Restoring Original Colors in Win10

DrDuncan · 03 Mar 2023

Windows version 22H2 build 19045.2604. Yesterday, I was in an application (Camtasia). It had a shortcut I could use: ctrl-alt-I. I tried this. Instead of doing what I expected, it totally trashed the color scheme for everything. I looked up how to get back to the default colors but the instrucitons for Win10 don't match what I see. After this, I tried and then dark and then custom. None of those offered me the chance to go back to the original. Now, instead of new mail in Outlook and folder icons being yellow, they are what my wife and I call baby barf green. No amount of playing with custom colors has given me what I want either. The colors on browsers, Outlook, and other tools I regularly use are messed up and I cannot find the alleged button to return to default colors.

Help please!

dalchina · 04 Mar 2023

Hi, may I suggest the obvious? Have you tried using a System Restore point?

Otherwise, as it's not clear what settings may have been affected, since you refer to colours in 3rd party tools being affected rather than e.g. to file explorer, you might consider whether you simply need to adjust your graphics card settings if 'everything' has been affected, rather than colours for individual Windows elements. A screenshot might help.

Here's mine- yours will most likely be different - note there's an option to restore defaults.

Restoring Original Colors in Win10-1.jpg

DrDuncan · 21 Mar 2023

Thanks for your response. Actually, however, it's not just an application color issue. Everything, like icons in the taskbar, are off. For example, in the task bar, the icon for File Explorer is not bright yellow anymore. It is, instead, what my wife and I would call baby barf yellow, which is somewhat darker.

I've tried modifying colors but, that just hasn't done the job. I looked at ease of access settings and found nothing interesting either.

Bree · 21 Mar 2023

DrDuncan said:

Thanks for your response. Actually, however, it's not just an application color issue. Everything, like icons in the taskbar, are off. For example, in the task bar, the icon for File Explorer is not bright yellow anymore. It is, instead, what my wife and I would call baby barf yellow, which is somewhat darker.

I've tried modifying colors but, that just hasn't done the job. I looked at ease of access settings and found nothing interesting either.

Try setting the theme to the default Windows theme (there are two to choose from, dark and light).

Change Theme in Windows 10

If your default themes have been modified then you my need to reset them.

Restore Default Themes in Windows 10

dalchina · 21 Mar 2023

Have you tried using an appropriate System Restore point?

DrDuncan · 22 Mar 2023

Thanks. Accoriing to Win10There is apparently no restore point. :-( I tried to click the button to restore system themes, but it didn't do anything. Everything I tried made matters worse. I got Windows into an all-grayscale high contrast theme. I stopped that.

dalchina · 22 Mar 2023

A good motto is 'always be prepared for disaster'.. think how you will recover..and minimise your risk, loss of data and time.

Have you tried Bree's suggestion - post #4?

How does it look if you boot to Safe Mode?
Post a screenshot.