Windows 7 : Tweaking and Customizing Windows (part 3) - Display Properties - Window Color and Appearance

3.3 Window Color and Appearance

To customize your desktop even further, use the Window Color link near the bottom of the Personalization window to access the Window Color and Appearance feature. From this link, what you see will vary greatly depending on whether you are running in Aero mode or the older, less flashy Windows Basic (non-Aero) mode. Figure 5 shows both boxes.

Figure 5. The Window Color and Appearance window and dialog box. You’ll see the upper box if you are running Aero, the lower one if you are not.

As you can see, the difference in these interfaces is like that between a butterfly (Aero) and a caterpillar (non-Aero). Let’s explore the Aero approach first and then the non-Aero.

Aero Mode

In Aero’s Window Color and Appearance window, simply click a color button and the scheme will change. Microsoft has made it easy to choose color schemes this way, without putting you through the hassle of applying a specific color to each GUI element (title bars, document workspace, scrollbars, and so on) or choosing schemes by names that don’t mean much to you, such as Wheat. (You can still assign individual colors if you want to by clicking the Advanced Appearance Settings link.) The effects of choosing a color button are immediately displayed across all open windows and applications when you click on it. Drag the Transparency slider to alter how translucent your window borders, title bar, and other elements will be. This effect is also instantly applied across the interface. Very slick.

Want to adjust the exact color hue, saturation, and brightness? Click the Show Color Mixer button. Three sliders show up. Adjust as you please. (Saturation means how pure the color is, by the way.)

Non-Aero (Basic) Mode

High Contrast (helpful for the visually challenged) or Windows Basic looks can be achieved by returning to the Personalization window and selecting a non-Aero theme from the Basic and High Contrast Themes section. If you prefer the look of Windows 2000 and older versions, select Windows Classic in the theme list.

Click Window Color to open the Window Color and Appearance dialog box (see Figure 6). You can alter the color settings, component size, and fonts of each individual component of a windowed display for most non-Aero themes. Careful—you can do some serious mischief here, creating some egregious color schemes to attract the fashion police or the scorn of a co-worker who passes by your desk frequently. Or you can design or choose schemes that improve readability on screens (or eyes) with certain limitations.

To change the settings, use the various pull-down lists or click on a window element in the preview area, such as the Active Window title bar. Then you can click Color 1 or Color 2 and assign colors from the color picker. In some cases, two colors are assignable because some elements (for example, title bars) transition from one color to another.

When using the color picker, clicking the Other button opens the Color dialog box (see Figure 7). You work with two color mix controls here. One is the luminosity bar (which looks like a triangle arrow pointing left), and the other is the color refiner cursor (which looks like a set of crosshairs).

Just drag these cursors one at a time until the color in the Color/Solid box is the shade you want. As you do so, the numbers in the Hue/Sat/Lum and Red/Green/Blue boxes below the color refiner change.

• Luminosity is the amount of brightness in the color.

• Hue is the actual shade or color. All colors are composed of red, green, and blue.

• Saturation is the degree of purity of the color; it is decreased by adding gray to the color and increased by subtracting gray.

You also can type in the numbers if you want, but using the cursors is easier. When you like the color, you can save a color for future use by clicking Add to Custom Colors.