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The many colors of Vista's windows
How many times have you wanted a way to change Windows XP's color scheme? Blue is nice, olive and silver are also good for a change when you get sick of blue, but what if orange, purple, or black is your favorite color, and you want your computer's desktop scheme to reflect that? Do you revert back to that Windows 95 goodness in putrid grey because there aren't so many choices in XP? I hate to say it, but Windows doesn't have a clue when it comes to color. You're not a cave-dwelling ancient, so we've got to find a better way. Stop the devolving!
Windows Vista has soundly answered this unrequited need for beautiful and colorful Windows. The key word here is "customizable." To check out the customizable color options, visit your Vista control panel and click on Personalization (or right click your desktop and choose Personalization). This option used to be "Properties" when right-clicking on the Windows XP desktop, if you chose to block that out. You will see a bunch of new options you didn't have before to customize the look and feel of Windows.
The first option is Window Color and Appearance which will let you change the color of windows with a slider for light to dark blue for example. These options are just one of the things that make Vista a bit more flexible to use and a little more fun. Check out the gallery below for some nice shots of what you can expect to see in Vista's color options screen and the results.
Comments
6
Subscribe to commentssnide.clemMar 10th 2009 9:58AM
Ryan-- I went a little crazy trying to find the slider and Mac OSX-like theme color picker you mentioned and depicted. FInally I discovered that it only works if you're using the Aero scheme: not Vista Basic or any of the others.
One hidden feature is the "Icon" category under the Advanced options. This allows you to set the typeface and style used for such things as Windows Explorer listings and the Desktop icons. Visually impaired users like myself can set it to a larger, or bold, font and be able to use the system more comfortably.
And I, like many others, would love to find a way to change the highlight color from that invisible-blue to something, well, visible. It's odd that a system which payes attention to low-vision and other handicaps would fail in this little regard.
MeJun 6th 2007 4:02PM
What on earth took Microsoft so long? They should release a PowerToy for the lasting XP users.
Ryan CarterJun 6th 2007 4:05PM
Perhaps their Aero kept missing the target, har har, anyway, I wish they would release something for XP too, I always thought they would release a powertoy, or at least release some some of add-on like PLUS used to be for 98.
RPJun 6th 2007 4:36PM
I wish there was a way to darken the selection color in Explorer and Regedit -- in Vista, it's this very very pale blue color which is hard to see. I even tried adjusting the video gamma to 0.5, but it's still very pale.
How can I tweak this? It makes me hate Vista. Do they think I don't need to see which folder I have selected?
Ryan CarterJun 6th 2007 4:50PM
@RP, if you look at the bottom of the "Window Color and Appearance" options screen in Vista (as seen in gallery) then click "Open Classic Appearance Properties..." then click "Advanced." You will notice the more familiar XP style options screen, from which you can select and change that option you are talking about, unless I misread your comment.
Please note, I have added a few more gallery pix to illustrate how to change classic options, as requested. Enjoy!
agarthanFeb 2nd 2010 8:12PM
No, actually, you can't. I've searched other forums for this too:
There's no way in Vista to alter the color of the light blue highlight bar that shows the currently selected (a) folder in the folder tree, and (b) file in the files pane (RHS of screen) of Vista's Windows Explorer interface. If you click a file on the right, the folder on the left is highlighted a very light grey, and the file a very light blue. NOT different enough!!
The result is that you can (and I have often) go to Shift+Delete a file because it's what's highlighted, without realising your focus is actually on the directory it lives in - and the whole folder and contents vanish (after two quick mouse clicks), with no undo possible!
The currently light blue item NEEDS to be changeable to, say, a bright yellow background. No mistaking what object's about to be acted upon then!
Of course, Microsoft's answer will likely be 'go buy Windows 7' - but I have no idea if the issue persists in that OS as well.
Agarthan