Changing White Title Bars Into Colored Ones (Windows 10)

One of the negative comments for Windows 10 so far just concerns about its lack of aesthetic features especially in terms of colors and hues. It seems like Microsoft has overdone things in this aspect to the point that Windows 10 turned pale and unlike Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, the title bars for each Window in this latest operating system version are now just white.

Yes! it’s just white all over and there’s no distinct area that indicates which section is the Title bar and which one is the part where the tab sits as you can see on the screenshot below. This could be quite misleading especially if you’re trying to drag a Window somewhere else by holding the title bar which has happened to be several times while using Windows 10.

WindowsTechies_1059

The good news is there is actually a way to change the color of the title bars in Windows 10 but this method involves some hidden tweaks. The steps are quite advanced in nature but if you follow each of them closely in this tutorial, you should be able to get the result that you want and make the title bars appear like the ones shown on the screenshot below.

WindowsTechies_1060

Now, this trick will only take effect on the Title bars of the traditional Desktop apps and as well as the traditional Desktop Windows that you deal with each day. It will not affect the modern apps which are now called “Universal apps”. These apps will always have white title bars unless its developer specifies another color for the title bar itself but you can also make the title bars in modern apps turn dark as you will see on our next and as shown on the screenshot below.

WindowsTechies_1061

This time, let’s focus in tweaking the colors in the titles bars of your Desktop programs and Windows so be sure to have your Windows 10 machine ready and follow the steps that we will be demonstrating below.

Other Changes in Windows 10

If you’ve been a long time Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 user then the first thing that you would surely have noticed when you first used Windows 10 is the title itself that is appearing on the title bar of each Window both for traditional Desktop programs and Universal apps as you can see on the screenshot below.

WindowsTechies_1065

Instead of placing the Window titles at the center of the Title bar, it is now located at the left side and if you compare it to how everything appeared in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, this change is really a brand new one and is unique to Windows 10 since the former two still placed the titles at the center. Apart from this, there are not other significant changes with how things appear in Windows 10. We just pointed out this one so you won’t get confused with the Windows that are already open on your computer screen.

Changing the Color of the Title Bar

Now, let’s go to the steps involved in changing the color of the Title bar for traditional Desktop program Windows on your Windows 1o machine. First, you need to know how this white title bar thing really happened.

This could be quite technical but for the information of the more geeky readers, here’s what really happens. In the uDWM.dll them file on your Windows directory lies a code that inspects the current name of the theme file and then compares it to the “aero.msstyles” default them file. If this values match each other, Windows just ignores whatever the color that is being specified by the theme file and sets everything to white. This is quite odd and could even be a bug which could be fixed in the future but for now, let’s find a fix for it ourselves and you can do it by changing the name of theme file so it would not contain “aero.msstyles”.

To do this, you will first need to open File Explorer then navigate to “C:WindowsResourcesThemes”. You can also copy this location into the address bar and hit enter but be sure to exclude the quotation marks. Once you are on this folder, just select the folder that is labeled “aero” then press “CTRL + C” in order to copy it then click an empty space on the same location and hit “CTRL + V” to paste the same folder on the same location and once the “User Account Control” prompt appears, just click “Continue” as highlighted below.

WindowsTechies_1069

After the “Continue” button is clicked, just click on the “Do this for all current items” checkbox and hit the “Skip” button once another prompt that is labeled “File Access Denied” appears as shown below.

WindowsTechies_1072

After this step, you will now have a folder that is labeled “aero – Copy” and instead of leaving its name that way, you will need to rename it to any name that you decide as long as it is related to colors but in this tutorial, we will be renaming it “color” all throughout so we can have uniformity and avoid confusion.

WindowsTechies_1074

After the folder is renamed, you will now need to open it and within its contents, you will see a file that is named “aero.msstyles” or just “aero”. Again, you will need to rename this into “color.msstyles” or just “color” (in case you see only aero in the folder) and afterwards, just click the “Continue” button on the User Account Control (UAC) prompt that would appear.

WindowsTechies_1075

Next step is to open the “en-US” folder which is located on the top of the list and you should be able to find a file in it that is labeled “aero.msstyles.mui”. Now, rename this file into “color.msstyles.mui” and if you see the User Account Control (UAC) prompt once again, just click the “Continue” button.

WindowsTechies_1077

Now, you will need to go back to the main “Themes” folder and you should be able to see a file in it that is labeled “aero.theme” or just “aero”. From here, you will need to select this file then press “CTRL + C” on your keyboard in order to copy it then head to the Desktop and press “CTRL + V” to paste the file there.

WindowsTechies_1079

Next, you will need to head to the Desktop screen of your computer then rename the copied “aero.theme” or “aero” file as “color.theme” or just “color” respectively.

WindowsTechies_1080

After the file gets renamed, all you need to do is right-click on it then on the right-click menu that would appear, you will need to click on the “Open with…” option. After you do so, another Window will appear which will now ask you to choose the program or app that you would like to use in opening the file. From here, just click on the “More apps” link that is located on its bottom portion then a list will open where you will need to scroll down until you find “Notepad”. Just select “Notepad” then hit the “OK” button at the bottom.

