windows 10 Colored Title Bar Theme for Windows 10

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

 

I managed to use Resource Hacker to edit the the caption buttons for the white theme a little bit. Back when I made visual styles I also used Resource Hacker. Though, since visual styles are made with a 'stream' image (most Window elements in 1 image), I had some trouble at first. This was because I was editing the wrong image, until I saw the stream folder and thought 'Do'h!'.

Either way, I extracted the image, edited in Photoshop and then replaced the image with the new one in Resource Hacker. Fairly simple and just like it was done with Windows XP visual styles.

What I changed about the caption buttons is that I made the blue ones a bit brighter. Also going to change the 'pressed' state of the close button so that it gets brighter when pressed. That way it'll be consistent with the other buttons.

I remember Resource Hacker. Gosh, that reminds me of the Windows XP theme days. Remember Royale? It was introduced with Windows XP Media Center Edition in 2005. And then there was Royale Noir which was a black version. Microsoft went in the right direction with Aero and Windows 8's theme. It's a shame they took a step back with Windows 10. For the first time ever, I really disliked the way Windows looks. Fortunately, the coloured title bar theme makes it look good.

[Jamushroom Veteran]

I remember Resource Hacker. Gosh, that reminds me of the Windows XP theme days. Remember Royale? It was introduced with Windows XP Media Center Edition in 2005. And then there was Royale Noir which was a black version. Microsoft went in the right direction with Aero and Windows 8's theme. It's a shame they took a step back with Windows 10. For the first time ever, I really disliked the way Windows looks. Fortunately, the coloured title bar theme makes it look good.

I sure do! I even have an old mockup of my own version of Royale in my projects folder. Looked like this: 

I even still have my mockup of my own version of Aero, and a version of my visual style called Novus for Windows 8. If only there was still a version of StyleBuilder for Windows 8/10, then we could easily edit Windows 10's skin to our own liking. Though, I agree that Windows 10 looks a lot better with the colored titlebars. What I now miss is the way Windows 8 colored the taskbar. Windows 10 makes gives it a darker tint of the selected color, instead of brighter like what Windows 8 did.

[Lamp0]

I even still have my mockup of my own version of Aero, and a version of my visual style called Novus for Windows 8. If only there was still a version of StyleBuilder for Windows 8/10, then we could easily edit Windows 10's skin to our own liking. Though, I agree that Windows 10 looks a lot better with the colored titlebars. What I now miss is the way Windows 8 colored the taskbar. Windows 10 makes gives it a darker tint of the selected color, instead of brighter like what Windows 8 did.

Did you do the original Novus & Watercolor themes for Xp? Those were fantastic themes.

[Jamushroom Veteran]

Did you do the original Novus & Watercolor themes for Xp? Those were fantastic themes.

 

Yes I did, thanks! They're still downloadable on my deviantART as well, haha: http://jamush.deviantart.com/

[Quillz]

Not bad. This is the sort of thing that seems like it should have been in Win10 from the start.

Prophetic... Though I figured this would become a built-in OS feature sooner or later.

Now, we just need the ability to change the title bar text font back. We lost that after Win7.

Edited August 18, 2015 by Quillz

[Quillz]

Shouldn't. Should be white as it's now.

Why take away choice? If you don't want the title bar matching the accent color, you don't have to... In the latest Win10 build, it's a toggle. But many people do want the title bar matching the accent color, and now there is both this unofficial option and an official option.

That said, on the latest Insider build, does the text finally turn white if your title bar is set to black or another dark color?

[Quillz]

Ok... I couldn't figure out how to change title bar colors in Windows 10.

They are white and there is no way to change them.

Older versions of windows let you assign colors to various windows elements.

Has this been taken away in Windows 10?

Many personalization options were lost between Win7 and Win8. Much of it had to do with the Windows Classic theme being removed, which contained most of the customization features. (Though to be fair, many of the settings broke the UI anyway, try having tiny title bar fonts on Win7 and see how it affects your taskbar icons). Win10 went farther and took away the title bar color. The hope is that Win10 releases will gradually bring back the removed features, which may be the case given that the Start menu came back, followed by title bar color.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

Wow. I gotta say, I didn't expect this. It looks like Microsoft added coloured title bars in the latest Windows Insider build for Windows 10 (build 10525).

https://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/08/18/announcing-windows-10-insider-preview-build-10525/

[Royalty]

That would be funny if Microsoft came out with this feature in the next update because of this thread. LOL!

[Royalty]

Wow. I gotta say, I didn't expect this. It looks like Microsoft added coloured title bars in the latest Windows Insider build for Windows 10 (build 10525).

https://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/08/18/announcing-windows-10-insider-preview-build-10525/

Lol, how do you be a part of the insider build?

[Jamushroom Veteran]

Wow. I gotta say, I didn't expect this. It looks like Microsoft added coloured title bars in the latest Windows Insider build for Windows 10 (build 10525).

https://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/08/18/announcing-windows-10-insider-preview-build-10525/

As far as I've seen, that's only for modern apps. Fingers crossed they'll also add it to non-modern UI.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

Lol, how do you be a part of the insider build?

https://insider.windows.com/

 

As far as I've seen, that's only for modern apps. Fingers crossed they'll also add it to non-modern UI.

This is what it looks like.

[LaP]

I Microsoft went in the right direction with Aero and Windows 8's theme. It's a shame they took a step back with Windows 10. For the first time ever, I really disliked the way Windows looks. Fortunately, the coloured title bar theme makes it look good.

Some desktop apps looked bad in 7 imo. The menu bar looked awful in some of them. I think non ribbon apps looked better in windows 8 .

