How to Enable Greyscale Mode in Windows 10

Windows 10 includes Color Filters as part of the Ease of Access system. They improve usability of the operating system for people with various vision issues. Color filters work at the system level, so all installed software including third-party apps and built-in Windows apps will follow them.  Using color filters, you can quickly enable Greyscale mode in Windows 10.

The Color Filters feature we are going to use today is available in Windows 10 starting with build 16215. Tip: See how to find the Windows 10 build number you are running.

The available colors filters in Windows 10 are as follows.

• Greyscale
• Invert
• Greyscale Inverted
• Deuteranopia
• Protanopia
• Tritanopia

Let's see how to enable it.

Enable Greyscale Mode in Windows 10

1. Open Settings.
2. Click on Ease of Access -> Color Filter on the left under "Vision".
3. On the right, select Grayscale in the list of options. You can choose any other option depending on what you want.
4. Turn on the toggle option Turn on color filters.

You are done. The result will be as follows.

 

Enable Greyscale Mode in Windows 10 with a hotkey

There is a special hotkey you can use to enable the Grayscale Mode in Windows 10. Press the Win + Ctrl + C shortcut keys together on your keyboard. This sequence will enable or disable (toggle) the color filter set by default. Out of the box, Windows 10 is using the greyscale filter.

You can use the mentioned Win + Ctrl + C hotkey to toggle the color filter.

The Color Filters feature can be also configured with a Registry tweak as follows.

Using a Registry Tweak

1. Open the Registry Editor app.
2. Go to the key

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FlyoutMenuSettings

   

3. On the right, create or modify two 32-bit DWORD values named Active and FilterType. Note: Even if you are running a 64-bit Windows version, you still need to use a 32-bit DWORD value type.
4. Set the active DWORD value to 1 to enable color filters. Active=0 means the Color Filters feature is disabled.
5. Set the FilterType value to one of the following values.
   • 0 = Greyscale
   • 1 = Invert
   • 2 = Greyscale Inverted
   • 3 = Deuteranopia
   • 4 = Protanopia
   • 5 = Tritanopia
6. Sign out from your Windows 10 account to apply the changes made by this tweak.

You are done.