Add custom colors to the Colors section of the Settings app in Windows 10

In Windows 10, it is possible to define 8 additional colors which will be displayed in Personalization -> Colors page in the Settings app. This can be done with a simple Registry tweak. In this article, we will see how it can be done.

The Settings app in Windows 10 reads the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents

There you can set your own custom colors which the Settings app will show on the Colors page of the Personalization section. Follow these instructions:

1. Open Registry Editor.
2. Go to the following Registry key:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents

   Tip: You can access any desired Registry key with one click.
   This key might not exist by default. Create it yourself in that case.

3. In the Accents key, create a new subkey named 0. So, you will get the following path:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\0

4. In the 0 key, create a new subkey named Theme0. So, you will get the following path:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\0\Theme0

5. In the Theme0 subkey, create a new a 32-bit DWORD value named Color. This value is the color expressed in the ABGR format, i.e. Alpha, Blue, Green, Red color channels. You can edit its value to specify your own custom color. For example, you can add a blue color by changing the SpecialColor value data to FF FF 00 00:
6. Now, you can set 7 additional colors using the same method described above. You need to specify the Color value in the following Registry keys:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\0\Theme0
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\0\Theme1
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\1\Theme0
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\1\Theme1
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\2\Theme0
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\2\Theme1
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\3\Theme0
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\3\Theme1
   

   In every Theme* subkey, you need to create a 32-bit DWORD value named Color with the color value in ABGR format as mentioned above.

7. After you set all desired colors, you need to reboot your PC.
8. Now, open the Settings app and you should see all the colors you added. Just for example, I set all colors to blue:In the picture above, you can see where the new colors will appear.

The same can be done using Winaero Tweaker. Go to Appearance -> Custom Accents:

Use this option to avoid Registry editing.

That's it. Customize these 8 colors as you want so you can get a unique appearance in Windows 10 with these additional color presets. Note that this feature only works starting with build 10162 which was recently released for Slow and Fast Ring Insiders. You can use my Registry tweak which you can modify using your own colors or import it as is:

Download the Registry file (*.reg)

Remember there is an additional "SpecialColor" value which can also be used to add a custom color in the Settings app. See the following article for more details: Add a custom color for taskbar to Windows 10 Settings app. So, you are able to use up to 9 custom colors defined on your own in Windows 10.

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