Since Windows 10 build 10056, Microsoft has blocked colored titlebars for all opened windows. Many users find this change extremely frustrating because it doesn't make it clear whether the window is active or inactive. It is a major usability violation. Here is how to fix it and restore colored titlebars in Windows 10 easily.



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Windows 10 version 1607 "Anniversary Update"

Depending on the build of Windows 10 that you are running, the option and method you need to use are different. Before you proceed, check which build you are running. See this article: How to find the Windows 10 build number you are running

If you are running Windows 10 version 1607 "Anniversary Update", do the following.

Open the Settings app. Go to Personalization -> Colors. Enable the option Show color on title bar.

Windows 10 version 1506 build 10586

If you are running Windows 10 version 1506 build 10586, then do the following.

Open the Settings app.

Go to Personalization -> Colors. Enable the option Show color on Start, taskbar, action center and title bar

Windows 10 "RTM" build 10240

Before we start, let me explain why window title bars are white in Windows 10. Inside the uDWM.dll file, there is a check which compares the theme file name to aero.msstyles. If it matches aero.msstyles, it ignores the color and sets it to white.

For Firefox 40 and above, see the fix here: Get colored Firefox title bar in Windows 10.

Option one. Use Winaero Tweaker to get colored title bars

With version 0.3, you can enable colored title bars in Windows 10 with just one click. Go to Appearance -> Colored Title bars and click the appropriate button.

More details HERE. You can download Winaero Tweaker here:

Download Winaero Tweaker | The list of Winaero Tweaker features | Winaero Tweaker FAQ

Option two. Restore colored titlebars in Windows 10 manually

Here is a simple solution - just rename the msstyles file to something else which does not contain the "aero.msstyles" string. Here are step-by-step instructions to do just that.

Go to the following folder: C:\Windows\Resources\Themes Select the aero subfolder, press Ctrl + C to copy it and then Ctrl + V immediately to paste it. You will get the folder aero - Copy. Confirm the UAC request and press SKIP for all MSS files.





Now, rename the folder aero - Copy to "windows". Confirm the UAC request: Inside the windows folder, rename the aero.msstyles to windows.msstyles. Confirm the UAC requestюю

Inside the windows\en-US folder, rename the aero.msstyles.mui file to windows.msstyles.mui.

Select the file aero.theme and copy it to the Desktop. Rename it to windows.theme. Open it with notepad: Edit the [VisualStyles] section and replace the following line: Path=%ResourceDir%\Themes\Aero\Aero.msstyles with the following text: Path=%ResourceDir%\Themes\windows\windows.msstyles Now, double click the windows.theme file and enjoy colored titlebars:

You can set any desired color from the Settings app:

That's it. Many thanks to my friends Lucas and gus3300 for helping me with this trick.

You can download ready-to-use theme files and avoid doing steps above manually using this link:

Download ready-to-use theme file for Windows 10 build 10240

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