How to Change Window Background Color in Windows 10
In Windows 10, you can change the window background color which is white by default. It specifies the background color for classic system dialogs, lists, the document area background color in text editors, and more. The color can be changed from the default light gray color to any color you want for all Desktop apps you have installed at once. Let's see how it can be done.
The ability to customize the window background 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. The new color will be applied to various windows including system apps and dialogs like the Run box, Wordpad, Notepad, File Explorer, Local Group Policy Editor, and more.
Default colors:
A custom color:
Here is how to change it.
To Change Window Background Color in Windows 10,
- 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 value Window. It is responsible for the window background color.
- 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.
Red[space]Green[space]Blue
See the screenshot below.
- To make the changes done by the Registry tweak take effect, you need to sign out and sign in to your user account.
Before:
After:
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 window background 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.
The same trick can be used to customize other classic appearance options. Check out the following articles.
- Change Translucent Selection Rectangle Color in Windows 10
- Change Title Bar Text Color in Windows 10
- Change Window Text Color in Windows 10
- Change Highlighted Text Color in Windows 10
- Change Button Face Color in Windows 10
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Thanks, I just changed my background to “255 127 0”
This does not work in Windows 10 Version 1909 OS build 18363.418. Any ideas?
After I changed the the window color, it turn back to old color in the next time I use the computer. Is there anything that I need to do to save the setting change?
Very useful info :) Thanks !!! After the changes made, everything works as it should. I have Windows 10 Home version 1909.
How is the address bar the “folder background”? Your own photo shows that it does NOT change the background of actual folders.
Don’t waste your time with this people, it doesn’t work!
>However, if you apply a theme, e.g. install a themepack or
>apply another built-in theme, Windows 10 will reset the
>window background color back to its default values.
Unfortunately with Windows 10 you MUST use a theme, you cannot delete all the themes. So despite my having followed your wonderful instructions to change “Window” to a light grey colour, the background of pages is still white even though I have not installed any theme packs and am simply using a default theme.