Fix: Can’t Change Windows Taskbar Color

Who doesn’t love customization? Customization helps us to get a personalized experience. To help you customize your PC, Windows offers you a ton of customization features. Among them, one is to change the taskbar color. But what if you can’t change Windows taskbar color?

If you are facing a similar kind of issue and wondering what the fixes for this error are. Then I am here to help you out. I will be sharing a few fixes that you can try out. This applies to Windows 10, Windows 11, and any other version of Windows.

Fix: Can’t Change Windows Taskbar Color

There are a couple of ways to fix the taskbar color change issue. For instance, you can update your Windows, change your Windows theme, clean registry, and more. However, for this article, I will be looking at the following methods:

1. Change Color Settings.
2. Change Theme.
3. Disable Automatic Selection Of Accent Color.
4. Disable Color Filter.
5. Update Windows.
6. Delete Personalization Registry Key.

Make sure Windows is activated; otherwise, you will not be able to change it.

1] Change Color Settings

One of the first things that you can do is change color settings. Windows 11/10 offers you three different ways to change colors on your PC. For instance, you can switch between dark and light mode, select a customized color, or you can set Windows to dark theme and apps on a light theme or vice versa.

Also, if you have selected light in the color option, you will not be able to change the taskbar color. Instead, it will have grey color. As a result, you will need to select a Dark theme or create a custom theme for your PC. For this, you have to follow these steps:

1. Click on the Start menu and go to Settings (Win + I) > Personalization > Colors 
2. Then, choose your Color or Choose your Mode dropdown menu to choose between Light or Dark or Custom. If you select dark, you can directly go to the next step.
3. If you select custom, you will get two options.
4. For custom, select Dark for both Choose your default Windows mode and Choose the default app mode option.
5. Next, scroll down and click on the Start, Taskbar, and Action center options.
6. In Windows 11, you don’t have an option for Action Center.
7. Finally, use the above color pallet to select a color for your taskbar, and you should be good to go.

2]  Change Theme

Are you using a third-party theme? If yes, then it might be the reason why you can’t change Windows taskbar colors. So you can try switching to the default theme and see if it has solved the issue for you. For this, do follow these steps:

1. At first, press Windows key + I to launch Settings.
2. Go to Personalization > Themes.
3. Click on any of the default available themes.
4. After that, restart your PC and if you still see the same error, then go to Settings > Personalization and check the box next to Start, taskbar, and action center option. Finally, select your preferred color, and you should be good to go.

3] Disable Automatic Selection Of Accent Color

You may have enabled the automatic selection of accent color. As a result, Windows automatically applying colors to the taskbar. So by disabling it, you can keep your favorite color for your taskbar.

1. Go to Settings > Personalization > Colors.
2. Next, uncheck the Automatically pick an accent color from my background option.
3. Finally, choose your preferred color, and it should fix the issue for you.

4] Disable Color Filter

You can try disabling the color filter settings on your PC. For this, you have to follow these steps:

1. Press Windows key + I to launch Settings.
2. Go to Ease of Access or Accessibility
3. Select Color filters
4. Finally, toggle on the Turn on color filters option.

5] Update Windows

There is also a high chance that the error occurs because of some bugs, and Microsoft has already fixed it with an update. So make sure that you are running the latest version of Windows. And to do so, you can follow these steps:

1. Go to the Windows search bar.
2. Type down update and launch Windows Updates when it appears.
3. Next, Windows will start checking for updates. If it finds any available updates, you will find an Install now button.
4. Click on the install now button and let your computer finish the update. After that, check if you are still facing the same error or not. If you do so, then do follow the above methods once again.

6] Delete Personalization Registry Key

If, in the end, nothing works out for you, then you can try deleting the Personalization registry key. However, this might mess up your computer’s settings. So I would recommend you backup your registry keys before proceeding ahead.

1. Go to the Windows search bar and type down the registry editor.
2. Right-click on registry editor and select Run as Administrator.
3. Next, backup your existing registry keys.
4. After that, go to the following path:

   Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Personalization

5. Next, from the left pane of the Window, right-click on Personalization and click on Delete.
6. Finally, confirm to delete and reboot your computer and then check if you still can’t change Windows taskbar color or not.

Tile Colors on Start Won’t Change No Matter What I do?

You can try changing tile colors by going to Settings > Personalization. Click on colors and choose a color for your tiles.

Why Can’t I Show Accent Color on Taskbar?

By default, Microsoft doesn’t let you set accent colors on the Start menu and Taskbar. However, if you have set your apprentice to dark mode, you can only show accent color on Taskbar.

Why Is My Taskbar Black and White?

You might have the Show accent color on the following surfaces option enabled. So do disable it by going to Settings > Personalization > Colors. Also, you can disable the Automatically pick an accent color from my background option and choose any of your favorite colors for the taskbar.

Color Scheme Suddenly Changed on My Taskbar and Start Menu?

If you have enabled Automatically pick an accent color from my background option, the color scheme switches based on the background. So if you don’t want that, do disable it by going to Settings > Personalization > Colors.

What Is the Best Way to Control the Blur and Transparency of Taskbar in Windows?

You can enable or disable the transparency effect by toggling off the Transparency effects option under Settings > Personalization > Colors.

So those were a couple of fixes for the cannot change Windows taskbar color. Now go ahead and try out the steps and see how they are working for you. Also, if there is anything else you would want to ask, then make a comment below.