Office 2016 - Enable Black theme and keep it from disappearing

Created an account just to say, THANK YOU!!! This was driving me nuts and worked perfectly for me! Much appreciated.

Exactly how do I change the common folder to read only?

Well, just changing the entire Common folder to read-only ended up causing some other problems for me later - namely, Office would crash any time I tried to go to the File menu, or hit Ctrl+O to try to open a file, etc. I think there are some subkeys that office *needs* to be able to change or else it screws it up (recent file locations perhaps?). So I ended up setting the current key only (excluding subkeys) to read-only, while keeping full privileges for subkeys. I wrote a guide for some friends, so I'll paste the relevant steps here. Hope it helps!

1. In the registry editor, in the folder structure on the left, right-click Common and choose Permissions.

2. Near the bottom of the Permissions window, click “Advanced.”

3. Near the bottom, click “Disable Inheritance.” On the dialog that comes up, choose the first option: “Convert inherited permissions into explicit permissions on this object.”

4. In the “Principal” column, you should see your own User account listed – hopefully just once. Double click it. On the screen that comes up, make sure “Type” is set to “Allow” (should already be). Change “Applies to” to “Subkeys only.” Verify that both “Full Control” and “Read” are checked in the area below. Then click OK. (This step ensures that our User account will still be able to change subkeys of the current one, even once we block our “selves” from changing values in the current key.)

5. Alright, now you should be back in the Advanced settings for “Common.” You’re going to need to add a new Permission rule, so click “Add.”

6. Click “Select a principal” – this means you’re telling the computer which user(s) this setting applies to.

7. You probably know what your User name is on your computer; in my case, it’s just my first name. If you are unsure, you can always navigate to C:\Users and figure it out based on the folder names, as those should be the only possibilities. Another way to do it is to press Windows+R, type cmd, and hit Enter (to get the command prompt); then type whoami and press Enter. The command prompt will tell you your current user name. (You only need the part after the backslash; the first part is just the formal name of your computer.)

Anyway, back in the registry settings, type that user name in the text box, then click “Check Names.” If done correctly, your name will turn into the long form (your PC’s formal name, backslash, your user name), and you can click OK.

8. We’re almost there! Back on the permission entry screen, make sure Type is still set to “Allow.” Then change “Applies to” to “This key only.” Below, make sure that “Full Control” IS NOT CHECKED. Remember, we’re blocking our account from being able to change this one! But make sure “Read” is checked, since we still need to be able to see what it is. Then click OK.

9. Click OK all the way back out to the main Registry Editor screen. That’s it; you should be good now! You can close the Registry Editor. Open up any of your Office programs and take in that beautiful black background that no longer murders your eyes just for using it.

I can't get the black theme back anymore. Been trying for days.

I tried that, and no luck. I used to use the vbs/reg/cmd trick and it worked for a long time, but I can't get it to go right anymore. 32 bit clicktorun version. Very strange.

Hi there

the old fixes have not been working for a long time now

maybe the theme has been discontinued.

Cheers
jimbo

I got it to work after installing a different version. Thanks.