How to Enable or Disable High Contrast Keyboard Shortcut in Windows


In Windows, you can use themes to help make your desktop feel a little more personal.

High Contrast themes improves readability of the display by applying a special system color scheme.

The keyboard shortcut to turn on and off High Contrast is to press the left Alt + left Shift + Print Screen keys.

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable the High Contrast left Alt + left Shift + Print Screen keyboard shortcut for your account in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.


Contents

  • Option One: Enable or Disable High Contrast Keyboard Shortcut in Control Panel
  • Option Two: Enable or Disable High Contrast Keyboard Shortcut using a REG file



EXAMPLE: High Contrast confirmation when using keyboard shortcut
Enable or Disable High Contrast Keyboard Shortcut in Windows-high_contrast_confirmation.png






OPTION ONE

Enable or Disable High Contrast Keyboard Shortcut in Control Panel


1 Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click/tap on the Ease of Access Center icon.

2 Click/tap on the Make the computer easier to see link in the Ease of Access Center. (see screenshot below)

Enable or Disable High Contrast Keyboard Shortcut in Windows-high_contrast_keyboard_shortcut-1.jpg

3 Under High Contrast, check (enable - default) or uncheck (disable) Turn on or off High Contrast with left ALT + left SHIFT + PRINT SCREEN is pressed for what you want, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

Enable or Disable High Contrast Keyboard Shortcut in Windows-high_contrast_keyboard_shortcut-2.jpg






OPTION TWO

Enable or Disable High Contrast Keyboard Shortcut using a REG file


The downloadable .reg files below will modify the string value in the registry key below.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Accessibility\HighContrast

Flags string value (REG_SZ)

4218 = Disable
4222 = Enable


1 Do step 2 (enable) or step 3 (disable) below for what you want.


2 To Enable High Contrast Keyboard Shortcut

This is the default setting.

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Enable_High_Contrast_keyboard_shortcut_for_current_account.reg

Download


3 To Disable High Contrast Keyboard Shortcut

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Disable_High_Contrast_keyboard_shortcut_for_current_account.reg

Download


4 Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

6 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

7 Sign out and sign in, or restart the computer to apply.

8 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.


That's it,
Shawn


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