The translucent selection rectangle represents the selection when you left-click and hold the left mouse button, and then drag the mouse pointer over items in File Explorer or on the Desktop to select them. It has a border of a solid color, and filled by a translucent version of the same color. Here is how to change it.
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In Windows 10, you can change both the border color and the selection color for the selection rectangle.
The ability to customize the colors 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.
To change the Translucent Selection Rectangle color in Windows 10, do the following.
- 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 HotTrackingColor and Hilight. HotTrackingColor represents the color value for the translucent selection rectangle. The Hilight value can be used to set the border color of the selection rectangle.
- To find a suitable color 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
- To make the changes done by the Registry tweak take effect, you need to sign out and sign in to your user account.
You are done.
Before:
After:
Note: the default values are the following:
- Hilight = 0 120 215
- HotTrackingColor = 0 102 204
That's it.
Related articles:
- Change Colors in Command Prompt in Windows 10
- Change color of inactive title bars in Windows 10
- Change Title Bar Text Color in Windows 10
- Change Mail App Background to Custom Color in Windows 10
- How to change Edge splash color in Windows 10
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I managed to change my hilight colour (blue to pink) and it appears after I sign out and sign in again, but after a few minutes, stuff that I highlight revert to the default Colour (blue). In registry editor, it still shows the RGB for pink under hilight though. May I know what’s wrong? I’m using Windows 10
Neat. Now how do I remove that highlight square when you mouse over an icon or folder on the desktop of explorer? You’ll be my hero if you know how to do that.