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Windows 10 allows me to set active/inactive color of the titlebar of the currently active application (the window in focus). However, I have noticed that many applications now come with their own custom titlebar color -- and the color does not change no matter the app is active or inactive. Examples of such applications: Cisco Webex Meetings (grey titlebar)

On a dual display, when I am switching between applications it starts to become confusing which window (of the many visible) is currently in focus. I end up having to click the window I want a second time to make sure it is in focus. And even after that click, there is no visual feedback in such apps (like the change in titlebar color) to reinforce my mind that "aha I have now switched to this window". It looks like we are slowly throwing out all the good UI guidelines out the window.

Is there a way to override all applications to follow the active/inactive titlebar colors set in Windows?

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  • This might help, not sure howtogeek.com/222831/…
    – Kalamalka Kid
    Aug 15, 2020 at 3:57
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    @KalamalkaKid What you shared is something I have already set up in Windows. But not all apps obey that titlebar color - they set their own colors.
    – Ashwin Nanjappa
    Aug 16, 2020 at 4:49
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    I have the same problem. Foxit reader has a bright orange title bar colour, and I can't get rid of it. I will probably end up paying Adobe just to get rid of it. High Contrast is not a viable workaround.
    – LonLon
    May 26, 2021 at 9:28

3 Answers 3

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Not as far as I know, at least not natively. I use this function extensively and my default title bar is blue. But Microsoft Office does not use my color. Adobe does use my color, and so it goes.

Any app that does not care, or wishes to conform, uses the Windows 10 color scheme.

Any app that wants its own scheme (most notably Microsoft) will use its theme instead of the Windows 10 scheme. Office 365 allows various backgrounds and themes, but Blue title bar is not one of them.

Windows 10 title bars used to be only White (5 years ago) and there was a Theme (now gone) that you could add. It worked as I describe above. Microsoft added this function a year or so ago.

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    I was hoping there was a registry hack or something like that to override all apps.
    – Ashwin Nanjappa
    Aug 15, 2020 at 3:34
  • Registry hacks for color settings can change with feature builds, so do not try that. There are thousands of Windows Apps - many different. I have probably a hundred here. They do their own thing and trying to make every app the same is not likely to be very practical. Microsoft's own Office suite is integrated around itself.
    – John
    Aug 15, 2020 at 11:09
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If you turn on "high contrast #1" or "high contrast #2", Windows will actually manage to override Office, Chrome and all the other applications that unfortunately does not respect your setting of color for the title bar.

Yeah, it sure does look ugly, but it increases performance dramatically, since you don't have to guess what Window is focused all the time.

And you don't risk deleting a file when you're supposed to delete a mail in another application, etc.

Microsoft: We need to be able to set two completely different colors for active and inactive Windows of ALL applications!

Without having to change our displays into something that look like a CGA monitor from the early 80's.

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I finally found this:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/1e50e7ec-a893-4a26-8d13-8072859bfb00/how-to-get-color-into-quotinactive-windowsquot-title-bars-in-windows-10-going-blind?forum=win10itprogeneral

Seems to work even on Chrome and Edge, just not Microsoft Office applications.

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  • While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes.
    – ZygD
    Apr 29, 2021 at 9:12

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