Color Scheme

How to Change the Color Scheme in Vista​



information   Information
This will show you how to change the Color Scheme in Vista to either one of the Windows Aero (All Vista editions except Home Basic), Windows Vista Standard (Only the Vista Home Basic edition), Windows Vista Basic, Windows Standard, Windows Classic, High Contrast White, High Contrast Black, High Contrast #2, and High Contrast #1 options for your edition of Vista.
Note   Note
These services with these default settings are responsible for the desktop theme. If these are disable, you would have nothing but the Windows Classic color scheme. To change these, see: How to Disable or Enable Vista Services With a Advice Guide
  • Desktop Window Manager Session Manager (Default setting: Started and Automatic)
  • Themes (Default setting: Started and Automatic)
warning   Warning
There may be slight differences in the available color scheme options you see in the screenshots below based on what edition of Vista you have and what your graphics card can support.
Tip   Tip
HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS FOR: WINDOWS AERO Color Scheme
See: Windows Help and Support: Troubleshoot problems with Windows Aero


NOTE: The Windows Aero color scheme is not available for the Vista Home Basic version. :(
  • 1 GHz 32 bit or 64 bit CPU processor.
  • The computer needs at least 1 GB of RAM.
  • A graphics card with support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128 MB of memory.
  • The graphics card must support Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware.
  • The graphics card driver must support Windows Vista Display Driver Model (WDDM)
  • The computer display color depth must be set to 32 bits per pixel.
  • The Desktop Window Manager Session Manager and Themes Services need to be set as Started and Automatic.
  • Update or refresh the WEI score.





Here's How:
1. Right click on a empty area of your desktop and click on Personalize. (See screenshot below)​
Right_Click.jpg​
​

2. Click on the Window Color and Appearace link. (See screenshots below)​
NOTE: The left screenshot is the normal window, and the right screenshot is with the Windows Classic color scheme.​
Personalize.jpg​
​
Classic.jpg​
​

3. To Change the Window Color and Appearance Settings -​
warning   Warning
You will not see this window screenshot below if the color scheme Windows Aero (In all Vista editions except Home Basic) or Windows Vista Standard (Only in Vista Home Basic edition) has not been selected in step 4 below. Instead you will see the window in step 4 below. If you want to see the Window Color and Appearance window again, then you will need to change the color scheme to one of the above again based on your edition of Vista. Go to Step 4.
A) Click on Open classic appearance properties for more color options. (See screenshot below)​
​
B) Click on a color you want to use for the windows, Start menu, and Taskbar borders.​
​
C) For Enable transparency, see: How to Enable or Disable Aero Glass Transparency​
​
D) Adjust the Color intensity by sliding the bar to the left to decrease the intensity and to the right to increase the intensity.​
NOTE: If the Color intensity is set to far to the right, then the window borders and taskbar may be to dark to be transparent if enabled.​
​
​
Open_Classic.jpg​
​


4. To Change the Color Scheme -​
A) Click on the Color scheme you want to highlight it and click OK. (See screenshots below)​
NOTE: The Windows Aero color scheme is not available for the Vista Home Basic edition. The Vista Home Basic edition will have the Windows Vista Standard color scheme instead. (See right screenshot below)​
WARNING: If these color scheme options are grayed out, then see: How to Allow or Prevent the Color Scheme to be Changed in Vista​
​
​
Appearance.jpg​
​
Home_Basic.jpg​
​
Classic_Settings.jpg​
​


5. Close the window from below step 2.​
​
That's it,
Shawn


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Hi :)
My colour scheme is not opening up to this screen:



Instead it's opening up this one:



How do you change it so that it opens up to the previous screen?
It's really annoying me because it takes much longer for me to change the appearance this way.
I have Vista Home Basic 32bit. I have tried changing from windows vista basic to windows vista standard but it wont work, because every time I open up 'Change color scheme' or something like that, it has changed back to windows vista basic, even though I pressed apply, then ok.
I have tried to restart my computer straight after changing the color scheme but that doesn't work.
I've looked everywhere on how to do it but can't find the answer.
PLEASE HELP!
:confused::mad::(
 

My Computer

System One

Hello Abz, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Sorry, but The Windows Aero color scheme is not available in the Vista Home Basic edition. You will only see the Windows Color and Appearane window if your Vista edition (all except Basic) supports Windows Aero. :(

Shawn
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2, 4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2, 8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system, Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam, HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn, APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI, Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
Hello PrincessVampire, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Does your system meets the requirements in the yellow tip box at the top of the tutorial to be able to support Aero?
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2, 4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2, 8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system, Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam, HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn, APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI, Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
Since your system specs meet requirements as you say, then you might see if reinstalling the latest graphics driver and updating your WEI score may help.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2, 4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2, 8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system, Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam, HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn, APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI, Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
After updating my WEI score , I've got:

