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I am aware that settings related to Themes and Personalization can be found here:

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes

I can't find the specific settings I am looking for, which are:

  • Automatically pick an Accent Color from my background (Enabled by Default; I want to disable)
  • Show accent color on the following surfaces: Start Menu/Taskbar/Action Center & Titles Bars (Both disabled by default; I want them both enabled)
  • Transparency (On by default I think; I want it off)
  • Color (ability to set a specific color, i.e. a certain shade of green)

With the exception of color, they are all checkboxes or toggles.

So basically, I'm looking for keys I can put in a REG file so if I logon to a machine I've never used before, I can get the system to this state, simply by running the REG file:

enter image description here

I do not have administrative rights of any kind.

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4
  • I would use GPOs if I could. I don't have control over that. I'm in a domain with over 10,000 users in my OU and no support or sympathy from IT. I've created my own logon/logoff scripts to automate everything, and they upgraded some machines from Win7 to Win10 so I'm in the process of refining my scripts. With Win7, Themes were disabled so I didn't have to worry about that. I hate the default black, so I want to change it to green and enforce some other customization. Can you give me the HKLU instead of HKLM? No admin rights. (Thankfully, I can use regedit now, couldn't before).
    – InterLinked
    Aug 30, 2017 at 21:20
  • If you don't have Administrator rights on the domain, then I cannot help, I will withdraw my comments in that case.
    – Ramhound
    Aug 30, 2017 at 21:26
  • @Ramhound Why would I need local (let alone domain) admin rights in order to untick some checkboxes that affect only my user account in an automated fashion? I don't follow. Sure, I would love to have domain admin rights but that won't happen. If I did, I would use GPOs and configure the system images in order to get my intended result anyways, not 10 or 15 .bat and .reg files
    – InterLinked
    Aug 30, 2017 at 21:40
  • You don't but I know of no other solution except one that requires it
    – Ramhound
    Aug 30, 2017 at 22:18

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
20

Active Window Border

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Accent]
"AccentColorMenu"=dword:ffb16300

Active Window Title Bar

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM]
"AccentColor"=dword:ffb16300

Inactive Window Title Bar

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM]
"AccentColorInactive"=dword:ffb16300

Transparency effects

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize]
"EnableTransparency"=dword:00000001

Show accent color on the following surfaces

Start, taskbar, and action center

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize]
"ColorPrevalence"=dword:00000001

Title bars

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM]
"ColorPrevalence"=dword:00000001

Default app mode

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize]
"AppsUseLightTheme"=dword:00000001

Start Menu Tile

Haven't figured it out yet

App Accent Color

Haven't figured it out yet

Various Windows Explorer, and Taskbar settings

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
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1
  • What is the format of the data expected by, e.g., AccentColor? It looks like 0xBBGGRR? Also AccentColorInactive actually works in Windows 10 1909, even though I had to add that entry manually.
    – jrh
    Jan 4, 2021 at 21:19
1

For the answer above (Drew Chapin) - I suppose that's what you looking for:

Start Menu Tile and App Accent Color

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SystemProtectedUserData\S-1-5-******\AnyoneRead\Colors

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2
  • The question now is how to reliably determine what the **** is so it can be used in a script. However, I don't use the Windows 10 Start Menu nor do I use any apps in Windows 10, so this is low priority for me. But this information is correct as I've confirmed on my system.
    – InterLinked
    Aug 12, 2019 at 15:05
  • If you know the user name wmic useraccount where name="USER" get sid will return the SID. Requires that an account exists. If the user name is variable but uses the currently logged in account, use %username% system variable. If you prefer to do it computer wide, it can be forced with Group Policy. This post is informative to read the wmic output correctly as a variable: stackoverflow.com/questions/42663557/…
    – Amorphous
    Jan 13, 2022 at 23:47
0

I've noticed that "Automatically pick an accent color from my background" option leads to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM\ColorizationColorBalance getting a value 0xfffffff3 (i.e. it overrides an actual colorization color balance).

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0

In the Registry, "Automatically pick an Accent Color from my background" can be enabled/disabled by setting the following key to 0 or 1:

HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\AutoColorization

The Powershell command is:

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Control Panel\Desktop" -Name "AutoColorization" -Value 1
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1
  • This didn't work for me on Win10 21H2.
    – KERR
    Oct 25, 2022 at 4:41

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