How to change task bar only color in Windows 8?

Question

Is there some way for me to set the task bar color at the bottom to a specific color independent of the color of the window border? For example, I want to keep the task bar color black, while keeping everything else blue.

Solution 1

This is possible by doing a registry entry value change with the following steps:

• Go to Personalize and change your color scheme for the taskbar to one you want.
• Then run regedit
• Navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM
• Locate the key "EnableWindowColorization", and set its value to 0.
• Next, run the task manager, and locate a process named "Desktop Window Manager" under "Windows processes"
• End this task, and as it starts back up you will find your window color has gone back to default light grey, while your taskbar color has remained.

If you'd like a visual guide, here is the original source of this method: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MsebL7IDoA

Update: This doesn't seem to work as of Windows 8.1. I've resorted to just picking an available color scheme.

Solution 2

On windows 8 right click on the desktop and click personalize. Now go to color and select the darkest color you see. Then click on color mixer and turn the color black. I've seen the other answers, this one is the best.

Solution 3

The Windows 8.1 taskbar is translucent and there is no way to disable it without hacks, so I simply edited my current background image with Paint.NET and made the area beneath the taskbar the color that I want.

Comments

[AlikElzin-kilaka]

Related: superuser.com/questions/463754/…

[derloopkat]

The problem is that it not only change the color of the task bar but also the window border and menu bar. This post clearly states "task bar only" and there is a good reason for that. Since the window title text is black by default, the text in the task bar is white. Then if you choose a light color as background for both, the title will be easy to read but the text in the task bar will not; and viceversa. Choosing high contrast theme may help, however it affects web pages and other applications, which is unwanted in my case.

[Robino]

No - this changes all windows as well as taskbar.

[Robino]

Where is the Personalization interface and how do you change the colour?