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T6400 @ 2.00GHz 4.9 3.8 Determined by lowest subscore Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB 5.3 Graphics Mobile Intel(R) 4 Series Express Chipset Family 4.1 Gaming graphics 1759 MB Total available graphics memory 3.8 Primary hard disk 200GB Free (286GB Total) 5.5
 

My Computer

System One

Hi, I used to be able to change my color scheme, but recently I noticed that my changes have been reverted. I am unable to change it back. I run windows vista standard (I think), and my WEI is 3.4, my graphics is 3.4 and my processor is 4.9. I know this is a semi-old post but I really would appreciate any help.
 

My Computer

System One

Helo Gabby, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You might see if reinstalling your graphics card driver may help.

Hope this helps for now,
Shawn
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2, 4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2, 8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system, Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam, HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn, APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI, Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
Gabby,

I suppose that you can boot into Safe Mode, uninstall your video driver, restart the computer, then reinstall the latest driver version to see if that may work better for you if this is the cause of your problem.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2, 4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2, 8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system, Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam, HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn, APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI, Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
Ok, so here's what I did to be able to change the colour.
when i clicked personalize, the little box appeared with the different type of windows that are available...the reason why i wasn't able to change my colour was because it was on WINDOWS VISTA BASIC.
What you can do however, is to click on WINDOWS VISTA STANDARD and click apply.
Go back to colour and appearance and you should see the different colour choices.
Hope this helped!
 

My Computer

System One

Taskbar Transparency Adjustment

I found this way of returning transparency to the taskbar when I needed to get it done. I used "two sliders" - The Display Card Gamma, and Vista OS Intensity slider's.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PERSONALIZE APPEARANCE OF DESKTOP:

1A) DESKTOP.

a) RIGHT CLICK ON DESKTOP.

b) CLICK ON "PERSONALIZE".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1B) DESKTOP BACKGROUND.

a) CLICK ON "DESKTOP BACKGROUND".

b) CLICK ON A "WINDOWS WALLPAPER" PHOTO.

c) CLICK "OK".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1C) THEME.

ALTERNATELY' A USER COULD CHANGE THE BACKGROUND THEME TO "WINDOWS VISTA".

a) CLICK ON "THEME"

b) SELECT "WINDOWS VISTA" IN THE DROP DOWN BOX, CLICK "APPLY" / "OK"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1D) WINDOWS COLOR AND APPEARANCE.

a) CLICK ON "WINDOWS COLOR AND APPEARANCE".

b) CLICK ON "OPEN CLASSIC APPEARANCE PROPERTIES FOR MORE OPTIONS".

c) HIGHLIGHT "WINDOWS AERO" AND APPLY THE CLICK "OK".

d) UPON RETURNING TO WC&A', RESET THE COLOR TO "DEFAULT".

e) CHECK "ENABLE TRANSPARENCY", ADJUST TO THE LEVEL OF "INTENSITY" AND THEN CLICK OK.

f) ADJUST THE SLIDER TO WHERE YOU WOULD HAVE THE TASKBAR PRESENT THE LEVEL OF TRANSPARENCY - THEN CLICK APPLY AND OK.

NOTE: THE "INTENSITY SLIDER" IS A MAIN FEATURE FOR CONTROLLING THE DEGREE OF TRANSPARENCY OBSERVED IN THE "TASKBAR".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WHERE THAT METHOD DOES NOT WORK - DO THIS WHERE POSSIBLE...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ADJUST - "DISPLAY CARD" PROPERTIES / CONTROL PANEL "DISPLAY" PROPERTIES:

GO TO "CONTROL PANEL" AND FIND THE "DISPLAY" PROPERTIES ICON -CLICK THE ICON.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


2A) CHANGE RESOLUTION AND COLOR DEPTH

a) TEMPORARILY LOWER THE RESOLUTION OF THE SCREEN SIZE TO 800 X 600.

b) SET COLOR DEPTH TO 32 BIT.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2B) ADJUST DESKTOP COLOR SETTINGS

a) CLICK ON THE "RESTORE DEFAULTS" LINK OR ANYTHING SIMILAR YOU CAN FIND.

b) ALTERNATELY - ADJUST THE "GAMMA" SLIDER SETTING FOR THEY OF YOU WHO HAVE THE FEATURE.

THIS IS "A MANUAL ADJUSTMENT" THAT CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A NON-EXISTANT TRANSPARENCY AND A TRANSPARENT ONE.

c) CLICK "APPLY"



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AFTER RESETTING YOUR DISPLAY RESOLUTION TO' YOUR LIKING - YOU ARE IN CONTROL FROM THERE...
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

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