WindowsTechies_1083

The file will then open with Notepad and you’ll be able to see a long text file. From here, just locate the line under [VisualStyles] that says (excluding the quotation marks):

“Path=%ResourceDir%ThemesAeroAero.msstyles”

Once you find this line, you will need to edit it. You will basically replace the “Aero” words with “color” (excluding the quotation marks) so the line should now appear like the one shown below (excluding the quotation marks).

“Path=%ResourceDir%Themescolorcolor.msstyles”

In the actual Notepad file, it should now look like the one shown on the screenshot below after you replaced the “Aero” words with “color”.

WindowsTechies_1085

After editing the line, you will now need to press the CTRL + S keys on your computer’s keyboard to save all the changes made then close Notepad.

Next, you will now need to go back to your Desktop screen, select the “color.theme” or just “color” file that we have copied and edited with Notepad earlier then press “CTRL + X” in order to Cut it. Now, head to the “C:WindowsResourcesThemes” folder once again then press “CTRL + V” to paste the file there. Again, if the User Account Control (UAC) prompt appears, just click on the “Continue” button so that the pasting process goes through.

WindowsTechies_1087

So you now have a theme that can use colors for the Window title bars instead of having just the pale white default title bars that Windows 10 has by default.

Activating the New Colored Theme

Now, we will go to the most exciting part of this tutorial which will finally make your Title bars colored. To activate the newly created colored theme that we were able to create using the steps above, you will simply need to double click on the “color.theme” or just “color” file that we have copied into the “C:WindowsResourcesThemes” folder earlier and after you do so, the Title bars for the Windows that are already open on your computer will now have a color as shown on the screenshot below.

WindowsTechies_1088

NOTE:

After double-clicking on the newly created colored theme in the “C:WindowsResourcesThemes” folder, your computer might be unresponsive for a few seconds and the screen might even turn blue and display a message that says “Please wait. . .” if this happens, it means that Windows is still taking time to apply the changes so just don’t do anything and wait until everything gets back to normal.

Now, you will have a more defined Title bar for each Window that are open on your computer screen instead of just seeing everything as white all over. Even your browser Windows should now follow the color that is set for the Title bars by default which is blue. But that doesn’t mean that this is the only color which can be applied. There are still a variety of colors to choose from and that’s what we are going to learn next!

Picking Your Desired Color

Just like Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, Windows 10 automatically picks an “accent color” from the Desktop background image that is set on your computer but again, you can always choose a different color according to what you desire. To do this, you will first need to be on the Desktop screen of your Windows 10 machine and once you are on it, just right-click an empty space in order to summon the right-click menu as shown on below.

WindowsTechies_1090

You can also access the section where the color tweaks are located by directly launching the modern Settings Window from the Start Menu. To do this, you will simply need to launch the Start Menu by clicking on the Start Button or pressing the Windows key and once the Start Menu opens, you will need to click on the link that is located on its bottom-left portion which says “Settings”.

WindowsTechies_992

Once the modern Settings Window opens, all you need to do is click on the category that is labeled “Personalization” and you should then land to the same location  that was opened when you hit the “Personalize” option from the right-click menu that appeared on the Desktop screen in the previous step.

WindowsTechies_1092

Now, on the Personalization Settings Window, you will see some links on the navigation pane at the left and from here, just click on the second one that says “Colors”. You should then be able to see all available colors that you can actually apply to the Title bars of the active Windows on your computer. From here , you will first need to flip the switch under the “Automatically pick an accent color from my background” option into the off position so that Windows would allow custom color to be applied instead of automatically choosing an accent color from the Desktop background image and after doing so, just click on the color of your choice from the color chart that is available.

WindowsTechies_1094

As you select a color from the chart, you should be able to notice that the taskbar, Title bars and even the buttons, switches and highlight bars on each open Window will follow the color as well the same as what happens back in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. However, the colors that appear on the chart are really just the ones that you can choose from. There’s no advanced color picker or mixer as what you would normally find in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 but don’t worry because there’s a tweak that can help you adjust the shade of colors to make it perfect!

To access this section, you will first need to press the “Windows + R” keys in order to launch the Run box tool and once it opens and once it opens, simply copy and paste the command below (excluding the quotation marks) into its command input box:

“rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL desk.cpl,Advanced,@Advanced”

WindowsTechies_1095

After the command is entered, you will need to click on the “OK” button at the bottom and the “Color and Appearance” Window should open. From here, just click on the “Show color mixer” link at the bottom and you will be able to access some knobs that can be dragged to the left or right to adjust some color aspects such as “Color intensity”, “Hue”, “Saturation” and “Brightness”. Just play with these knobs while your desired color is selected and once you are done tweaking some aspects for the chosen color, simply click on the “Save changes” button located at the bottom-right portion in order for the changes to be applied.

WindowsTechies_1096

Make Windows Look Better With This Color Changing Tweak

As you have seen in this tutorial, changing the color of Windows from white to any other color is actually possible in Windows 10 and it doesn’t take an expert to do such awesome change in the latest Windows OS version. However, the change in color that we have shown here will only be applied to Desktop programs and traditional Windows so don’t expect the modern apps or “Universal apps” to change their Title bar color as well because they wouldn’t but in our next tutorial, we will be showing a way in how you can darken the Title bar/Window for these Universal apps so be sure sure to watch out for it only here on WindowsTechies.com!