Change color of Windows Title bars - so frustrating

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. Need more information on your issue.

1. Which Windowblinds style you're using?
2. Post some screenshots showing us your issue.

Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Hello Basj,

Thanks for the reply.  Here's your answers:

1. Using WindowsBlinds 11 (ver 11_11.07 Beta) with Acrylic 7 them.

2.  Below pic has 3 explorer windows stacked and as you can see the black title bars all appear the same (active & inactive).  I'd like the active window title bar to be noticeably different than the inactive window title bars.  I played around with the settings but never got the color to be significantly different, and I did try some other themes just to test, but I always run in dark mode as it's much easier on my eyes.  Maybe I'm just not making the correct setting changes. 

Thanks in advance for any help.

best,

Jamie 

The default Acrylic 7, should look like my screenshot below. With dark blue for active Window and dark gray for inactive Window.

From your screenshot, its look like you have turn on Automatic dark mode support. This setting repaint most part of the skin to dark tone. The more percentage on the slider, the darker the skin will look. However, it will also over darken some part that make the active and inactive part look the same. 

Perhaps if you wish to keep the automatic dark mode support, you can recolor the inactive font to something else. 

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Hello.  Thanks for the feedback Basj.  I still have not found a solution that works, but hopefully we can. Here's more detail on what I have tried. 

My goal: Use Windows Dark Mode (turned on in Windows settings), but I want to be able to clearly see the different windows that are open by looking at the color of the title bars (like most everyone typically does) by looking for the active title bar which should have a noticeably different color than the inactive title bars.

Things I've tried:

** Note: I've added some red pointers & boxes to highlight what I'm referring to.

1. Tried different styles (again, I need dark mode as I spend a lot of time on my computer each day)

2. Tried changing the different light vs dark options, but nothing worked to reach my goal stated above (see pic 1a).  And I tried un-checking the "Automatically darken skin when.." option you pointed out, but depending on the folder it displays (i.e home vs downloads folders, for example) it either made the left pane of the window light and the right pane dark, or it made both the left & right panes light (see pics 1b & 1c). So, this doesn't work.

3. Tried changing the various transparency settings & blurs, but did not help.  See pic #2

4. Tried changing the texture but it only appears on start menu, task bar and menus...but not the Title bars when the "Automatically darken skin when.." option is enabled, which is needed in order to keep both left & right panes of the window dark (refer to point #2) . I could use this if the texture applied to the Title bars - see pic #3 where I tried the Camo type pattern

5. Tried changing the "Change System Colors" and changing the inactive text as you noted. This did not even change the text color. See pic #4

The picture (pic #5) of the 3 windows open (2 windows in front = explorer, 1 window in back = Chrome ("Chrome Window")).

What am I missing here?  You would think Microsoft would make this easy given the numerous complaints online about this issue, but clearly they have not.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Perhaps it is better if you try the actual dark skin. Such as:

1. Dark Mode by Vad_M https://www.wincustomize.com/explore/windowblinds/8824/ 
2. SteamPower by SimplexDesign https://www.wincustomize.com/explore/windowblinds/9693/ 

Also, best to use Skinstudios to change the skin to your needs. Perhaps use this tutorial as reference: https://support.stardock.com/space/SHC/1326186552/How+do+I+make+skins+for+WindowBlinds%3F.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Thanks. So are you saying that Windows Blinds cannot do what I need?  ... I am not familiar with Win customize, is it safe?

Wincustomize.com is part of Stardock and it is safe. Wincustomize.com is where all the skins, icons and wallpapers uploaded by user that wish to share their work with others. All uploaded artworks will go through moderation, so all of it should be safe for download and use. For Windowblinds skin please browse for it here: https://www.wincustomize.com/explore/windowblinds.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

@Basj   I tried both of those and neither of them fixed the problem.  I don't think skins are the answer.  The issue is active vs in-active colors in the title bar and trying multiple different skins has not solved the issue.

I believe the issue here is most skin designer make the active and inactive frame look almost the same with just a minor different with the titlebar/caption font color change between active and inactive. Something like my screenshot below.

But, when Windows 11 introduce the tabs on its explorer. The Caption on the explorer was move into the tabs and the font use by Windows stay the same in "active" and "inactive" state. The different can be seen only on the graphics use on the active and inactive state on the buttons. For example my screenshot below. 

short gif on active and inactive state.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Thank you for the reply.  So it sounds like you are saying there is no solution to this issue, correct?

If you're referring to the tab font changing color, no there is none, but if you wish the titlebar graphics changing, than, there is, but you will need to design the Windows frame to have very different color or design between active and inactive. Or, you can try finding any skin that have that option. I have an old skin that no longer available on Wincustomize.com that have this option.

As an example, this skin has a green shadow around its frame when active. So you will need to find a skin that have similar design into it.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Ok, thank you for your help.

You're welcome.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant