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How to change the logon screen color in Windows 8.1

Like its predecessor, Windows 8.1 still has no option to change the color of the Logon screen. The Logon screen is the one which displays user accounts and appears right after the Lock Screen. While most users don't even pay attention to the color of the logon screen, there is a category of users (myself included) who prefer to customize the OS according to their preferences in a more flexible way. Those users are not happy with the default blue color of the logon screen and may want to change it to a desired color. Here is a simple tutorial to show you how you can change the color of the logon screen.

Download Start Screen Color Tuner for Windows 8.1

Start Screen Color Tuner for Windows 8.1.

Start Screen Color Tuner for Windows 8.1 allows you to customize the colors of the logon screen and the Start screen
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Start Screen Color Tuner for Windows 8.1

Start Screen Color Tuner for Windows 8.1 is the application which i have created to solve the following issue:
Windows 8.1 has changed the color settings for the logon screen, so old tweaks and apps don't work any more. Instead of the color index, it stores now some coded color value. I decided to create the app with attractive and simple UI to change the color of logon screen with one click.

As a bonus, it allows you to play with the Start Screen color and Accent color on the fly from the same window.
Latest version 1.1, see the change log below

Nature HD#13 theme for Windows 8

How to hide the Skype icon from the notification area (system tray)

Earlier we looked at how to get rid of Skype's Taskbar button. I was contacted by some Winaero readers asking me how to remove or hide the Skype notification area (system tray) icon, because they didn't find it useful. Well, this is even simpler. Just follow the instructions below.

How to remove the Skype button from the Windows Taskbar

When Windows Live Messenger was retired, Microsoft recommended all its users to move on to Skype. They bought Skype strategically so as to merge the user base of Windows Live Messenger with millions of Skype users. Skype being a cross-platform VoIP solution which is available for all major desktop and mobile platforms, made it far more popular.

Like Windows Live Messenger, Skype has also always shown its button on the Windows Taskbar. This can be annoying, if you are working on a small screen and would like to reserve some space on the taskbar for your other apps. (Even the Start button can be considered unnecessary by some users and so our StartIsGone tool allows you to remove it in Windows 8.1). Let's see how we can get rid of the Skype button from the Taskbar and keep it in the notification area (system tray) only.

Gadgets Revived – the best desktop gadgets package + gadget gallery

Here is good news for everyone who loved and missed Desktop Gadgets in Windows 8. Gadgets Revived, a new project is available. It provides a very cool sidebar gadgets package with ALL original features like Control Panel items, Windows Search results and a gadget gallery! Over 900 high quality gadgets are available for download. According to the Gadgets Revived website:

Gadgets Revived is a web site which hosts a third party Desktop Gadgets gallery. All gadgets are property of their respective authors. Similar to the official gallery, they are available to you for free.
All gadgets here were checked manually by our authors and you can be sure that they work as expected. If you have any issues with some gadget, please notify us in the comments.
All gadgets provided on this site are original/untouched and authentic.

How to prevent Windows 8.1 from automatically updating Modern apps

With Windows 8.1, Microsoft has introduced a lot of improvements over Windows 8. One such improvement is the automatic app update feature, which downloads the latest versions of all Metro apps and allows you to keep them always up-to-date. In Windows 8, you had to update your apps manually.

However, some users may prefer to approve app updates manually. There are several reasons which my friends cited for this. The most common reason was: "The new version of the app broke/removed my favorite feature". That makes sense, you certainly don't want an update to delete or break any existing functionality. So for such perceptive users, it's better to simply disable the automatic updating of Modern apps. Let's see how.