FreeCommander Forum

I'm building out a new Win10 PC and have not had success solving a color problem in FCXE, even though I'm using the exact set of \Settings files on both machines. I suspect the two FCXE items are colored from Win10 colors rather than from a setting in FCXE itself (unless I'm wrong).

In particular, I'm trying get: (1) status bar at the bottom of each panel, and (2) open area in a scrollbar, to match on both machines, and (3) address bar in the inactive panel. On the old Win10 system the color is a very pale gray (or off-white, whatever you'd call it). On the new machine it is what looks like white.

Must be a Windows color scheme issue probably, but it really depends on what FCXE itself is using to color these two items. As you can see in the following screenshot, the FCXE on the left is from the old system, with the correct very light gray for these three items (which contrasts nicely against the white of the tree/panel background). The FCXE on the right is from the new system, where the two objects are the same white as in the tree/panel, making it impossible to distinguish things.

Can someone please tell me where these two objects get their color from? Thanks.

I believe it is the "scrollbar" item in HKCU\Control Panel\Colors (default value 200 200 200) and HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\Colors (default value 212 208 200) which are responsible for these three items.

Turns out in HKCU\Control Panel\Colors there was NO "scrollbar" item at all! Sure, this is a brand new from-scratch Win10 install but it really should have been there.

There was a "scrollbar" item with the proper default value in \Desktop\Colors. So it was clearly the missing value in \Colors which explains my symptom.

I figured the absence of "scrollbar" in \Control Panel\Colors was the obvious explanation, so I created a new REG_SZ string value of "200 200 200". And then I logged off and logged in, to avoid re-booting. I thought that would be good enough to refresh the Registry and repaint things.

Well, it made no difference. Still white, instead of 200 200 200 (which truly is that very light gray I'm seeking). I'll have to re-boot later, to see if that brings in the new color element. Surely it will.

Hopefully that same standard Win10 color element is used for FCXE's inactive address bar, and the status bar at the bottom of each panel. We shall see.

I have emerged victorious.

Turns out an actual reboot was needed to bring in that new "scrollbar" color object. So now that I've rebooted, sure enough the scrollbar, status bar, and inactive address bar are the proper desired (and theoretically default) 200 200 200 color, i.e. very light gray.

Case closed.