Windows 10: The theme accent colors are not applied to the menus and start button, is this going to be...

Is anyone else having this issue?

:)

 

Accent Color - Issue With Not Accepting Any Color and Defaults to Black

Hello PJordan,

Good to see you in Microsoft Community.

Firstly, could you let me know the specific system version? You can check it by pressing the Win key + R key, and typing "winver", then press Enter, please take a screenshot/photo of it, and only send the relevant information without PII in the next reply.

Did this occur recently, or has it been going on for a while? If it was recent, did you have any special actions (such as installing system updates, hardware changes, etc.) before that?

I understand your frustration with the Accent Color issue in Windows 11. Here are some steps you can try to reset the theme settings and potentially resolve the problem:

1. Reset Theme Settings:
   
   • Right-click on the desktop and select "Personalize".
     
   • In the Themes settings, scroll down to the "Related Settings" section on the right-hand side and click on "Advanced theme settings".
     
   • In the "Theme" dropdown menu, select the "Windows" default theme (or any other theme you prefer).
     
   • Confirm the selection and apply the changes.
     
2. Restart Windows Explorer:
   
   Right-click on the taskbar and select "Task Manager". Find "Windows Explorer" in the list of processes, right-click on it, and choose "Restart".
   
3. Check Accent Color Settings:
   
   1. Go back to the "Personalization" settings as you did in step 1.
      
   2. Set the "Choose your accent color" option to "Automatic".
      
   3. Turn off "Show accent color on Start and taskbar" and "Show accent color on title bars and windows borders".
      
   4. Apply the changes.
      
4. Check for Graphics Driver Update:
   
   Ensure that you have the latest graphics drivers installed for your system. Outdated or faulty drivers can sometimes cause display issues.
   

If anything is unclear, please do not hesitate to let me know.

Best Regards,

| Microsoft Community Support Specialist

 

Title Bars have lost accent color

Hi

Welcome to Microsoft community.

It seems like you've tried several troubleshooting steps already. Here are a few additional suggestions that might help you address the issue with the title bars not matching the accent color in Windows 11:

1. Check Windows Updates:

Make sure your system is up-to-date. Microsoft frequently releases updates that include bug issues and improvements. Go to "Settings" > "Windows Update" to check for and install any available updates.

2. Verify Color Settings:

1. Go to "Settings" > "Personalization" > "Colors."
   
2. Confirm that "Show accent color on title bars and windows borders" is enabled.
   
3. Try changing the accent color to a different one and check if the issue persists.
   

3. Adjust Theme Settings:

1. Go to "Settings" > "Personalization" > "Themes."
   
2. Select a default Windows theme and check if the issue persists.
   
3. If the default themes work correctly, you can try creating a new custom theme with the desired accent color.
   

4. Reset Color Settings:

1. Go to "Settings" > "Personalization" > "Colors."
   
2. Toggle off "Automatically pick an accent color from my background."
   
3. Choose a specific color for your accent color.
   
4. Restart your computer and check if the title bar colors are correct.
   

5. Registry Editor (Advanced):

1. Open Registry Editor by pressing Win + R, typing regedit and pressing Enter.
   
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\DWM
   
3. Check if there's a DWORD value named AccentColorInactive If not, create it and set its value to the same as AccentColor
   
4. Restart your computer.
   

Disclaimer: Generally, modifying registry subkeys or work group is intended for advanced users, administrators, and IT Professionals. It can help fix some problems, however, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For further protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click How to back up and restore the registry in Windows - Microsoft Support to view the article.

Best regards

Derrick Qian | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

 

Apply accent color without launching explorer.exe

I'm working with Windows 10 IoT 1809 LTSC embedded on a specialized device. We have an in-house application that is replacing explorer.exe as the shell such that explorer.exe is never launched.

The problem I'm having is getting the accent color to apply to the start-up/shutdown screens. When preparing the .wim, any theme customization is wiped out during sysprep, so those aren't expected to persist. Instead, a WindowColor (Themes)
is set in the unattend.xml

This works fine if explorer.exe is launched and runs for awhile, but it never applies with explorer.exe isn't launched, instead using the default Windows 10 blue color. Simply launching explorer.exe doesn't seem to do the trick, it needs to run for awhile
before some (assumed) background action gets triggered. Once this happens, the accent color/theme persists and all is well, but on the final device I can't guarantee this will ever happen.

What is the action that triggers the accent color to be applied to the start-up/shutdown screens or is there another workaround? This is actually a very important issue for us as it affects the branding of our final device.

Thanks!