Change Accent Color for Taskbar on Windows 11 via Registry

Jacob Mordon 225

Hi, I would like to know, how to change registry Accent Color value for Taskbar.

This color of Taskbar appears, when I change HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize\ColorPrevalence to 1

MRehanKhan-7645 0 Reputation points

2024-09-10T23:26:26.7033333+00:00

me using iphone 14 pro max but show mac kindly help

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Castorix31 84,546 Reputation points

2024-09-10T19:34:09.25+00:00

On Windows 10, I must update both AccentPalette and AccentColorMenu and I don't need to restart Explorer
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Wesley Li 8,345 Reputation points

2024-09-09T16:40:49.9166667+00:00
Hello

To change the registry Accent Color value for the Taskbar, you can follow these steps:

Open the Registry Editor by pressing Win + R, typing regedit, and pressing Enter.

Navigate to the following path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Personalize.

Find the ColorPrevalence key and set its value to 1 to enable the accent color on the Taskbar.

To change the actual accent color, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accent.

Modify the AccentColor key to the desired color value in hexadecimal format.

After making these changes, you might need to restart your computer or log out and log back in for the changes to take effect.
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Jacob Mordon 225 Reputation points

2024-09-09T16:51:38.9+00:00

There's no Accent Folder

Castorix31 84,546 Reputation points

2024-09-09T17:08:30.7533333+00:00

The main key is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM

But I have an old code which changed Accent color (with WM_SETTINGCHANGE), and it does not seem to work anymore for the Taskbar on Windows 10 22H2 (other keys/values are changed from System Settings, like AccentColorMenu...)

Jacob Mordon 225 Reputation points

2024-09-09T18:18:21.7066667+00:00

I tried to change keys in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM and restart DWM with CMD. Doesn't work

Castorix31 84,546 Reputation points

2024-09-09T20:28:43.74+00:00

It works on Windows 10 with AccentPalette (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Accent)

(then SendNotifyMessage with WM_SETTINGCHANGE and "ImmersiveColorSet")

But I tested with hard coded value from red (0xFF0000FF) AccentColor (that I copied from registry after changing it with System Settings); I don't know the algorithm to generate AccentPalette from AccentColor...

Jacob Mordon 225 Reputation points

2024-09-10T05:55:36.1666667+00:00

I''ll try it on Windows 11, thanks

Jacob Mordon 225 Reputation points

2024-09-10T07:08:28.5866667+00:00

@Castorix31 AccentPallete changes color also on Windows 11, I created algorithm, which +- changes color to correct one, here's code:

private static byte[] CreateAccentPalette(uint color) { byte[] palette = new byte[4 * 8]; for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++) { palette[i * 4] = (byte)(color & 0xFF); // B palette[i * 4 + 1] = (byte)((color >> 8) & 0xFF); // G palette[i * 4 + 2] = (byte)((color >> 16) & 0xFF); // R palette[i * 4 + 3] = (byte)((color >> 24) & 0xFF); // A } return palette; }

Only problem is need of restarting of explorer after this message:
SendNotifyMessage(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SETTINGCHANGE, IntPtr.Zero, "ImmersiveColorSet");

Because otherwise changes aren't applied, maybe you know how to make it rerender without restart of Explorer?

Jacob Mordon 225 Reputation points

2024-09-12T09:51:02.56+00:00

It works also on Windows 11, thank you so much, can you convert it please to answer?
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Castorix31 84,546 Reputation points

2024-09-09T21:51:35.7533333+00:00

With undocumented APIs, SetUserColorPreference works on my Windows 10 22H2 OS

There is a sample at https://github.com/m417z/Windows-10-Color-Control/blob/master/WindowsThemeColorApi.cpp
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Change Accent Color for Taskbar on Windows 11 via Registry

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