Office 2016 - Enable Black theme and keep it from disappearing

chris2113 said:

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.

Just joined to say... thank you - thank you. Your method worked perfectly here, Office 2016 (non 365 subscribed...) now retains the Black theme. I got a little sweaty at the point where I had to choose my account name because I use the Microsoft account login on this computer (though I much prefer the ol' local account..) ; it's confusing because I get two versions of an account name looking around, so I got the ultimate answer going with your suggestion of cmd > whoami (thx..). The *correct* account name with a MS account also shows up under Windows Explorer > Users.

My eyes are happy now that I have Black theme... all the time !

I use the following PowerShell shortcut which sets the PendingUITheme registry value to Black before starting Outlook:
powershell -command "Set-ItemProperty -Path HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common -Name PendingUITheme -Value 4"; "Start-Process -FilePath 'OUTLOOK.EXE'"

chris2113 said:

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.

This worked for me. Thank you! Copied for future reference.

This was working wonderfully for several months, but as of today (7/22/2019), it is forcefully reverting to dark gray even thought I have the registry correctly set to 4 and read only. When I go back in to the registry UI Theme is still set to 4 but the office applications override it somehow.

dmh1 said:

This was working wonderfully for several months, but as of today (7/22/2019), it is forcefully reverting to dark gray even thought I have the registry correctly set to 4 and read only. When I go back in to the registry UI Theme is still set to 4 but the office applications override it somehow.

Same thing happened to me on 7/22/19! I think it has something to do with theWndws10/1803 update. I

actually uninstalled the update but Outlook still reverts to either White/Drk Gry/ or Color. Tried several times to

set value 4 in the regedit but it keeps reverting..... Has anyone figured out a fix???

Mike Lee said:

Same thing happened to me on 7/22/19! I think it has something to do with theWndws10/1803 update. I

actually uninstalled the update but Outlook still reverts to either White/Drk Gry/ or Color. Tried several times to

set value 4 in the regedit but it keeps reverting..... Has anyone figured out a fix???

Hi there
@Mike Lee
@dmh1

Office 2019 seems to have this problem licked

just use the dropdown

In the screenshot shown -- Svart (icelandic -- I've the isl lang pack installed) means Black in English.

Attachment 241541

jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
@Mike Lee
@dmh1

Office 2019 seems to have this problem licked

just use the dropdown

In the screenshot shown -- Svart (icelandic -- I've the isl lang pack installed) means Black in English.

Attachment 241541

jimbo

Greetings Jimbo,

Not sure what you mean? My Outlook 16 is in English also unable to open your attachment. Pls advise.

Thanks!

Mike Lee said:

Greetings Jimbo,

Not sure what you mean? My Outlook 16 is in English also unable to open your attachment. Pls advise.

Thanks!

Hi there
@Mike Lee

just open Outlook go to main menu in outlook ---->accounts ---->Themes and select the theme from the dropdown. I haven't used Office 2016 for a while but it woks perfectly in Office 2019. Note though changing the theme will change it as well in other office applications if you have them e,g EXCEL etc.

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
@Mike Lee

just open Outlook go to main menu in outlook ---->accounts ---->Themes and select the theme from the dropdown. I haven't used Office 2016 for a while but it woks perfectly in Office 2019. Note though changing the theme will change it as well in other office applications if you have them e,g EXCEL etc.

Cheers
jimbo

Greetings,

I think u misunderstood, I was referring to manually changing to value 4 in the REG for BLK theme. Outlook

16 doesn't have the black theme as an option.....