Windows 10: Change Color of Translucent Selection Rectangle in Windows

How to: Change Color of Translucent Selection Rectangle in Windows

How to Change Color of Translucent Selection Rectangle in Windows

The translucent selection rectangle is the box you see when you left click and hold, and then drag the pointer over items to select them when you release the left click.

The border of the selection rectangle is a solid color.

Inside the selection rectangle is a translucent version of the set color.

If you like, you can change the border color and/or inside color to the same color or different colors of your choice.

This tutorial will show you how to change the color of the translucent selection rectangle for your account in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.


CONTENTS:

• Option One: How to Get RGB Decimal Number for a Color
• Option Two: Change Border Color of Translucent Selection Rectangle
• Option Three: Change Inside Color of Translucent Selection Rectangle

EXAMPLE: default and black "translucent selection rectangle" colors











OPTION ONE [/i] How to Get RGB Decimal Number for a Color

*note You would use this option to get the RGB decimal number of a color you want to use in Option Two and Option Three.
1. Open Paint (mspaint.exe).

2. Click/tap on the Edit Colors button in the ribbon of the Home tab. (see screenshot below)

3. Select and customize the color (ex: "black") to what you want.

*note Color|Solid gives you a preview of what the color you select looks like in its solid form. Remember that the inside color will show as a translucent version of this color instead.

4. Make note of the RGB (Red Green Blue) numbers (ex: "0 0 0") at the bottom right for this color.

5. When finished, you can close Paint if you like.









OPTION TWO [/i] Change Border Color of Translucent Selection Rectangle
1. Press the Win+R keys to open Run, type regedit into Run, and click/tap on OK to open Registry Editor.

2. Navigate to the key below in the left pane of Registry Editor. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors




3. In the right pane of the Colors key, double click/tap on the Hilight string value (REG_SZ) to modify it. (see screenshot above)

4. Type the RGB numbers (ex: "0 0 0") from Option One for the color you want (ex: "black"), and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

*note The default border color RGB is 0 120 215. Notice the space between the RGB numbers.



5. When finished with restart the computer to apply.





OPTION THREE [/i] Change Inside Color of Translucent Selection Rectangle
1. Press the Win+R keys to open Run, type regedit into Run, and click/tap on OK to open Registry Editor.

2. Navigate to the key below in the left pane of Registry Editor. (see screenshot below)
*Arrow HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors




3. In the right pane of the Colors key, double click/tap on the HotTrackingColor string value (REG_SZ) to modify it. (see screenshot above)

4. Type the RGB numbers (ex: "0 0 0") from Option One for the color you want (ex: "black"), and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

*note The default inside color RGB is 0 102 204. Notice the space between the RGB numbers.



5. When finished with restart the computer to apply.

That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Turn On or Off Translucent Selection Rectangle on Desktop in Windows
• How to Change Highlighted Text Color in Windows 10
• How to Change Button Face Color in Windows 10
• How to Change Window Background Color in Windows 10
• How to Change Window Frame Color in Windows 10

:)

 

Still no way to disable "Show Translucent Selection Rectangle"?

Hello risug,

You could still use an option in the tutorial below to turn on or off "Show Translucent Selection Rectangle", but it doesn't affect it in File Explorer.

*Arrow Show Translucent Selection Rectangle - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

Selection Rectangle Wierdness

Hi Parker,



Welcome to Microsoft Community and thank you for posting. We appreciate your interest in Windows 10.



As per description I understand that you have an issue in setting Performance options on Windows 10.



I would like to inform that when you choose “Let Windows choose what's best for my computer” option as the name says, the system will only choose the default settings on to your computer.

Either you select “Show translucent selection rectangle” option or not does not make any changes.

I suggest you to choose only “Show translucent selection rectangle” and not “Let Windows choose what's best for my computer option”.





Hope it helps. Feel free to contact us for any further queries on Windows Operating System.

 

Laggy translucent selection rectangle at 4K resolution

Hello, I would like to report an issue with the blue selection rectangle - it lags terribly on 4K resolution desktop when selecting a large area. I believe this is a consequence of some coding error since this issue occurs only on Windows (even on fresh,
clean installed) - if I boot ubuntu 16.04 on the very same PC rig and screen, I dont experience any lag at all at Ubuntu's translucent selection rectangle therefore I believe that this issue can be easily fixed. Thank you for support.

 

Custom Selection box colors no longer seems to be working in Win 10

@AshleyQuick,

I just created a new tutorial for this to see if it may help for you.

*Arrow Change Color of Translucent Selection Rectangle in Windows | Windows 10 Tutorials

 

Translucent focus rectangle when hovering over selections


Whenever I point the mouse over something, be it desktop icons, mozilla buttons etc, I get this translucent focus. How do I get rid of it?