Windows – How to change default window background color in Windows 10

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In Windows 7 and Windows XP it was very easy to change the default background color of all windows to whatever you want. Staring at white window backgrounds all day is hard on the eyes. Once changed, ALL windows of all apps would conform to the custom color as long as the apps allowed the windows bg to be invoked. So for example it worked great in Notepad and many other apps.

Then the geniuses at M$ decided that this feature was no longer needed in Windows 8, and removed it. There were some reg hacks, but nothing standard. I remember reading that the feature would be coming back in Windows 10, but I'm not finding this to be the case. The only [partial/broken] way I have found to be able to do this is to tweak the following registry keys:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors]
"Window"="227 221 191"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\Colors]
"Window"="227 221 191"

When I changed those keys to my chosen soothing color and rebooted, it worked ONE TIME. After every reboot thereafter, all the white backgrounds are back AND YET those registry keys still have my custom RGB codes. I really hate Microsoft right now, but that aside, is there any solid way to change windows 10 bg colors and make it stick?

Important: In Settings -> Personalization -> Colors, none of that changes windows backgrounds. Already tried.

I am using Windows 10 Enterprise Version 1511 Build 10586.3.

UPDATE: I rebooted again and the bg colors work correctly…but later in the day all the window bgcolors were back to white again. Windows 8.1 had the exact same bug. My conclusion is that the reg hack "works" but only intermittently. Is this simply a MS bug? Or is there a better answer/solution?

Best Answer

Apologies for the late answer. It had completely skipped my mind.

I haven't tested this solution thoroughly but it seems to do the job. You'll need to switch to a High Contrast theme for this to work. After you apply the theme, Windows should look like this:

Windows 10 High Contrast Black Theme

Context Menus and Metro UI apps are also affected:

Windows Notepad High Contrast Black Context Menu Windows 10 Settings App High Contrast Metro UI

If you use Google Chrome for web browsing, it'll prompt you to install the High Contrast extension after you apply the High Contrast theme so you can also browse the web in high contrast. You can also use the extension without enabling High Contrast mode.

As @Unsigned mentioned earlier, enabling High Contrast may change the look of several UI elements.

If you still want to enable High Contrast mode, you can copy the following into Notepad and save it as a .theme file and double-click on it to apply it.

[Theme]
DisplayName=High Contrast Black

[Control Panel\Colors]
Background=0 0 0
Window=0 0 0
Menu=0 0 0
InfoWindow=0 0 0
WindowFrame=0 0 0
AppWorkspace=0 0 0
ButtonFace=0 0 0
ButtonHilight=0 0 0
ButtonLight=0 0 0
HilightText=255 255 255
Titletext=255 255 255
WindowText=255 255 255
ButtonText=255 255 255

[Control Panel\Desktop]
TileWallpaper=0
WallpaperStyle=10

[VisualStyles]
Path=%SystemRoot%\resources\themes\Aero\AeroLite.msstyles
ColorStyle=NormalColor
Size=NormalSize
HighContrast=1

[MasterThemeSelector]
MTSM=DABJDKT

I'm not sure if every one of those entries is necessary, so feel free to experiment. I found some information on the color section here, if it helps (link broken; WaybackMachine mirror).

EDIT:
If you do not want to enable High Contrast mode and only need to change the background window color from white to something else, you can use this theme instead:

[Theme]
DisplayName=Beige

[Control Panel\Colors]
Window=227 221 191

[Control Panel\Desktop]
TileWallpaper=0
WallpaperStyle=10

[VisualStyles]
Path=%SystemRoot%\resources\themes\Aero\AeroLite.msstyles
ColorStyle=NormalColor
Size=NormalSize

[MasterThemeSelector]
MTSM=DABJDKT

Just copy that to into Notepad and save it as beige.theme and double click on the file to apply the theme. Windows should look like this after you apply it:

Windows beige window background

You do not have to enable High Contrast mode or save the theme file to a particular location for it to work. Make sure that %SystemRoot%\resources\themes\Aero\ contains a file named AeroLite.msstyles.

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