If you have been using Windows 10, you’re probably aware of the personalization settings, which allows you to manually set the color accent of Windows along with many other customizations that you can add to Start, background, and more.

If you have also noticed, when you go to Colors, you can turn “Off” “Automatically pick an accent color from my background” to choose your very own accent color, but the number of colors you can pick is somewhat limited and it doesn’t allow you to create your own colors. However, what you probably didn’t know is that by modifying the registry, you can add up to eight additional new colors to the collection.

Windows 10 custom accent colors

  • Open the Start menu, do a search for regedit, right-click the result and select Run as an Administrator.
  • Browse the following registry key:
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents
  • There is a slight chance that you won’t find the Accents key. If that’s the case, simply right-click Themes, select New, click on Key, and create a new Accents key.
  • Create a subkey under Accents. Right-click the Accent, select New, click on Key, and create a new 0 key. Then on the new 0 key, create a new subkey called Theme0. The path should look like this:
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\0\Theme0
  • In the Theme0 key, create a new 32-bit DWORD value and name it Color. Right-click inside of Theme0, select New, and click DWORD (32-bit) value.
  • Double-click the DWORD and enter the color value in ABGR format. (You can use this online tool to convert a standard hexadecimal color value into an ABGR format.)
  • Using the same method you can create up to eight different custom accent colors for Windows 10. The registry keys should look like these:
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\0\Theme0
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\0\Theme1
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\1\Theme0
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\1\Theme1
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\2\Theme0
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\2\Theme1
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\3\Theme0
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\3\Theme1
  • Do not forget to create the Color DWORD 32-bit value on each Theme* key specifying the color that you want to add.
  • Reboot your computer.
  • Open the Settings app and you should see new accent colors in the Colors page.

You’re now done. Remember that you can create up to eight custom colors that will help you to keep Windows 10 unique. It’s also worth pointing out that you can only change these settings starting on Windows 10 build 10162 or later.

Open the Start menu, do a search for regedit, right-click the result and select Run as an Administrator. 

Browse the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents

There is a slight chance that you won’t find the Accents key. If that’s the case, simply right-click Themes, select New, click on Key, and create a new Accents key.

Create a subkey under Accents. Right-click the Accent, select New, click on Key, and create a new 0 key. Then on the new 0 key, create a new subkey called Theme0. The path should look like this:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\0\Theme0

In the Theme0 key, create a new 32-bit DWORD value and name it Color. Right-click inside of Theme0, select New, and click DWORD (32-bit) value.

Double-click the DWORD and enter the color value in ABGR format. (You can use this online tool to convert a standard hexadecimal color value into an ABGR format.)

Using the same method you can create up to eight different custom accent colors for Windows 10. The registry keys should look like these:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\0\Theme0 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\0\Theme1 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\1\Theme0 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\1\Theme1 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\2\Theme0 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\2\Theme1 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\3\Theme0 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Themes\Accents\3\Theme1

Do not forget to create the Color DWORD 32-bit value on each Theme* key specifying the color that you want to add.

Reboot your computer.

Open the Settings app and you should see new accent colors in the Colors page.

Source Winaero