Choosing Your Preferred Colours in Windows XP
Choosing from predefined colour schemes
- Open the Start menu by clicking on the Start button or by pressing the Windows logo key (located between the Ctrl and Alt keys) - or Ctrl + Esc
- Click on Control Panel or press the letter C on the keyboard.
- Double click on Display or press the D key repeatedly until Display is highlighted and then press Enter.
- Click on the Appearance tab or press Control + Tab until the Appearance
tab is at the front. This page contains a snapshot of a sample Windows
screen and below 3 drop down menus listing the Windows and buttons style
(XP or classic), the currently selected colour scheme and the font size.
Fig 1 - Click in the color scheme dropdown box, or press Alt + C to jump there. Use the mouse or the up and down arrow keys to browse through the list and click on the scheme you want, or press Enter, to select a scheme to use. Click OK or press Enter to exit the display properties dialog box.
Advanced Options
In order to fully use this feature you must have your Windows and buttons setting on Windows Classic.
From this window you can select each screen element and tune it to your exact requirement. You can either select the element you want from the interactive preview area at the top, or select it from the drop down item menu.
When you select an element, the editable options become highlighted to the right and the options which are unavailable are greyed out. For most options you can change the font type, size, style, foreground and background colours.
See below for instructions on how to change items individually.
Fig 2
Changing individual colours
As well as choosing schemes which can change many settings at once, you can change colours individually i.e. desktop colour, window background colour etc.
- Open the Start menu by clicking on the Start button or by pressing the Windows logo key (located between the Ctrl and Alt keys) - or Ctrl + Esc
- Click on Control Panel or press the letter C on the keyboard.
- Double click on Display or press the D key repeatedly until Display is highlighted and then press Enter. This will bring up the Display Properties dialog box (see Fig. 1)
- Click on the Appearance tab or press Control + Tab until it is at the front.
- Click in the Windows and Buttons box or press Alt + W. Use the mouse or the up and down arrow keys select the option: Windows Classic Style and click on it, or press Enter when it is selected.
- Click on Advanced or press the tab key until Advanced is highlighted and then press Enter. This will display the advanced appearance tab. (see Fig. 2)
- Click on the drop down box below the Item heading, or press Alt + I to jump there.
- Use either the mouse or the up and down arrow keys to navigate through the list of items. Each of these items can be modified individually. As an example, we’ll change the menu colour scheme from its usual grey background with black text.
- Move down the list until Menu is highlighted and then press Enter. Any colour changes you now make will only apply to Menu items throughout Windows.
- Click on the colour box to the right of the Item drop down box and
choose a different colour by clicking on it. Alternatively, press Alt
+ L to select the colour box. Press the Space bar to display the colour
box (see Fig. 3). Press Alt + O to bring up the colour selection dialog
box (see Fig. 4). Press Alt + B to jump to the Basic Colours box. Use
the arrow keys to choose the colour you want – the highlighter is
very faint in this dialog box. When the colour you want is highlighted,
press the space bar to select it. Press Enter to return to the Display
properties page.
Fig 3 - Now you have changed the menu background colour, let’s change the text colour on the menus. Make sure that Menu is still selected in the Item drop down box – if not then repeat the steps above to select it.
- Click on the second colour box on this page (directly below the first one we used), and choose a different colour by clicking on it. Alternatively, press Alt + R to select the colour box. Press the Space bar to display the colour box (see Fig. 3). Press Alt + O to bring up the colour selection dialog box (see Fig. 4). Press Alt + B to jump to the Basic Colours box. Use the arrow keys to choose the colour you want – the highlighter is very faint in this dialog box. When the colour you want is highlighted, press the space bar to select it. Press Enter to return to the Display properties page.
- Press Enter or click OK to return to Windows where you should be able
to view your changes.
Fig 4