Windows 10: My struggle to set a high contrast theme

One of the first things I always do for a new OS or a new build is to set a nice high contrast theme. That helps me a lot to see things. In Windows 8.1 and in Mint Mate that is very easy and convenient. In Windows 7 it is a bit trickier for the color selection.

Now I tried the same with W10TP build 10074. I thought it would be a breeze because with previous builds the UI was Win8.1 compatible. But with this build they moved the UI to the modern UI and things are not that simple any more. Things that even worked a few days ago did not work any more and there are obviously some bugs along the way. I trust those will be ironed out.

I finally needed 12 steps where I did the same in 4 steps in earlier builds and in Win8.1. But I did learn how to take some shortcuts and avoid the new UI where possible. I documented the steps I took and uploaded a PDF to my OneDrive where you can look at it. There are 16 screenshots and I did not want to load them all into here.

:)

 

Restore default Windows 10 display "background" and "color"

You are currently in a High Contrast theme. Go to Settings :: Ease of Access :: High Contrast and turn off the High Contrast theme.

 

After Upgrading to The Anniversary all modern apps icons are white

Go Settings. Personalization, Themes and click on another theme that is not in the High Contrast Themes area.

You are probably in High Contrast White.

 

Have you tried the standard Left-Alt+Left-Shift+PrtScrn?

It's a lot easier to get to those than that....

Click on Search, and type "Control Panel". Hit enter.

Click on Ease of Access, Click on "Optimize visual display". From here, you have access to all the Accesibility features for the display, including Selecting high contrast, changing colors, etc...

You can also get to it from Search->Ease of Access Center->Make the computer easier to see.

Or just type in "Optimize visual display" in the Start or Cortana search.

 

Hey Wolfgang,

I'll be posting a tutorial for this later, but if you like, you can create a "Themes" shortcut using the target location below to open directly to Themes (aka: the old "Personalization"). *Smile

%windir%\System32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL desk.cpl,,2

See: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/5...dows-10-a.html

 

By the way, I don't understand your Step 8. There's an Apply button at the bottom, if you change the colors and hit apply, it pops up a dialog asking for the name of the new High Contrast theme. So, I don't get why you say you can't save it.

Ahh.. I see.. you can't type in the save box. it types in the search box. Looks like a bug. The easy solution, type the name you want to save it as, it shows up in the search box.. type ctrl-a/ctrl-c, erase the text so it goes back to color selection screen then past the text into the save dialog box and click save. It does in fact work.

 

Open GodMode, grab these two shortcuts and pin 'em to your Start Screen. Done!

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4...dows-10-a.html

 

@ whs:
I share your pain my friend.
However, with the suggestions made in this tread alone, I'm sure Shawn will fabricate a most excellent tutorial! *Wink

 

Thanks guys. You are all so very helpful. It is not really a problem because I now have several ways to get it done. My aim was to try to survive with the modern UI. But that seems to be a bit buggy as even Mystere has found out. But the route via Control Panel is always open whilst awaiting a fix of the UI route.

I think the MS aim to push everything into the modern UI will still give us some grief. I understand the intent for the touch devices, but for the desktops it comes out short. I recently had a discussion with Kari who took exception with my statement that W10 is designed for touch (I actually said for tablets). But I think this is another example where this direction is clearly visible.

 

There's a ridiculously simple workaround for the bug in the Settings dialog. Just paste the save name from clipboard. Otherwise it seems to work perfectly.

The thing is, one of the top rated feedback items is the "split brain" settings/control panel. People have been complaining that there are two different places, so MS is trying to get rid of one of them... Control Panel.

I think this is backfiring on those reporting this "bug". They wanted MS to go back to the control panel, but instead Microsoft is just dropping features from the control panel to get rid of the control panel items.

 

I think it is a mistake to get rid of the Control Panel. If WE already have problems with the new UI, think of the millions of users that have less insight than us. I think they should leave both interfaces side by side so that people are not completely discombobulated.

 

The Modern HC color settings are limited also in the fact that you can't change the 'Active' and 'Inactive Title' colors there!

 

Maybe that's work in progress. We'll see at the end of the summer. I think they still have a lot of work until RTM. Construction sites everywhere. When I was an OS developer, we had Beta cut-off 6 months before shipment. After that you could only slip in minor changes that did not effect the whole system.

 

Tutorial posted: *Smile

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/5...dows-10-a.html