change inactive selection color

  • Thread starter Thread starter d d
  • Start date Start date
D

d d

You know how when you select an item in explorer, the color of the
text for the highlighted item is white on dark-blue. I've seen how it's
possible to change this color here:

Display Properties->Appearance->Advanced->Selected Items

From there I can change the text color from white to something else
and the background color from dark blue to something else.

When you have an item selected in explorer and you switch to another
program (but can see the explorer selected text still due to window
overlap arrangement), you see that the selected item color changes to
black on very-light-grey. This is very close to black on white (like all
of the unselected items).

Any bad light conditions at all make this selection really difficult to see
but I can't find a Display properties color change selection for this.

While in the "selected items" change color there's a "Color 2" drop-down
but it's greyed-out (disabled). This is where I'd expect to be able to
change the color but can't.

Is there any way of changing this color selection ?

~ d d
 
Hi DD,

The "Selected but not in focus" background colour is taken from the "Menu"
colour

see: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors]

but the text colour isn't specified by default. The good news is you can add
it as the key "GrayText"

(Yes Grey is misspelt the American way)

Carbon
 
Ahaaaaaaa I see. I thought it might be for 'inactive' color for the same
item. Shame.

thanks

~ d d

"David Candy" <.> wrote in message
That's for titlebars that can have gradient fills.
 
Hmmm. Interesting. My 'Menu' color according to the registry is 255 255 255
which is of course white, yet it's a light grey. Weird!. I tried changing it
but
saw no immediate effect. Perhaps those values are only read at startup.

Now I know where the colors are kept I got a little sneaky up in here. I
took
a screenshot, loaded it into a graphics program and found the RGB value of
an inactive selected item. It's 236 233 216 on my default-themed XPsp2.
That's
only selected as the current color for the ButtonFace color.

I've changed the ButtonFace color to 255 0 0 (Red) so I'll see if it takes
effect
after my next boot.

~ d d

Andrew Bailey said:
Hi DD,

The "Selected but not in focus" background colour is taken from the "Menu"
colour

see: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors]

but the text colour isn't specified by default. The good news is you can
add it as the key "GrayText"

(Yes Grey is misspelt the American way)

Carbon

d d said:
You know how when you select an item in explorer, the color of the
text for the highlighted item is white on dark-blue. I've seen how it's
possible to change this color here:

Display Properties->Appearance->Advanced->Selected Items

From there I can change the text color from white to something else
and the background color from dark blue to something else.

When you have an item selected in explorer and you switch to another
program (but can see the explorer selected text still due to window
overlap arrangement), you see that the selected item color changes to
black on very-light-grey. This is very close to black on white (like all
of the unselected items).

Any bad light conditions at all make this selection really difficult to
see
but I can't find a Display properties color change selection for this.

While in the "selected items" change color there's a "Color 2" drop-down
but it's greyed-out (disabled). This is where I'd expect to be able to
change the color but can't.

Is there any way of changing this color selection ?

~ d d
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Yes that's it! ButtonFace color is the one that's used for inactive windows
that have selected text or selected items. Making it bright red certainly
showed how widely used it is. Outlook express for example uses it in
many different places.

~ d d

d d said:
Hmmm. Interesting. My 'Menu' color according to the registry is 255 255
255
which is of course white, yet it's a light grey. Weird!. I tried changing
it but
saw no immediate effect. Perhaps those values are only read at startup.

Now I know where the colors are kept I got a little sneaky up in here. I
took
a screenshot, loaded it into a graphics program and found the RGB value of
an inactive selected item. It's 236 233 216 on my default-themed XPsp2.
That's
only selected as the current color for the ButtonFace color.

I've changed the ButtonFace color to 255 0 0 (Red) so I'll see if it takes
effect
after my next boot.

~ d d

Andrew Bailey said:
Hi DD,

The "Selected but not in focus" background colour is taken from the
"Menu" colour

see: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors]

but the text colour isn't specified by default. The good news is you can
add it as the key "GrayText"

(Yes Grey is misspelt the American way)

Carbon

d d said:
You know how when you select an item in explorer, the color of the
text for the highlighted item is white on dark-blue. I've seen how it's
possible to change this color here:

Display Properties->Appearance->Advanced->Selected Items

From there I can change the text color from white to something else
and the background color from dark blue to something else.

When you have an item selected in explorer and you switch to another
program (but can see the explorer selected text still due to window
overlap arrangement), you see that the selected item color changes to
black on very-light-grey. This is very close to black on white (like all
of the unselected items).

Any bad light conditions at all make this selection really difficult to
see
but I can't find a Display properties color change selection for this.

While in the "selected items" change color there's a "Color 2" drop-down
but it's greyed-out (disabled). This is where I'd expect to be able to
change the color but can't.

Is there any way of changing this color selection ?

~ d d
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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