How to Allow or Prevent Changing Color and Appearance in Windows 10

information   Information
Users can change their color and appearance settings in Windows 10 to choose an accent color, turn on/off transparency effects, show accent color on Start, taskbar, and action center, show accent color on Title bars, and choose default app mode to light or dark theme.

This tutorial will show you how to allow or prevent changing color and appearance for specific or all users in Windows 10.

You must be signed in as an administrator to allow or prevent changing color and appearance.
warning   Warning
You will need to activate Windows before you can personalize your PC.

CONTENTS:
  • Option One: To Allow or Prevent Changing Color and Appearance in Local Group Policy Editor
  • Option Two: To Allow or Prevent Changing Color and Appearance using a REG file


EXAMPLE: Colors Settings when Prevented
Allow or Prevent Changing Color and Appearance in Windows 10-colors_settings.jpg






OPTION ONE

To Allow or Prevent Changing Color and Appearance in Local Group Policy Editor

Note   Note
The Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions.

All editions can use Option Two below.

1. Open the all users, specific users or groups, or all users except administrators Local Group Policy Editor for how you want this policy applied.

2. In the left pane of the Local Group Policy Editor, click/tap on to expand User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Control Panel, and Personalization. (See screenshot below)

Allow or Prevent Changing Color and Appearance in Windows 10-color_and_appearance_gpedit-1.jpg

3. In the right pane of Personalization, double click/tap on Prevent changing color and appearance to edit it. (see screenshot above)

4. Do step 5 (allow) or step 6 (prevent) below for what you would like to do.


 5. To Allow Changing Color and Appearance

A) Select (dot) either Not Configured or Disabled, click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)

NOTE: Not Configured is the default setting.


 6. To Prevent Changing Color and Appearance

A) Select (dot) Enabled, click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)

Allow or Prevent Changing Color and Appearance in Windows 10-color_and_appearance_gpedit-2.png

7. When finished, you can close the Local Group Policy Editor if you like.






OPTION TWO

To Allow or Prevent Changing Color and Appearance using a REG file


Note   Note
The .reg files below will add and modify the DWORD value in the registry keys below.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

NoDispAppearancePage DWORD

(delete) = Allow
1 = Prevent

1. Do step 2 (allow) or step 3 (prevent) below for what you would like to do.


 2. To Allow Changing Color and Appearance for All Users

NOTE: This is the default setting.

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

Allow_changing_color_and_appearance.reg

Download


 3. To Prevent Changing Color and Appearance for All Users

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

Prevent_changing_color_and_appearance.reg

Download

4. Save the .reg file to your desktop.

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

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

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



That's it,
Shawn


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