But yeah windows 10 is a step back. I wish there's was no border at all. I think the 1 pixel borders look bad. Borders were too big in windows 8 but those 1 colored pixel borders are not any better imo. Specially since the title bar is not colored. Notepad++ and FreeFileSync looks bad in windows 10 while it looked imo perfectly fine in windows 8.1.

[Jamushroom Veteran]

This is what it looks like.

It's nice that they're listening to the users and that they're adding it back in. It's a bummer that the font/caption button color limitation is still in there though

[Preppy Veteran]

That would be funny if Microsoft came out with this feature in the next update because of this thread. LOL!

Naw, they came out with this feature because they like you guys and like doing things that people want/enjoy.  (And as people probably realize by now, it's off by default so yes you can still have the whiteness and yes it affects modern and win32 apps.)

I cannot stress strongly enough that y'all should be using the new Feedback tools and that kind of thing (voting in the Feedback / Insider applications) and voting for cool/interesting stuff.  To some substantial extent my ability to help deliver you guys stuff you like/want is gated upon design and management realizing that these things are fun/interesting/awesome/what-a-rational-person-would-expect.

I just piped in here because I want people to strongly be encouraged to vote for cool/interesting stuff in the Insider/Feedback apps/programs.  There's a finite amount of time to do excellent things, but then again it's more likely that we'll get to focus on doing excellent things when we can clearly say Hey This Is What People Want.  <3

 

[Dot Matrix]

Wow. I gotta say, I didn't expect this. It looks like Microsoft added coloured title bars in the latest Windows Insider build for Windows 10 (build 10525).

https://blogs.windows.com/bloggingwindows/2015/08/18/announcing-windows-10-insider-preview-build-10525/

I don't have this option...?

EDIT: Nvm, looks like you need color turned on... Grrr.

Edited August 21, 2015 by Dot Matrix

[Preppy Veteran]

You don't.  But upvote having separate toggles for that in the Feedback app.

[ViperAFK]

Thanks, this'll hold me over till the official update comes along

Looks so much better than those awful white titlebars, I still don't know what the hell MS was thinking. The windows 8 theme already looked fine, all they had to do was reduce the border padding, but instead they took a giant step back for no reason.

 

[Quillz]

Thanks, this'll hold me over till the official update comes along

Looks so much better than those awful white titlebars, I still don't know what the hell MS was thinking. The windows 8 theme already looked fine, all they had to do was reduce the border padding, but instead they took a giant step back for no reason.

 

The ironic part is that in the current Insider build, there's no way to go back to the old white title bars/custom accent color. It's either on, or off. (Off being the usual state of black/gray taskbar and accent color with the white title bars). And, no, if you set your own accent colors, white isn't one of them.

[Preppy Veteran]

The ironic part is that in the current Insider build, there's no way to go back to the old white title bars/custom accent color. It's either on, or off. (Off being the usual state of black/gray taskbar and accent color with the white title bars). And, no, if you set your own accent colors, white isn't one of them.

You're wrong as regards the first part.  But upvote feedback in the feedback app on that so they maybe put in a separate toggle there.

If you guys want a separate toggle on this, you've got to ask for a toggle now.  If that's what The People want, that is pretty easy to make happen.

[Quillz]

You're wrong as regards the first part.  But upvote feedback in the feedback app on that so they maybe put in a separate toggle there.

If you guys want a separate toggle on this, you've got to ask for a toggle now.  If that's what The People want, that is pretty easy to make happen.

How am I wrong? In the current build, the only way to have a colored title bar is to have the toggle flipped that assigns an accent color, either dynamically or from a user's choice. There is, presently, no way to have an accent color with just the white title bars, like in the RTM setup. If you want white title bars, you have to turn off the ability to have accent colors on the windows and Start menu entirely.

There needs to be a toggle. I think that's what most people wanted, even if they didn't explain it outright. Choice is good. Obviously keep the present RTM behavior, but also allow for white title bars + just accent colors in addition to changing the title bar color with the accent colors. As you stated, a toggle shouldn't be hard to implement. It's good that Microsoft does appear to be listening.

[Preppy Veteran]

Because I wrote the beta code you're running and am pretty certain about this.    Mind you it's not finalized yet - you're running a prerelease build - but ... yeah you can do that on your system if you do a tiny bit of sciencing.  I'll hold off on connecting the dots for now: again, I want to strongly encourage people to vote for a toggle because I'd like that to be there.  But that toggle will be extra easy to implement since it's already functionally that way.

Vote for a toggle now.  When this particular update goes final I'll connect the dots here if still needed.

<3  Thanks to everyone who voted for colorized title bars already.  That's why y'all have them now.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

Because I wrote the beta code you're running and am pretty certain about this.    Mind you it's not finalized yet - you're running a prerelease build - but ... yeah you can do that on your system if you do a tiny bit of sciencing.  I'll hold off on connecting the dots for now: again, I want to strongly encourage people to vote for a toggle because I'd like that to be there.  But that toggle will be extra easy to implement since it's already functionally that way.

Vote for a toggle now.  When this particular update goes final I'll connect the dots here if still needed.

<3  Thanks to everyone who voted for colorized title bars already.  That's why y'all have them now.

Is this the feedback you're talking about?

[BinaryData]

Direct hit 

I use ultrauxthemepatcher from syssel.net myself.

Score!

I'm almost scared about the UX Theme Patcher installer. Holy mother of crap. So many skip notices and installs.

Update:

They got me Seems I missed a skip or a small checkbox... Freaking Inminent. Time to freaking disinfect the computer .

I hate that crap. Free software, but loaded with crap. It pisses me off to no end!

[Preppy Veteran]

Love it. Thank you.