Windows 10: Enable or Disable High Contrast Keyboard Shortcut in Windows

How to: Enable or Disable High Contrast Keyboard Shortcut in Windows


Information In Windows, you can use themes to help make your desktop feel a little more personal.

High Contrast themes improves readability of the display by applying a special system color scheme.

The keyboard shortcut to turn on and off High Contrast is to press the left Alt + left Shift + Print Screen keys.

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable the High Contrast left Alt + left Shift + Print Screen keyboard shortcut for your account in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.

CONTENTS:

• Option One: Enable or Disable High Contrast Keyboard Shortcut in Control Panel
• Option Two: Enable or Disable High Contrast Keyboard Shortcut using a REG file

EXAMPLE: High Contrast confirmation when using keyboard shortcut









OPTION ONE [/i] Enable or Disable High Contrast Keyboard Shortcut in Control Panel
1. Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click/tap on the Ease of Access Center icon.

2. Click/tap on the Make the computer easier to see link in the Ease of Access Center. (see screenshot below)



3. Under High Contrast, check (enable - default) or uncheck (disable) Turn on or off High Contrast with left ALT + left SHIFT + PRINT SCREEN is pressed for what you want, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)









OPTION TWO [/i] Enable or Disable High Contrast Keyboard Shortcut using a REG file


Note The downloadable .reg files below will modify the string value in the registry key below.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\HighContrast

Flags string value (REG_SZ)

4218 = Disable
4222 = Enable

1. Do step 2 (enable) or step 3 (disable) below for what you want.


2. To Enable High Contrast Keyboard Shortcut
NOTE: This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Enable_High_Contrast_keyboard_shortcut_for_current_account.reg

Download

3. To Disable High Contrast Keyboard Shortcut
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Disable_High_Contrast_keyboard_shortcut_for_current_account.reg

Download
4. Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5. Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

6. When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

7. restart the computer to apply.

8. You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.

That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Turn On or Off High Contrast Mode in Windows 10
• How to Enable or Disable Color Filters Win+Ctrl+C Hotkey in Windows 10

:)

 

High contrast disabling not properly

I accidentally activated the high contrast mode on my win 10 laptop with the alt+ shift + print command. I was able to disable it with the same command, but it's not back to normal in all programs. For example, in Firefox the URL field is black aswell fields
with dropdown menus. Google chromes home page is black and if I type in the search field. Thunderbird is all black with white font. Windows Popups are aswell in high contrast.

That's just what I found until now.

Firefox:

Thunderbird:

Google Chorme:

I tried to the same keyboard shortcut again. It worked except for those programs. In the windows settings, high contrast is off. In Firefox, I changed the settings so that it will never apply the high contrast changes but this didn't work either. A simple
restart didn't change anything. Switching high contrast mode on off - same issue.

 

how to turn off high contrast

Hi,

Follow these steps on how to turn high contrast mode on or off in Windows:

• Type "high contrast settings" in the search box, and then select High contrast settings from the list of results.
• Under Choose a theme, select a high contrast theme from the drop-down menu, and then select Apply.
• To turn off high contrast mode, select None from the drop-down menu, and then select Apply.
• To turn high contrast mode on or off from the sign-in screen, select the Ease of Access button in the lower-right corner and choose High Contrast.
• To turn high contrast on or off from the keyboard, press left Alt + left Shift + Print
  Screen.

Keep us updated with the result.

 

Display settings changed to high contrast in Windows 10

Hello Cane,



Thank you for posting on Microsoft Community. We regret the inconvenience caused and will assist you in resolving the issue.



You might be facing the above issue due to selecting high contrast background on your PC. Enabling the high contrast background will make the PC look highly contrasted with bright highlighting around the icons and apps.



I suggest you to set the display to normal background settings by following the steps below and check if the issue is resolved.

• 
  Press Windows logo key on the keyboard, type
  Settings and select the top most search result.
  
• 
  Select System and click on
  Display from the left side panel of the window.
  
• 
  Click on Advanced display settings and click on
  Personalization option located at the bottom left corner of the window.
  
• 
  From the window select any one of the Windows Default Themes and check if the changes are effective.
  

Write back to us with the status of the issue on the same post for further assistance. Your reply is most important for us to ensure we assist you accordingly.



Thank you.

 

High Contrast Mode

Hi Jordan,

If you cannot see anything from your screen, you can try to use the keyboard shortcut to turn off high contrast mode. To do this, press the
left Alt + left Shift +
Print Screen.

For more information about High contrast mode, please refer to this support article:
Turn high contrast mode on or off in Windows.

Please update us with results for further assistance.

 

How do I turn off high contrast?

Hi Judy,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

I understand the inconvenience caused, I will be glad to assist you with this.

You can try disabling the high contrast option from the lock screen by following the steps below:

1. Press Windows key + L to lock the computer.

2. Click the ease of access centre icon in the lock screen.

3. If high contrast is enabled, disable it.

If its disabled, try the steps below:

1. After logging in, press Windows key + I to open settings.

2. Click "ease of access".

3. Click "high contrast".

4. Change the theme to "none".

Hope this helps.

Let us know if you need further assistance, we will be glad to help.