox Developer Edition
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    That's basically it.
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