Will Microsoft EVER allow me to customize window colors and themes?

[Defcon]

It's frankly ridiculous, its been 3 years since they removed this perfectly good feature which was in Win 7, for no good reason. Now we have no way to customize window colors,  use  visual styles etc. 

 

There have been countless requests over the years on the various official blogs/forums, I've filed many myself incl on the Insider feedback program, and they ignore everything. Why? What possible reason can there be not to allow people to do this?

 

e.g. I suffer from migraines, the bright white backgrounds  everywhere is very bad for me, I try to customize as much as possible but Windows  has removed this crucial feature.

[Max Norris]

It's frankly ridiculous, its been 3 years since they removed this perfectly good feature which was in Win 7, for no good reason. Now we have no way to customize window colors,  use  visual styles etc. 

Why can't you use visual styles? Aside from changing quickly between builds of course in 10, I personally wouldn't spend a lot of time on one till it goes RTM, but there's already some styles out there now in the usual places.  Windows 8.x has tons of them.

[MikeChipshop Member]

There's tons of styles available across the web and always has been.

[Defcon]

Why can't you use visual styles? Aside from changing quickly between builds of course in 10, I personally wouldn't spend a lot of time on one till it goes RTM, but there's already some styles out there now in the usual places.  Windows 8.x has tons of them.

You need a hacked UXStyle to use them, and  that keeps breaking a lot with OS updates. And that's not the same as having it builtin.

[Max Norris]

You need a hacked UXStyle to use them, and  that keeps breaking a lot with OS updates. And that's not the same as having it builtin.

I know and I agree that it's silly to have to do that, but it's click click done.  Just like it has been for over the past 15 years, nothing's been removed.  (If anything it's a bit better as there's some elements in 7 that couldn't be set in a visual style that can in 8+.)   As far as breakage goes, yea that's a given since 10 isn't done yet, like I said I wouldn't even bother modifying system resources till the thing is actually done as it's going to still change.

[Preppy Veteran]

There have been countless requests over the years on the various official blogs/forums, I've filed many myself incl on the Insider feedback program, and they ignore everything. Why? What possible reason can there be not to allow people to do this?

I'd bet that they're not ignoring anything: I'd guess that there's a limited pool of time they have to invest, and have to make hard choices about what features make the cut.  I'd suspect that the things that people keep talking and asking about have a higher likelihood of happening.

 

If that feature doesn't make Windows 10, pointing out in the feedback forums that this would be a great feature to add would probably be good.

[Defcon]

I'd bet that they're not ignoring anything: I'd guess that there's a limited pool of time they have to invest, and have to make hard choices about what features make the cut.  I'd suspect that the things that people keep talking and asking about have a higher likelihood of happening.

 

If that feature doesn't make Windows 10, pointing out in the feedback forums that this would be a great feature to add would probably be good.

Sorry, that doesnt cut it. This is not a new feature, its already in Windows, they had to do extra work to remove it. People have been asking for this back for years now, it falls on deaf years.

[Anibal P]

Love how the OP completely ignores any comment that doesn't agree with his myopic views 

 

Nothing has been removed, you can install any theme or style you want, win10 is not done, of course things weill break, you shouldn't be using win 10 if you can't "handle" breakage and constant change, stick with 8 or if you "must"  7 

[Preppy Veteran]

It's not currently in the current betas of Windows, as you've noticed.  I'm your friend.  I think your idea is excellent and would like to help see you achieve your goals.  Since the code is not already (at the least, "currently") in Windows, they'd need to recreate that code within the new Windows 10 world.  To that end, I believe you and others would want to continue providing feedback about what features YOU would like to see Microsoft deliver.

 

I have it on good authority that people are listening.  Maybe you don't get what you want right now because people or teams are busy, but notes get taken and in theory action is more likely to be taken on consistent user requests.  And as such if people are hankering for colorized title bars or aeroization or fancier widgets... mention that in the various feedback venues and see where things go.

[DevTech]

Nothing has been removed

 

The OP is partially correct. Glass was removed.

 

Somewhere between the preview release of Windows 8 and the RTM, the parts of the DWM code and presumably other code was removed (presumably at Sinofsky's request) that enabled the 3D texture based processing to properly display Aero Glass. Not having it as some registry option was a sharp break from previous Windows philosophy.

 

The "official" reason was that Glass "looked cheesy" (direct quote from Sinofsky's UI designer) and the 3D processing "reduced battery life"

 

What is rather strange is that this particular Sinofsky-ism is still sticking and is one more "option" that needs to be in the Windows customization toolbelt. Some people like it, some people don't, hence it needs to be an option...

[Motor_Mouth]

It's frankly ridiculous, its been 3 years since they removed this perfectly good feature which was in Win 7, for no good reason. Now we have no way to customize window colors,  use  visual styles etc. 

 

There have been countless requests over the years on the various official blogs/forums, I've filed many myself incl on the Insider feedback program, and they ignore everything. Why? What possible reason can there be not to allow people to do this?

 

e.g. I suffer from migraines, the bright white backgrounds  everywhere is very bad for me, I try to customize as much as possible but Windows  has removed this crucial feature.

 

What are you talking about? Windows 8 is far more customisable than any previous version of Windows. It gives you way more control although, just as with Vista and Win7, it's not perfect. Here is an example of a customised desktop window I made a while ago -

 

 

 

As you can see, it's not perfect but it's way more customised than I've ever been able to do before. You start by choosing a High Contrast theme. From there you click on "Color" and you'll be able to pick and choose your colours in much the same way you've done in older versions of Windows. You can't change the fonts, though, like you could before.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Sorry, that doesnt cut it. This is not a new feature, its already in Windows, they had to do extra work to remove it. People have been asking for this back for years now, it falls on deaf years.

Only if they never change any underlying code supporting a feature, if something breaks in a feature deemed to be of low importance, then it's much easier to remove the feature than spend time fixing it.

Especially for something like custom accent colours, removing it doesn't cause any backwards incompatibility.

[Motor_Mouth]

Did you not bother reading my post before replying? Far from removing anything, they've actually enhanced it considerably. The OP just hasn't looked in the right place yet. It is kind of scary, though, that he's been complaining about it for three years and no-one has pointed it out to him yet.

[T3X4S]

It's frankly ridiculous, its been 3 years since they removed this perfectly good feature which was in Win 7, for no good reason. Now we have no way to customize window colors,  use  visual styles etc. 

 

There have been countless requests over the years on the various official blogs/forums, I've filed many myself incl on the Insider feedback program, and they ignore everything. Why? What possible reason can there be not to allow people to do this?

 

e.g. I suffer from migraines, the bright white backgrounds  everywhere is very bad for me, I try to customize as much as possible but Windows  has removed this crucial feature.

Migraines here too - bad stuff.  The only thing that helps me with the agonizing headaches from lack of color and horrible aesthetics - Office 2016, custom icons, and Imitrex (handful of Tramadol works well too)