Win 10: Unable to set inactive window Title Bar Color

Lairbear · 15 Jul 2020

I have followed (to the letter) Shawn's tutorial viz. the colorization of the various aspects of Windows 10. I have successfuly set the title bar of active windows, etc. to my deep blue; but have not been able to set the color (purple) of inactive windows title bars. Every attemp fails to change the the existing color (light grey) to my selected purple.

I'm at my wits end!...Color me: crying out for help !!!!

Have I missed something?

Randy Reist (Lairbear)

dalchina · 15 Jul 2020

Hi, you might find these free tool a very handy way to do this. From a reputable and quite well-known source, with link to full explanations as you can see.

This can make some of the changes easy to make- many are the same as those in tutorials here of course.

Win 10: Unable to set inactive window Title Bar Color-1.png

Presumably this is the tutorial:
Change Color of Inactive Title Bar in Windows 10

Lairbear · 15 Jul 2020

dalchina--
I have used the utility to which you refer. I employed (Imported to Regedit) a .reg file found on Now-To-Geeks with modifications to apply my two colors with absolutely no success. Active title bars DID use my deep blue, BUT inactive title bars remained as grey. Find below the .reg patch:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
; created by Lori Kaufman
; for How-To Geek
; article: How to Add Color to Inactive Title Bars in Windows 10
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\DWM]
"AccentColor"=dword:0098484C
"AccentColorInactive"=dword:00981788
So, there's something going on here, under the covers, that's blocking the modification of inactive windows title bars !!!!
Now, this is a cosmetic problem, and I can live with the situation, but I sure would like to know what's going on here.

dalchina · 16 Jul 2020

Check with this sequence if there's a Settings option you've missed - appears to refer to the same registry key.
Change color of inactive title bars in Windows 10

Lairbear · 16 Jul 2020

dalchina--

Once again, I followed the directions in the tutorial to which you referred... NO change. Active windows: fine; Inactive windows: remain grey. I continue to suspect another registry setting somewhere that's blocking the change. Wish I had access to the source code !!!!

I liken this activity to: "Pissing up a rope" (typical Microsnot).

I grow closer to re-loading Windows 7... An OS that works for the user !!!!!

Product quality continues down hill.

Lairbear

f14tomcat · 16 Jul 2020

Lairbear said:

dalchina--

Once again, I followed the directions in the tutorial to which you referred... NO change. Active windows: fine; Inactive windows: remain grey. I continue to suspect another registry setting somewhere that's blocking the change. Wish I had access to the source code !!!!

I liken this activity to: "Pissing up a rope" (typical Microsnot).

I grow closer to re-loading Windows 7... An OS that works for the user !!!!!

Product quality continues down hill.

Lairbear

This does work quite nicely, as I have the inactive set to a lighter shade of blue.

Win 10: Unable to set inactive window Title Bar Color-2020-07-16_12h15_55.png

Evert Winaero Tweak has a link to there site showing how the tweak works. Here is the one for Inactive. Shows you how to do it in the registry. Remember to log off and back on to activate the changes.

Same link as Dalchina gave.

Change color of inactive title bars in Windows 10

dalchina · 16 Jul 2020

What do you have in your registry for this?I
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\DWM]
"AccentColorInactive"=dword:00981788

That number gives you a grey.

I have

pockybum522 · 27 Nov 2021

Note that ColorPrevalence must be set to 1 (0x000001) in order for AccentColor and AccentColorInactive to be respected. That was my issue, and since this is one of the first threads that comes up on google, I'm posting my solution.

dalchina · 27 Nov 2021

Assuming you mean ColorPrevalence here:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize

- mine's 0

That seems to apply to the taskbar/start/action centre though...
Turn On or Off Show Color Only On Taskbar in Windows 10

LawrenceW · 01 Mar 2022

If you are editing the registry by hand make sure you enter "AccentColorInactive" and not "AccentColorInactive ". You may want to check for an extra space that may have happened if you copied and pasted. I was having the same issue until I discovered I had an extra space at the end.