Forum Discussion
Accent color is not used in title bars, start or task bar.
I've turned on "Manual" for "Accent Color" and selected "Dark Blue". Not a single window has a dark blue title bar, nor does start or the task bar. In fact I just opened Visual Studio, Calculator, Settings, Command Prompt, Chrome and Teams, not a single one of those has the same color title bar. Each is either a variation of gray, or in the case of teams is purple (even when not active). Not one window has anything remotely resembling the dark blue color.
Which window is the active window in this screen shot. If you guessed Teams, Chrome or Command Prompt you would be wrong!:
I found I could get the accent color on the File Explorer title bar ONLY if I use a theme. I don't like the themes colors offered and I prefer light mode, so I customized a preset theme and the background color/accent color I want. I use light mode, transparency on, show on border/title bars (shows title bar accent color until I shutdown/restart, then back to grey, shows accent color on borders), no show on start/taskbar (however, accent color shows), do not show dropshadow. The accent color is shown on Paint and Note Pad but no other apps or programs. However, once I shutdown laptop, the File Explorer title bar accent color reverts to grey. It doesn't apply to my profile. The issue is primarily specific to the File Explorer title bar accent color script/boolean configuration for user logon and retention of the settings under Personalization. Somewhere the if, ands and buts are messed up. I have played with the themes, background, and accent color settings extensively and this has been the only resolve I found. When I do not use a theme and only choose a background color/manual accent color, I don't initially see the accent color on the File Explorer title bar, it randomly appears later in the day (not every day) and reverts to grey at shutdown.
My resolve: Customized and saved a preset theme, put my laptop to sleep instead of shutdown each night in order to retain my preferred settings and not have to reconfigure at startup every morning.
- Sorry I missed this. Thanks for the reply. Between the forced combined windows taskbar buttons and this, I feel like Microsoft really flopped on Windows 11.
- It is an odd issue. I have shutdown my laptop nightly for the past week, and now the File Explorer Title Bar shows the accent color later in the evening after laptop on all day, but not every day. I need to go back to the settings and reapply the custom theme to get the accent color and use Sleep instead of Shutdown to keep it. The accent color seems fine everywhere else. Just not sticking to File Explorer after restart.
- Here's a weird resolve to get the accent color to display in the File Explorer active title bar: At startup open and close regedit. No nothing. Just open and close and open file explorer to see the accent color you have chosen. If you don't do this the title bar will remain grey and may eventually change to the accent color hours to days later. I have no idea what is happeing in the background. Does open and close regedit force some other command that won't initiate at startup?
Ken_Hadden I found a workaround! This is my current colors with my own picture for the background and I chose a manual accent color. I saved the settings as a theme and selected to use it. The File Explorer title bar picks up a shade of color from the background picture and not the chosen accent color in settings, if I use a picture with blue it will be a shade of blue. The Start and Taskbar are from the Accent Color choices. I chose Orchid Light and this is the result. Again, if I choose any other color it will be that color in Start and Taskbar displaying different shades. I am happy with the results. I also figured out how to easily change the font color of the desktop icons from black to white. I choose blue as solid background color, then rechoose my saved background, restart explorer.exe. As for the dropshadow on the desktop icons, I select/deselect on Performance options, restart explorer.exe. Done! All is well after shutdown/restart!
