You can change the title bar text color from black to any color you want. The color can be changed individually for active and inactive windows. Let's see how it can be done.
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The ability to customize the title bar text color was available in previous Windows versions when the Classic theme was used. However, Windows 8 and Windows 10 do not include the Classic theme any more and all its options are removed. The feature to customize colors was designed for the Classic theme, so the user interface for this feature is missing in recent Windows versions.
While the user interface is missing, you can still change the color using a Registry tweak. Here is how.
Before proceeding, it is worth mentioning that this trick works best with the Aero Lite theme enabled. If you don't like the Aero Lite theme (which actually looks quite ugly in recent Windows 10 releases compared to Aero Lite from Windows 8.1), consider disabling the title bar color option as described below.
To change the title bar text color in Windows 10, do the following.
- Open Settings.
- Go to Personalization - Colors.
- On the right, untick the option "Title bars" under "Show accent color on the following surfaces".
- Open the Registry Editor app.
- Go to the following Registry key.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors
See how to go to a Registry key with one click.
- See the string values TitleText and InactiveTitleText. The TitleText value is responsible for the title bar text color of the active window (the current window which you are focused on). The InactiveTitleText value is responsible for the title bar text color of windows opened in the background.
- To find a suitable value, open Microsoft Paint and click on the Edit color button.
In the color dialog, select the desired color using the provided controls. Now, note the values in Red:, Green:, and Blue: boxes.
Use these digits to modify the value data of TitleText. Write them as follows:Red[space]Green[space]Blue
See the screenshot below.
- Repeat the step above for the InactiveTitleText value if required.
- To make the changes done by the Registry tweak take effect, you need to sign out and sign in to your user account.
The result will be something like this:
Now you can enable the title bar color option in Settings.
Note: If you change the accent color, the customizations you made will be preserved. However, if you apply a theme, e.g. install a themepack or apply another built-in theme, Windows 10 will reset the title bar text color back to its default values. You will have to repeat the procedure.
Also, a lot of modern apps and all UWP apps like Photos, Settings, etc, ignore this color preference.
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Can we change inactive border color as well?
You can.
See Change color of inactive title bars in Windows 10
This article is awesome. I did this for my “window” so that the background color is green for excel and word, etc. the only problem is that whenever my computer sleeps, it goes away when I log back in. when I mean It goes away, I mean the green window color goes away until I sign out and in again. Is there a fix for this? The affect is awesome but its becoming annoying.
“Inactive Title Bar Text” color is always grey, even when set to white (255 255 255)
> If you don’t like the Aero Lite theme, consider disabling the title bar color option
…But then the title bar is black & white (which is even worse). How can I get white text on Inactive Title Bars ?
Well, I’m confused. This article switches from Title bar color and Title bar font color several times.
How do I alter the Title bar font color?
I got Windows 2004 and the colors dont change while i change the registry.
My taskbar text is glitched. It appears to have a black background all the time, and I can’t get rid of it. Please help?
I’m curious: why isn’t this in WinAero Tweaker? It seems like a useful thing. I’ve never liked the gray text that it used for inactive windows, as an inactive title bar is one that you need to be able to see better, not worse.
At least, I couldn’t find it when I looked, and so was surprised to find it on your website. Love your product, BTW, and have donated.