GrayscaleUI option?

glaston · 27 Jan 2016

Hello all, new member with a question...

I'm looking for a way to have a grayscale interface for graphics work. I've seen solutions on the net that aren't really viable. Most solutions involve turning the whole display grayscale by desaturating all colors.
That's not what I'm looking to do.

When I was a Mac user, the OS had the option of a "graphite" UI theme. It turned only the interface to grayscale. It left the colors of photos, videos, webpages, etc alone. That's what I need to do in Win7.
It seems like such a simple thing, not something that involves multiple searches, hours of reading and trial and error with multiple apps. Using apps that patch system files to allow you to use unsigned themes, etc...

How can it be so difficult to do this?

remm · 28 Jan 2016

Hello glaston.

If you right-click on an empty section of Desktop -> Personalization then create a theme of the kind you want, with a grayscale UI... click the Windows Color hyperlink at bottom, then click the Advanced Appearance Settings hyperlink... Now make sure under the "Item" field, Desktop is showing. If not, click the chevron and choose it.

Now click on the desktop item in the graphic you want to adjust (click the toolbar, or click on the text, or click on the popup window, etc) to assign them any color you want, including grays and blacks.

The GUI should be grays and blacks while the desktop itself can show color pictures, etc. I do not know, however, if these settings will carry over into program GUIs, or if those are set by the program itself. Also items on the taskbars/toolbars will still show color.

EDIT: Another option is Personalize -> scroll down to the High Contrast themes. One is in black and white. Once chosen, you can click Window Color and adjust the various items as above. However, the "high contrast" GUIs look like Windows 3.11. No Aero or 3D for those.