How can I get back to default personalization backgrounds colors, etc.

cfuglein · 04 Apr 2019

Somehow I screwed up my entire color scheme through Start/Settings/Home/Personalize. I changed something (possibly by clicking on High Contrast -Black) and I couldn't reverse it. Now I've made it worse and most of my Microsoft apps and programs' color schemes are all screwed up.

How can I get back to the default settings for backgrounds and texts and toolbars?

Thanks,
Carl

dalchina · 05 Apr 2019

Hi, do you have a System Restore point you could use (if it succeeds in completing the restoration, that is)?

How to Return to Default Settings in Windows 10 - dummies
Try the 'Colors' para here
Same from MS here:
I want to restore personalisation and appearance to factory settings - Microsoft Community

Otherwise:
You might try creating a new user, see if that has the default settings, and try replicating those in your problem user profile.

Do you have a disk image you've created (as we recommend again and again) which you could restore?

RickC · 05 Apr 2019

Using the High Contrast toggle button (Settings > Ease of Access > High contrast > Use high contrast) isn't just a simple switch... it causes dozens of changes within the registry. As a result this would be the first thing I would check, i.e. that by sliding the toggle to OFF removes the High Contrast settings.

The default Theme name is called 'Windows'. If you make changes to - for example - use a solid desktop colour instead of a background picture then the Theme name in Settings changes to 'Custom'. (If you save the theme then the name is saved in the registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\CurrentTheme - the default theme name is Aero.theme even though it's called 'Windows' in Settings.)

You should be able to revert to the default 'Windows' theme using the Settings app (Settings > Personalisation > Themes > Apply a theme > Windows).

For example, I've saved a theme as 'MyDefault' but could revert by choosing the 'Windows' theme:

How can I get back to default personalization backgrounds colors, etc.-windows_theme.png

Note that Windows 10 also records the colour changes you make in Settings > Personalisation > Colours > Choose your colour.

These changes - up to 6 of them - are stored in the registry per user. There isn't a way within Settings to remove this recorded history but you can do it using a REG file:

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
; Clear the recently-used colours recorded by Windows 10

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\History\Colors]
"ColorHistory0"=-
"ColorHistory1"=-
"ColorHistory2"=-
"ColorHistory3"=-
"ColorHistory4"=-
"ColorHistory5"=-

This will just wipe out the contents (DWORD data) of the entries already stored. If you change colours again (or even just put a tick in the Settings > Personalisation > Colours > Choose your colour > Automatically pick an accent colour from my background checkbox) then the contents of the registry entries will just get re-populated automatically.

Hope this helps...